December 3, 2015 @ 11:24 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Prime Meridian Capital Management, a specialist in marketplace lending funds, announced the merger with Poise Lending, LLC, cofounded by veteran tech entrepreneur, Val Katayev and P2P lending portfolio manager Don Davis. The merger unifies the entities and adds a third fund – Poise Lending Fund… Read More

December 3, 2015 @ 10:56 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Newly LSE-listed Funding Circle shared positive findings today, citing its marketplace as the 3rd largest source of finance to UK small businesses in Q3.  James Meekings, co-founder and UK Managing Director of Funding Circle, commented on Bank of England’s newly released Funding for Lending data… Read More

December 3, 2015 @ 10:25 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Tandem has been granted authorization from the Bank of England and will be regulated by Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, blogged co-founder Ricky Knox. Tandem aims to be the most helpful, not the most painful, bank for its customers. “This is very… Read More

December 3, 2015 @ 7:21 am By Erin Hobey  |  

After much anticipation from key crowdfunding leaders, including Jon Medved, today marked the landmark occasion for small businesses throughout Australia, according to Crowd Funding Institute of Australia. With support from a burgeoning crowdfunding industry, the first steps have been taken to introduce legislative changes that tackle… Read More

December 2, 2015 @ 1:49 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten (TOKYO:4755) officially initiated a new $100 million fintech investment fund, according to a release.  The Rakuten FinTech Fund, a new US$100 million global investment fund focuses on investments in disruptive early to mid-stage fintech startups aims to offer attractive return potential with strategic relevance…. Read More

December 2, 2015 @ 12:48 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

KeyBank announced a non-equity partnership with Aptexx, a California-based provider of payment and property management software, reported Crain‘s Jeremy Noble. The collaboration continues the Cleveland-based bank’s foray into fintech, initiated by September’s strategic partnership and minority investment in AvidXchange and another partnership with InstaMed.  With much debate in the fintech industry… Read More

December 2, 2015 @ 12:17 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Percolating since summer, when the Malta Business Bureau and the University of Malta signed a agreement to develop a crowdfunding platform to finance local business ideas and projects, the venture announced the launch of its first crowdfunding platform, ZAAR. Spearheaded by the Foundation for the Promotion of Entrepreneurial Initiatives, a joint venture… Read More

December 1, 2015 @ 1:11 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Five years ago, fintech trailblazer Peter Renton launched Social Lending Network which rebranded to Lend Academy in 2012. On his blog Renton reflects on industry changes during the half-decade. “Back in November 2010, Lending Club had issued less than $200 million in total loans and was focused primarily on retail… Read More

December 1, 2015 @ 12:48 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

P2P lender Funding Circle‘s peer-to-peer trust raised £150M in London Stock Exchange listing yesterday, reported The Telegraph’s Rebecca Burn-Callander.  The Funding Circle SME Income fund allows the company’s pool of investors to buy shares in the vehicle, which then allocates loans to a portfolio of small businesses,… Read More

December 1, 2015 @ 12:14 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Just over a year after securing a $2M seed round, Mirador today announced that the completion of a Series A round of financing. The $7 million investment was led by Core Innovation Capital, with participation from Nyca Partners and Jump Capital. Initial seed investors Collaborative Fund, Wicklow… Read More

December 1, 2015 @ 11:42 am By Erin Hobey  |  

In the first hours of going live on Companisto, the Hamburg-based start-up TripRebel raised over 75,410€ toward its 400,000€ funding goal. In 2015, the European Commission selected TripRebel as the “Best European Startup.” In January 2013, while TripRebel founder Carlos Borges was living in Bahia, Brazil, he sought  to… Read More

December 1, 2015 @ 8:00 am By Erin Hobey  |  

“I do not recycle or repackage the ideas of others.  I try to focus instead on broader JOBS Act issues and events which have thus far gone unnoticed – or barely noticed – and which require further thought, analysis and hopefully, action, by louder and… Read More

November 24, 2015 @ 8:34 am By Erin Hobey  |  

  “Our prediction is that the marketplace lending industry will undergo continued and increasing growth, opening up new investment opportunities and new avenues of capital formation for start-ups and small businesses.” It’s not too late to participate in the 2015 Americas Alternative Finance Benchmarking Survey;… Read More

November 19, 2015 @ 1:58 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Jon Medved, the prominent globetrotting entrepreneur and charismatic founder of OurCrowd, caught up with ABC’s Business Correspondent Ticky Fullerton as part of a segment on new reforms on crowdfunding for small businesses and startups in Australia. Complimenting PM Malcom Turnbull’s deep understanding of tech and innovation… Read More

November 19, 2015 @ 1:19 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Crowdfunder.co.uk, the UK’s #1 rewards and community shares crowdfunding platform, is closing its £1,000,000 fundraise on Crowdcube, the UK’s leading investment crowdfunding platform.  To date, the dynamic partnership has secured over £919,039 from over 623 investors. Last week, further excitement was added to the successful Crowdfunder.co.uk/Crowdcube campaign, when the Managing Director of the Reward-based… Read More

November 19, 2015 @ 9:02 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Grouplend, Canada’s leading online lending platform, announced today that it has rebranding itself as Grow Financial. Since launching in 2014, the company’s model has evolved from marketplace lending to a fintech platform, using cutting-edge software and advanced data analytics to create revolutionary financial services that extend far… Read More

November 19, 2015 @ 8:12 am By Erin Hobey  |  

“Gartner reports that 2014 continued to see IT-centric platforms routinely being complemented, or replaced, with solutions with business-user-driven data discovery and interactive analysis techniques. We believe Panorama is well positioned to address this quickly growing market in general, and the fundamental market shift in particular.”… Read More

November 18, 2015 @ 1:24 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Berlin start-up TradeMachines,  the world’s largest meta search engine for industrial auctions, launched a 500,000€ equity crowdfunding campaign on Companisto yesterday.  In the first day, the startup secured over 158,874€ from over 164 investors toward its goal. Since 2013, TradeMachines has brokered machine sales worth €2 billion, Listing 30 %… Read More

November 18, 2015 @ 9:00 am By Erin Hobey  |  

“As the crowdfunding economy grows it will spur economic prosperity, create new jobs and ultimately improve follow-on funding outcomes for scalable ventures looking to succeed in the incredibly dynamic and connected global markets we live in today.” As readers know, The Centre for Alternative Finance at University of… Read More

November 16, 2015 @ 10:49 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Founded in May 2014, the Philippine-based fintech startup  Satoshi Citadel Industries (SCI) initiated Boom Cash, an SMS-based wallet that allows a person to send and receive money digitally without an Internet connectivity. SCI co-founder and CEO John Bailon told Deal Street Asia that Boom Cash is the product of an internal hackathon,… Read More