Australian Neobanks and Fintechs: Where Are They Now?

Almost 3 years ago to the day we analysed the public tech stacks of 9 neobank startups and consumer facing fintechs. Given a few recent announcements and market sentiment, I wanted to see how everything is going.

In the original analysis we covered Afterpay, Zip, Judo Bank, Xinja, Volt Bank, 86 400 and Propsa. I’ve added a few others to this to give a wider view of the current direction. 

	Founded	Category	Funding	Revenue	Customers	Outcome
86 400	2017	Bank	$34m	–	85,000	Acquired $220m
Afterpay	2014	Credit	$448m+		3,600,000+	Acquired
Athena	2017	Home Loans	$200m+	–	–	Ongoing
Judo Bank	2016	SME Bank	$1.8bn	$89m	–	Listed
Prospa	2012	SME Loans	$96m	$110m	13,200+	Listed
Spaceship	2016	Investing	$41m	$9m	100,000	Ongoing
Stake	2017	Investing	$70m	–	500,000+	Ongoing
Superhero	2018	Investing	$48m	–	–	Ongoing
Up Bank	2018	Bank	–	–	400,000	Acquired?
Volt Bank	2017	Bank	$90m+	–	6,000	Shut June 22
Xinja	2017	Bank	~$98.4m	–	–	Shut Dec 21
Zip	2013	Credit	$894m+	$397m	7,300,000+	Listed

A few unrefined observations:

1. The neobanks going for standard bank accounts haven’t been able to stand independently, either shutting down or being acquired. Up Bank is probably the exception to the rule in some ways.
2. In comparison to the banks, the lenders (e.g. Afterpay, Judo, Prospa) seem to be more viable (I say seem because of the difficulties Buy-Now-Pay-Later is seeing now and the current macro conditions may affect the success to date). 
3. The investment focused fintechs seem a bit earlier in their wave. 

Some notes on the analysis:

1. It’s by no means an exhaustive list.
2. The funding amounts may differ as the sources are a mix of AUD and USD.

Read more:

• Analysis: The Tech Stacks Growing 9 Neobanks