April 5, 2016 @ 12:15 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

SWIFT, a global member-owned cooperative and a leading global provider of secure financial messaging services, announced that 21 banks have started the pilot for its global payments innovation initiative, intended to improve the customer experience in correspondent banking by increasing the speed, transparency and predictability of cross-border payments. The… Read More

April 5, 2016 @ 11:26 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Santander UK, a subsidiary of Grupo Santander, one of the ten largest banks in the world,  announced its intention to license the Kabbage Platform to power automated SMB lending throughout the United Kingdom. “There is incredible potential to shape the next generation of business lending… Read More

March 31, 2016 @ 10:38 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Stratumn announced that it has raised €600,000 in funding to build and promote its blockchain development platform. The round was led by the French VC firm Otium Venture, and includes Business Angels such as Ledger CEO and Maison du Bitcoin founder Eric Larchevêque, according to the… Read More

March 31, 2016 @ 9:55 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Global Credit Investments has called itself the first Australian fund to invest in peer-to-peer loans, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.  The small fund, set up by former Goldman Sachs banker Steven Sher and former Bain & Co consultant Gavin Solsky, is the latest of a new breed of financial intermediaries which has been buying loans American… Read More

March 31, 2016 @ 9:16 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Canada’s growing fintech space saw online lending platform, Lendified Inc., join forces with Vancouver-based Mentio Technologies, a platform specializing in automated cash flow forecasting. For Lendified, which offers online loans to Canadian small business owners, the acquisition marks an expansion into global markets as Mentio’s multi-currency technology serves customers… Read More

March 17, 2016 @ 7:53 am By Erin Hobey  |  

After just 11 months of brewing Barcelona-based Garage Beer Co “maxed out” their brewery capacity. Jointly announced by Crowdcube Spain MD Pepe Borrell and Garage Beer’s website, the brewer is in the works to build a bigger plant and is looking to the crowd —… Read More

March 17, 2016 @ 6:53 am By Erin Hobey  |  

In late December, retail giant Overstock, a publicly traded company managed by maverick CEO Patrick Byrne, received SEC approval to regarding a plan to issues shares using Bitcoin Blockchain.  According to a filing with the SEC, the use of the “technology and distributed ledger technology by the Pro… Read More

March 17, 2016 @ 6:19 am By Erin Hobey  |  

TradeSocio, a fintech company founded in 2014 that aims to enable brokers, banks, and financial institutions to better utilize social trading, marketing automation, analytics and big data, announced its $1.25 million seed funding round led by Octava, a Singapore-based investment holding group, according to a statement…. Read More

March 17, 2016 @ 5:48 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Top banking executives fear that up to a quarter of their business could be at risk from emerging fintech firms, according to research conducted by PwC.  The report notes that information on FinTech is somewhat “dispersed and obscure,” which can make data synthesizing challenging. PwC’s… Read More

March 15, 2016 @ 8:53 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Soros Fund Management and Jefferies Group LLC are investing $5 million in a startup founded by former mortgage-bond trader Perry Rahbar that analyzes consumer debt for professional investors, reported BloombergBusiness‘ Matt Scully and Dakin Campbell.  Rahbar, a former mortgage-backed securities trader at JPMorgan Chase &… Read More

March 15, 2016 @ 8:25 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Earlier this month Crowdcube Spain joined the Spanish Association of Fintech and Insurtech (Asociación Española de Fintech e Insurtech) and received the new quality certification from the Catalan Government.  The Association was created with the support of more than 50 companies, with the goal of creating a favorable… Read More

March 15, 2016 @ 7:11 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Founded in 2010, friendsurance.com currently counts over 75,000 new customers on its platform. The peer-to-peer insurance model  conceived by Friendsurance had led the creation of a new insurance market segment with over 15 new entrants in seven countries. “In 2015, we saw an amazing growth with more than 200… Read More

March 10, 2016 @ 6:28 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Companisto founders David Rhotert and Tamo Twinge announced a new safety initiative called crowd voting, offering Companists “the chance to invest in venture capital with a safety net.” After collecting feedback and communicating with investors over the last months, the process of crowdsourcing inspired the founders to offer crowd… Read More

March 10, 2016 @ 5:29 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Envestnet | Yodlee (NYSE:ENV), a leading data aggregation and data analytics platform powering dynamic, cloud-based innovation for digital financial services, announced its launch of Envestnet | Yodlee Aggregation Platform on the Salesforce AppExchange, aiming to provide financial institutions with a single, comprehensive view of held-away financial data combined with… Read More

March 10, 2016 @ 5:01 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Early Warning, a leading real-time payments, authentication and risk mitigation platform, announced that Bank of America is now processing real-time P2P transactions through Early Warning’s clearXchange network. Customers at both banks are now able to send eligible real-time P2P payments to customers at BoA or U.S…. Read More

March 10, 2016 @ 4:30 am By Erin Hobey  |  

2015 was the year that financial technology entered the mainstream, claims the new report “Pulse of Fintech” from KPMG and CB Insights (see also the University of Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance  seminal benchmarking surveys last year), which estimates that VC-backed fintech firms around the world secured $13.8 billion in… Read More

March 8, 2016 @ 9:01 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Venture for America Fellows announced its 5th Innovation Fund crowdfunding campaign in partnership with Indiegogo and sponsored by Barclays, gives access to $50,000 per year in grants for eleven Fellow-led projects. “We are grateful to Barclays and Indiegogo, who have offered up their expertise and resources to… Read More

March 8, 2016 @ 8:25 am By Erin Hobey  |  

CAN Capital, a market share leader in alternative small business finance, today announced the winners of its Take the Reins contest. Chosen from over 800 submissions, ten small businesses won $5,000 each toward essential items like equipment, merchandise and technology, and four small businesses won a custom… Read More

March 8, 2016 @ 7:00 am By Erin Hobey  |  

LendKey, the Lending-as-a-Service platform that connects borrowers with credit unions and banks with over $800 million in loan capital deployed through their bank and credit union clients, announced the appointment of Salil Mehta as Senior Vice President of Credit Risk & Analytics. Mr. Mehta, an… Read More

March 8, 2016 @ 4:39 am By Erin Hobey  |  

BBVA has acquired Finnish digital current account startup Holvi, furthering its investment into tech-led alternatives to traditional banking.  Founded in Helsinki in 2011, Holvi offers a current account combined with business MasterCard for small business owners. “We’re excited about Holvi as we share a vision about… Read More