A banking alternative designed for digital natives is aiming to reshape the way we spend, send and save our money, on both a local and global scale.
Known as Pelikin, the fintech startup is founded by 28-year-old Sam Brown, who is looking to disrupt traditional retail banking by giving digital natives a more efficient way to manage their money both in Australia and while travelling abroad.
According to the company, Pelikin will enable its users to control and spend in multiple currencies at once, all from the one app and with one debit card, as well as transfer money to other Pelikin users instantly and free.
Leveraging the popularity of social media, Pelikin will integrate with Facebook allowing users to assign themselves a unique Pelikin handle, just like Twitter, which they’ll use to communicate with other users to send and request money.
Differentiating itself from others in the space, Pelikin will soon begin a private beta, with doors opening to the general public in the second quarter of 2018.
The young team is currently focusing on bolstering its advisory stocks, with the most recent addition being a former VISA Australia executive.
Sam said Pelikin operates under the ideology of “for us, by us.”
We’re not ex bankers who’ve had an epiphany that the retail banking world needs to change; we’re frustrated, everyday banking customers who are dedicated to making the future of banking brighter for ourselves and the rest of Australia,” he said.
Sam said Australia is slowly catching up to its overseas neighbours, particularly the UK, where neobanks have become prevalent in the market.
“Technology in payments has changed everything, its enabling us to increase service, reduce cost and deliver a genuinely better human experience,” Sam added.
“From on-boarding our users, real-time spending analytics through to customer service, we’re harnessing our agility and the technology available to us to build the best banking alternative we can, as fast as we can.”
He looks forward to joining fellow disrupting compatriots XINJA in the push to hold Australian banks accountable.
“At the front-end we’re focusing on fixing transactional banking, talking to Australians and building them a product that they’ll love and use both locally and while travelling abroad.”
“Once we’ve nailed that we’ll then seriously look at starting a conversation with APRA around banking licences.”
Pelikin will launch an EOI campaign with Birchal, an Australian equity crowd-funding platform, on February 21.
“We want people to invest in things they’re passionate about and the best thing about equity crowdfunding platforms such as Birchal is it opens up investing to non sophisticated investors,” said Sam.
Birchal co-founder Alan Crabbe said if you want to change how Australian’s bank, you need to engage customers differently.
“ Equity crowdfunding is already proving to be one of the most powerful ways to get people excited for young financial tech companies and startups.
“Financial technology startups like Pelikin will disrupt the banking industry by building a following of dedicated customers,” said Alan.
Pelikin’s EOI campaign on Birchal will run for three weeks. For more information or to sign up to Pelikin’s waitlist, please visit here.
To register for Pelikin’s Birchal launch, please click here
Always consider the offer document and the general CSF risk warning before investing.
