Bring on the competition, says founder of neobank Xinja, as second equity crowdfunding campaign smashes $500,000 in nine hours

Australian neobank Xinja has kicked off its second equity crowdfunding campaign, smashing its minimum subscription of $500,000 within just nine hours.

Xinja’s first crowdfunding campaign in January last year — also the first campaign in Australia — raised $500,000 in 18 hours, and went on to raise a total of $2.4 million.

Since then, the neobank has launched its prepaid card product and signed 23,000 customers up to the platform.

In December 2018, it was authorised as a restricted authorised deposit-taking institution by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), and it’s now running family-and-friends alpha testing for its mortgage products.

This latest campaign has a legal upper limit of $4.86 million, and at the time of publishing, has more than 38 days remaining.

Xinja may not have its full banking licence yet, but founder Eric Wilson tells StartupSmart take-up has already been faster than expected. There are now about 7,500 cards out in the market, being used in an average of 15 countries across the world every day, he says.

The latest crowdfunding campaign is part of the neobank’s third capital raise. The startup has previously raised more than $13 million in investment from private investors, high-net-worth individuals and family offices. Read more

Stephanie Palmer-Derrien - Startup Smart - 15 Jan 2019