Up (Australian bank)

Last updated

Up Money Pty Ltd
Company typePrivate
IndustryBanking
Founded2018;6 years ago (2018)
Headquarters
Melbourne
,
Australia
Area served
Australia
Key people
Parent Bendigo & Adelaide Bank
Website up.com.au

Up, also known as Up Money and Up Banking, is an Australian neobank based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia with more than 700,000 mostly young Australian customers. [1]

Contents

Founded in 2018, Up was created as a collaboration between software development company Ferocia and Bendigo & Adelaide Bank. [2]

History

Launch

Up was founded in 2017 as a collaboration between software company Ferocia and Bendigo & Adelaide Bank. The companies were already closely tied as Ferocia was building Bendigo Bank's app at the time.

On 13 May 2018, Up started its friends and family beta phase with a closed beta release on 2 August 2018. [3] An invite system was introduced on 1 October 2018 to allow existing users to invite friends to sign-up, which allowed invitees to skip the waitlist [4] before Up officially launched to the public on 9 October 2018.

On 8 November 2018, Up was officially the first neobank in Australia to provide instant Apple Pay provisioning, allowing consumers to add their card to their Apple Wallet before receiving their physical card. [5] Bank transfers via the Pay ID were then enabled on 21 November 2018 to a small group of users [6] before having a full rollout on 13 December 2018. [7]

The bank then teamed up with buy now, pay later company Afterpay, allowing users to link their app with Afterpay thus providing "smarter transaction viewing" as well as reminders on when their next payments were due. [8]

Four months after their public launch, Up announced that it had 30,000 customers . On 12 June 2019, Up announced that they had reached 100,000 customers.

Awards and innovation

Up then won "Exceptional Everyday Account" and "Regular Savers" awards from Mozo's annual Expert Choice Deposit Awards for 2019. [9]

Gamification via the Pull to Save feature was released on 14 March 2019, allowing customers to "pull" their screen and with one touch, round-up spare change to savings. [10] On the next day, Up announced support for WatchOS and released their first Apple Watch app. Samsung Pay support was then released on 10 April 2019. [11] On 18 June 2019, Up announced that it had also rolled out instant Google Pay provisioning, one of the first banks in Australia to do so.

Up then qualified and won "Digital Disrupter of the Year", "Best Tech Innovation" and "Best Banking Innovation" awards from the annual Finder Awards. [12] Scheduled and repeated payments as well as a new Salary Identification feature were then released on 10 September 2019. [13]

On 15 October 2019, following digital banks such as Monzo in the UK and N26 in Europe, the bank announced a partnership with international payments service TransferWise via the "TransferWise for Banks" model with a private beta for November and an expected public release in Q4 of 2019. This makes Up Banking the first in the Asia-Pacific region to integrate TransferWise APIs. [14]

On 16 October 2019, Up held its first meetup in Fitzroy, Victoria and announced features such as salary splitting and transactional-saving covering. [15]

In 2021, Ferocia was listed as Australia's 8th Best Place to Work [16] in technology, and Up was chosen as a brand to watch by Interbrand. [17]

Merger

On 16 August 2021, shortly after Up grew to 400,000 customers, Up announced the successful merging of its founding partners, with Bendigo & Adelaide Bank acquiring Ferocia, including the remaining stake in Up and Ferocia's IP. [18]

Up now operates as an independent arm of Bendigo & Adelaide Bank.

Products

Up offers transaction and savings accounts, which customers can apply for and managed via a mobile app, including features such as automatic rounding-up to savings, analysis of spending patterns and locations, [19] and payments displayed in a conversational format, similar to Venmo or Beem It. [20]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "About". Up - Super Powered Banking. Archived from the original on 6 August 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  2. ↑ Bendel, Nick (9 October 2018). "Digital bank Up turns, well, up". RateCity.com.au. Archived from the original on 25 June 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  3. ↑ Up (1 August 2018). "Our brand new website is now live!". @up_banking. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  4. ↑ Tagell, Paul (1 October 2018). "Oh hello there…new @up_banking invite-a-friend screens look sweet.pic.twitter.com/h9h0yt1WRV". @tagell. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  5. ↑ Up (7 November 2018). "Apple Pay provisioning is now part of the sign up flow for new customers. You can add your Up card to Apple Pay before the plastic arrives! We've also just given Apple Pay a permanent home You can always find 'setup Apple Pay' under the Card section of the Up tab pic.twitter.com/N9MWmoes6Q". @up_banking. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  6. ↑ Parker, Anson (21 November 2018). "Paying Someone". Medium. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  7. ↑ Up (12 December 2018). "PAYMENTS ARE NOW HERE! After installing our latest update, your 'Payments' screen will be unlocked and will be the home for all your payments needs!pic.twitter.com/CxvfDM5uiQ". @up_banking. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  8. ↑ Up (3 February 2019). "AFTERPAY WITH UP / Get smarter transactions: name, logo and category as well as itemised receipt / Stay on top of your Afterpays by budgeting for each instalment. Read more about it in our new blog!https://up.com.au/blog/afterpaying-with-up/ …". @up_banking. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  9. ↑ "Banking with the best - Mozo announces the best bank and savings accounts for 2019". mozo.com.au. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  10. ↑ Up (13 March 2019). "PULL TO SAVE IS HERE / Pull down on your activity feed to send your spare cents flying to the high heavens and straight into your round up enabled Saver. Download the latest version of the app and have more than $10 in your account to start pulling / Warning Dangerously addictive pic.twitter.com/3Y5gl5FUvf". @up_banking. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  11. ↑ Up (9 April 2019). "Another day. Another way to pay. Samsung Pay is now available with Up / Add your Up card to your supported Samsung device from today! @SamsungPay #samsungpay #upyeahpic.twitter.com/rVFQk9OtXL". @up_banking. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  12. ↑ Finder. "2019 Finder Awards winners". finder.com.au. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  13. ↑ Up (9 September 2019). "Here we go! clear your schedules for this one..classic. Scheduled & Repeating Payments are here! Pay it now, Pay it later, Pay it every second Thursday at 3:17am. Up to you. Version 1.8.0 out now /Salary Identification". @up_banking. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  14. ↑ "The Tree of Up — Up Product Tree". Up - Super Powered Banking. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  15. ↑ Meet-Up No.1 Oct 2019 - Spring Tree , retrieved 26 October 2019
  16. ↑ "2021 AFR Winners". Best Places to Work. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  17. ↑ "Self-care and wellness help brands break through in 2021". Australian Financial Review. 29 August 2021. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  18. ↑ Bendigo and Adelaide Bank to pay up to $116m for Melbourne fintech Ferocia IT News
  19. ↑ Rowl, Chris (30 October 2018). "Digital bank Up launches with Google Pay, fee-free banking and Android app". Ausdroid. Archived from the original on 20 May 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  20. ↑ Banney, Alison (17 December 2018). "Digital bank Up: Hands-on review of new conversational payments". finder.com.au. Archived from the original on 20 May 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
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