Technology and financial services have been interrelated for years, but a new word – ‘fintech’ – is now used to describe a revolution in the financial services sector, with the pioneers including Melbourne’s Aris Allegos – co-founder of Moula.

Key to Moula’s success is the speed at which a business can have a loan approved, often not more than 10 minutes, with funds received within 24 hours.

With Fintech growth a direct result of innovation in accessing data, Allegos, of Cypriot heritage, recognised the difficulties faced by small businesses in accessing finance, and set about building Moula to solve the problem.

As co-founder and CEO of the company, Allegos, who has an MBA from London Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws from Monash University, spent more than 15 years working in banking. Prior to that he experienced the challenges faced by small businesses first hand in his own family’s retail food business.

Speaking to Neos Kosmos, Allegos says 2016 will be a vital year for his company.

“This year promises to be an exciting one for Moula, and financial innovation in general; we’ve now established ourselves as Australia’s leading data-driven SME lending platform, with 2016 being the year we become more mainstream.”

To illustrate the health of the fintech market, Fairfax Media this month chose Moula as one of the most likely companies to transform the financial services market. Established three years ago, Moula has 25 staff in Melbourne offering average loans to small businesses of between $40,000 and $50,000.

With Moula’s loans approval process entirely online, its credit checks involve accessing the applicant’s online data sources – cloud- based accounting software and bank accounts – to enable real-time underwriting.

Key to Moula’s success is the speed at which a business can have a loan approved, often not more than 10 minutes, with funds received within 24 hours.
Last year the company snared $30 million in equity funding from Liberty Financial in its first major deal to finance its loans. It has also linked up with accounting software maker Xero to boost its market presence.

Allegos says despite much media coverage of fintechs, most businesses are ignorant of alternatives to the banks, and distrust the new financial services kids on the block.

In an effort to combat false impressions, Moula recently teamed up with Digital Finance Analytics to produce the first index of the impact of fintech services on the Australian market, raising the profile of the new lending options among borrowers and to establish data to influence government policy.

One of the fintech industry’s most articulate spokesmen, Allegos was one of the signatories of a recent submission to the federal government, arguing that it risks losing billions of dollars of taxation revenue unless it reforms laws to enable Australia to become the leading fintech market in the Asia region.

The warning was sent to ministers from 32 financial technology start-ups who are calling for the Turnbull government’s recent innovation statement to be amended to make developing a thriving fintech industry a priority.

The submission highlights the need for reform by pointing to poor policy settings in Australia compared to the UK, US, and Singapore.