This Month
- Explainer
- Cryptocurrencies
Why banks are looking at real-world asset tokenisation
Banks spend billions each year on systems to track and finalise millions of trades. Could crypto help to streamline processes?
- James Eyers and Jessica Sier
Tokenisation of real-world assets is the killer app for crypto
What if crypto was not only a speculative asset class but a new technology stack for financial markets?
- James Eyers and Jessica Sier
Big ideas trump commercialisation for new CSIRO boss
Doug Hilton has laid out plans for it to help answer the big questions facing society, while also making some money along the way.
- Updated
- Tess Bennett
How crypto is forcing banks, funds towards new digital asset markets
The market cap of cryptocurrencies is $1 trillion. But real-world assets are valued at $800 trillion. How much could be “tokenised” onto blockchains to create efficiencies?
- James Eyers
Why this Australian seaweed farmer is setting his sights on Europe
The intense pressure on British and European farmers to cut methane emissions has opened up a major market opportunity for Tasmanian start-up Sea Forest.
- Hans van Leeuwen
September
Cardboard drone maker used in Ukraine is Australia’s top innovator
Sypaq has won the 2023 AFR Boss Most Innovative Companies Award, for its flat packed cardboard drones, which have been serving on the front line in Ukraine.
- Paul Smith
- Analysis
- BOSS Most Innovative Companies
Old hands can be disruptors too
Some of the finalists in the 2023 AFR BOSS Most Innovative Companies awards are not start-ups, but companies that have been around for a few decades or more.
- Sally Patten
Financial services elephants need the little guys
Innovation is hard for banks because of their size and scale. But it hasn’t eliminated the need to be agile, if anything it’s made it more necessary.
- Ayesha de Kretser
Portable brain imaging company wins healthcare award
EM Vision named the top innovator in the health category in the 2023 AFR BOSS Most Innovative Companies list.
- Sally Patten
Robots open a path to sustainable construction
This university building used a world-first technological innovation involving the use of a robot to install screw fixings during construction.
- Prashant Mehra
Ad agency builds a new therapeutic system for psychologists
whiteGREY’s Hope Narratives won the AFR’s Most Innovative Companies award in the media and marketing category.
- Mark Di Stefano
We need to turn invention into innovation
Australian innovation has come a long way over the past decade, but innovation never sleeps, writes Larry Marshall.
- Larry Marshall
- Exclusive
- AI
The new $3b robot factory shooting for the moon
Advanced Navigation, a Sydney deep-tech company backed by Malcolm Turnbull, is scaling up a factory that helps NASA navigate when there’s no GPS.
- John Davidson
Australia’s five most powerful tech leaders for 2023
From a funding winter to cyberattacks and the rise of artificial intelligence, it has been a big year for Australian techies.
- Paul Smith
ASX’s CHESS problem sinks Australia’s finance centre ranking
Mandala Partners found allowing competition in equities clearing and settlement will arrest a disturbing slide down the Global Financial Centres Index.
- James Eyers
- Opinion
- Research
These fridges cost $1m, but our future depends on them
Australia needs a new vision for a collaborative approach to lift our investment in R&D.
- Emma Johnston
‘Some turmoil’ but tech crowd greets spring after funding winter
The tech sector is in its toughest period since the dotcom crash, but investors, company founders and global software leaders think they are through the worst.
- Paul Smith
August
Apple says banks are whingeing about the cost of Apple Pay
Apple’s Kyle Andeer told a parliamentary committee the cost of Apple Pay for banks was “set very low and remains very low”.
- James Eyers
Rate rises choke innovation, says Jackson Hole paper
A research paper presented at Jackson Hole showed an interest-rate increase of 1 percentage point can lead to a 25 per cent decline in venture capital investment
- Catarina Saraiva
- Analysis
- Big four
$3b a year: digital dollar cost savings for banks revealed
New analysis suggests the eAUD, Australia’s proposed central bank digital currency, could offer big savings across the financial system by cutting collateral and capital held against settlement risk.
- James Eyers
