IDC Financial Insights Unveils 10 Fast Growing FinTechs for Australia and New Zealand
Sydney, September 21, 2017 – IDC Financial Insights today unveiled a list of 10 fast growing fintechs in Australia and
New Zealand (A/NZ) as part of the broader FinTech 101 list for Asia/Pacific. “IDC’s FinTech Fast 101” refers to the
fast-growing fintech players in Asia/Pacific based on extensive on-ground analysis of the dominant fintech players
within the region.
10 Fastest Growing FinTechs in Australia and New Zealand
• Afterpay Touch Group
• Airwallex
• CoinJar
• Data Republic
• Harmoney
• HashChing
• identitii
• Prospa
• SocietyOne
• Xero
Note: List is arranged alphabetically, Source IDC, 2017
IDC’s fintech list makes a reference to the Financial Insights’ Triple U framework — ubiquity, utility, and usability.
This is a framework that evaluates fintech data across key metrics such as addressable market, customer adoption,
investments, chance of survival, innovation, and marketing. IDC Financial Insights believes that newer categories of
fintechs are gaining traction, including those focused on digital identity and authentication, bitcoin and other
cryptocurrencies exchanges, robo-advisory, credit analytics and scoring, and usage-based insurance.
Banks and insurance companies in the A/NZ region have shown greater acceptance and collaboration with fintechs. Most of
these traditional institutions have also invested in fintechs either through acquisitions or VC funding to build their
own innovation competencies. "Australia and New Zealand with the support from the government, fintech hubs, incubators,
and accelerator programs have become one of the leading markets for fintech innovation in the world. Though we see
diverse categories of fintechs in the region, most of the disruption is visible in payments including remittance and
money transfers and peer-to-peer payments. We expect another new area of growth in fintechs – which would be in
robo-advisory, changing the modus operandi of wealth management and financial advisory by using the latest technologies
in Cognitive but also advanced analytics to deal with huge data sets on trading and financial information.” remarked
Michael Araneta, Associate Vice President for IDC Financial Insights.
Iggy Pintado, Managing Director for IDC Australia and New Zealand says, "Fintechs in Australia have been successful
locally, but we feel that the time is ripe for these startups to elevate their status and focus on growth in the rest of
Asia and eventually, the world. This is the path that New Zealand fintechs have taken over the years – and have
succeeded in.’’ The industry in New Zealand has really come together to drive fintech growth – in February this year -
we saw the launch of New Zealand Financial Innovation and Technology Association (FinTech NZ) with support from local
incumbents, government agencies, and NZTech (technology industry association). Another noteworthy initiative is Kiwibank
FinTech Accelerator, which is co-funded by Callaghan Innovation and Xero and focuses on supporting and expanding Kiwi
start-ups globally using Creative HQ’s Lightning Lab acceleration program.
Araneta continues, “IDC Financial Insights expects that 2018 will be a banner year for Asia/Pacific fintechs to
regionalize – similar to the journeys of Alipay and Grab – and the ones who do will be able to achieve scale and
ubiquity.” Australia's National Innovation and Science Agenda's Landing Pads program is also truly aligned to this view
and presents an excellent offshore opportunity for entrepreneurs to expand into global hubs of innovation.
This FinTech 101 list is published as part of IDC Financial Insights’ 2017 fintech report series, which helps investment
groups, financial services institutions, and technology players in understanding the fintech landscape and identify
potential fintech players for investment and collaboration. For this research, IDC's definition intentionally excludes
licensed banks and other licensed financial institutions that are using new technologies to radically change financial
services, even to the point of launching their own fintech companies and brands. The idea is to look at the fintech
players outside of traditional services.