5 Days of Fantastic Fintech Fun

Yes you heard it right, 5 days of Fintech fun in Sydney. But more importantly this is about what we can learn and implement in WA.

On the weekend of the 9th September - 11th September 2016 the first Startup Weekend in 2 years took place in Sydney. Extra special for this event was the focus on Fintech.

With this event taking place, and the recent refocus of Atomic Sky and Tech Hub on Fintech it was a great opportunity to take some time to head east to build some relationships, whilst at the same time also to understand what is working for the Fintech system ecosystem that we could potentially leverage in WA.

First of all Sydney has two Fintech spaces. Yes two. These being Stone & Chalk and also Tyro Fintech Hub.

What works for both of these spaces is that the they have been supported and driven by larger businesses. Tyro Fintech Hub is on a floor in the building where Tyro Payments live and Stone & Chalk is in the AMP building. AMP Ventures is a strong supporter of the whole Fintech scene in Sydney.

For WA to complete, we need a team that is local that sees the opportunity in this space and put together a fund which is for WA startups and growth opportunities. So this leaves the question of who will fund this. Well, to look at what is happening in other markets, Westpac has the Reinventure Fund, AMP Ventures puts money into other funds.

The WA state government is looking for ways to support the local ecosystem so how about looking at the WA government being a cornerstone investor from the government backed super funds in WA?

In our favour is our proximity to Asia and the timezone alignment. Believe it or not, those over east see this as one of our strengths. Where we speak of challenges of a 3 hours time difference with the east in summer, they also have this when dealing with Asia. Atomic Sky is already building the linkages to our northern neighbours, talking with Hong Kong and Singapore in the next few months.