January 12, 2017 @ 8:04 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Japanese e-commerce conglomerate and fintech investor Rakuten has cemented its interest in growing its European commercial banking operation from its Luxembourg headquarters. Initially focusing on providing payment, deposit and loan services for merchants on the PriceMinister e-commerce platform in France, Rakuten Europe Bank plans to expand… Read More

January 12, 2017 @ 7:48 am By Erin Hobey  |  

LendingCrowd, a UK alternative finance lender to the SME market, is readying to launch an Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) during Q1 of 2017, said to be one of the first launched in the UK alternative finance sector. The launch follows a record year for LendingCrowd during which it… Read More

January 12, 2017 @ 7:22 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Loan approval rates at big banks ($10 billion+ in assets) and institutional lenders finished the year strong, improving to post-recession highs in December 2016, according to the most recent Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index™, the monthly analysis of more than 1,000 small business loan applications on… Read More

January 12, 2017 @ 7:00 am By Erin Hobey  |  

CSI Kick Start, Inc., a Florida-based Fintech startup incubator founded by global payments innovator CSI globalVCard, today announced that its second annual application process for FinTech startup funding is now open. Aspiring entrepreneurs seeking to radically transform key areas of B2B payments including virtual cards,… Read More

January 12, 2017 @ 6:34 am By Erin Hobey  |  

University of Kentucky students, student organizations, faculty and staff may now raise funds for innovative UK programs and initiatives through a new, convenient, university-wide crowdfunding platform — Big Blue Crowdfunding. Planned to go live this week, the crowdfunding service was developed by UK Philanthropy, in partnership… Read More

January 10, 2017 @ 8:06 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Mark your calendars, log on and learn! LendIt, the world’s largest lending and fintech conference, is hosting two free webinars on January 11 and 18. LendIt Forums offer a series of free, intensive (and interactive) learning events for Asset Managers, Real Estate Investors, Financial Advisors, Commercial Bankers, Lending Innovators, Venture Capitalists and the Media…. Read More

January 10, 2017 @ 7:20 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Clínica Dialibre, the first clinic in Spain to specialize in diabetes for children, opened in March 2016 with the mission of setting a milestone in the treatment of diabetes and improving the young patients’ quality of life by personalizing the treatment for each patient. The Clinica… Read More

January 10, 2017 @ 6:11 am By Erin Hobey  |  

“Together we can create it all. Crowdfunding helps to bring us together,” stated Jason Butcher. The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) tapped Parallel Payments founder Jason Butcher to join its Association’s Crowdfunding Ambassadors Program. Crowdfunding Ambassadors, leaders, educators, supporters and advocates of an inclusive and broad-based crowdfunding industry… Read More

January 5, 2017 @ 4:25 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Smalle Technologies has developed the eForcis, an electricity generator especially designed for buoys that culls electricity from the ocean and sea waves. especially designed for buoys. eForcis aims to deliver constant and reliable energy supply leveraging simple electromagnetic principles, studied and tested under challenging marine conditions… Read More

January 5, 2017 @ 2:15 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

The Bitfury Group, a global Blockchain tech company, announced that in collaboration with the international law firm Covington, it plans to launch the “first ever” Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) around the World Economic Forum 2017 Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland this January. “The GBBC will… Read More

January 5, 2017 @ 1:59 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Tech Coast Angels (TCA) and  (MatriSys Bio) today announced the completion of their $1.5 million convertible note financing round.  This round of funding will be used to support and accelerate clinical trials for atopic dermatitis and continue preclinical work to support MatriSys’ growing pipeline of live biologic… Read More

January 5, 2017 @ 10:17 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Seedrs announced that during 2016 more than £85M was invested by the crowd in 159 campaigns. Since launching by Jeff Lynn and Carlos Silva in 2012, Seedrs has facilitated more than 450 deals and counts £190M raised through its platform. “The ongoing success of many of our portfolio… Read More

January 3, 2017 @ 12:42 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

2016 proved to be a positive year for leading French equity crowdfunding platform WiSEED.  The pioneering platform obtained the status of Investment Services Provider (PSI) to raise up to €5 million while launching two new offerings (renewable energy projects and agroforestry) and consolidating its three… Read More

January 3, 2017 @ 12:05 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

The following table from P2P-Banking.com shows loan originations in P2P lending marketplaces during December 2016, with Funding Circle (114.1M) significantly leading Ratesetter (68.2M euro), Zopa (60.2 M euro) and LendInvest (24.9M euro). Lendix reports an all time record month at 7.7 million euros in loan origination…. Read More

December 29, 2016 @ 5:19 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

With only eight days remaining on its Companisto crowdfunding campaign, the sleek electric scooter Kumpan company has secured over 836,610€ from over 1137 investors, easily clearing the company’s 500K€ stretch goal for 2.76 % share offered. Indeed, a week after the official launch of the campaign, Kumpan’s investment… Read More

December 29, 2016 @ 8:37 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Indian mobile wallet platform MobiKwik announced that it had signed the millionth merchant on its payment network, registering 1,000 percent growth since the demonetization of high value currency notes. The company recently partnered with Amul and NASVI to facilitate acceptability and adoption of digital mode of payments. “We are committed… Read More

December 29, 2016 @ 8:19 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Cofounded by Fermin Bueno and Andres Fontao who also cofounded Startupbootcamp FinTech LATAM, Finnovisita sees itself as an impact organization that accelerates fintech entrepreneurship in Spanish speaking countries, builds bridges between startups and financial institutions and facilitates the transformation of advanced financial services and the… Read More

December 28, 2016 @ 10:37 am By Erin Hobey  |  

“It’s our goal as a foundation to support this entrepreneurial spirit and encourage more people to start their own business. This is how the startups of tomorrow are created.” The combined fundraising efforts of the Berlin-headquartered German Children and Youth Foundation (Deutsche Kinder- und Jugendstiftung) and Companisto for… Read More

December 28, 2016 @ 10:03 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Indian mobile wallet platform FreeCharge announced its partnership with the online marketplace pioneer eBay India via Billdesk and Faasos, one of the country’s leading food on demand businesses.  The Billdesk partnership allows FreeCharge and eBay customers access to over 100 million product listings, for which they… Read More

December 28, 2016 @ 9:39 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Be on guard. The Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) has published a list of new websites offering binary options trading, for which no authorized investment services provider could be clearly identified. A binary option, or asset-or-nothing option, is type of option in which the payoff is… Read More