The Finnie awards recently took place in order to celebrate the achievements of Australia’s best FinTech businesses who are recognised for excellence in sectors such as lending, wealth management, payments, crowdfunding, blockchain, artificial intelligence and regtech.
The head of a ‘trail-blazing’ energy financing startup – which last month secured $18.5 million in additional funding – has been named Australia’s outstanding FinTech leader of the year.
Katherine McConnell, the founder and CEO of Brighte, received the honour at FinTech Australia’s Finnie awards. Presented by Jobs for NSW, the Finnies are said to be Australia’s only industry-backed FinTech awards and are in their second year.
The award given to McConnell was one of 23 handed out at a gala ceremony in Sydney on Wednesday night. The awards were decided by 81 domestic and international judges.
A new award category has also been introduced in this year’s awards for the best fintech customer experience/design outcome.
In addition to McConnell’s award, the awards night saw a number of FinTech organisations and leaders recognised for their achievements, including:
- Civic-focused blockchain company Civic Ledger (Emerging FinTech Organisation of the Year)
- Retail FinTech Afterpay (FinTech Organisation of the Year)
- Airwallex co-founder and chief operating officer Lucy Liu (Female FinTech Leader of the Year)
- Afterpay CEO and co-founder Nick Molnar (Emerging FinTech Leader of the Year)
FinTech Australia CEO Brad Kitschke said, “The winners of the 2018 Finnies are providing consumers and businesses new and improved services and a real alternative to the banks and other traditional financial institutions.”
“The winners include smaller FinTech startup companies but now also include larger scale-up FinTechs which are dominant players in their sectors and are major employers in their own right.”
NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Small Business John Barilaro said he was thrilled to see 16 out of the 23 award winners were NSW based, including the fintech leader of the year and emerging fintech leader of the year.
“This is a tremendous result for our fintech sector with NSW picking up 55 out of 89 finalist positions and now nearly 70 per cent of the awards,” said Barilaro.
“The NSW Government is investing heavily in startups which are creating jobs and industries for the future, including through initiatives like Jobs for NSW and the Sydney Startup Hub as well as our support for the Finnie Awards.”
The full list of Finnie winners are below:
- FinTech Organisation of the Year – Afterpay
- Emerging FinTech Organisation of the Year – Civic Ledger
- Outstanding FinTech Leader of the Year – Katherine McConnell, Founder and CEO, Brighte
- Female FinTech Leader of the Year – Airwallexco-founder and chief operating officer Lucy Liu
- Emerging FinTech Leader of the Year – AfterpayCEO and co-founder Nick Molnar
- Excellence in Wealth Management – Pocketbook
- Excellence in Payments – Airwallex
- Excellence in Consumer Lending – RateSetter Australia
- Excellence in Regtech – Proviso
- Excellence in Blockchain/Distributed Ledger – AgriDigital
- Excellence in Business Lending – Trade Ledger
- Excellence in Data/AI Solutions – Data Republic
- Excellence in Insurtech – Cover Genius
- Excellence in Cyber Security – XM Cyber
- Excellence in Digital Currencies/Wallets/Exchanges – Finch
- Excellence in Crowdfunding – OnMarket
- Best Marketing/Branding Initiative of the Year – SocietyOne
- Excellence in Industry Collaboration & Partnerships – TravelbyBit
- Excellence in Establishing Market Presence: Global – Verrency
- Excellence in FinTech Support Services (Infrastructure and Investment) – Stone & Chalk
- Excellence in FinTech Support Services (Professional Services) – The Fold Legal
- Best Customer/User Experience – Look Who’s Charging
- Best Workplace Diversity – Valiant Finance
