January 21, 2015 @ 9:39 am By Erin Hobey  |  

As many Crowdfund Insiders know, The University of Cambridge teamed up with EY and launched the European Alternative Finance Benchmarking Survey, the largest study to date on crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending and other forms of alternative finance in Europe. This benchmarking survey, which closed on 6 January 2015,  seeks to capture the size, transactional… Read More

January 15, 2015 @ 10:25 am By Erin Hobey  |  

European Alternative Finance Benchmarking Survey UPDATE Since late November, the University of Cambridge teamed up with EY, the global professional services organization, and launched the European Alternative Finance Benchmarking Survey with the support of major European industry associations. As readers may know, this is the largest study to date on crowdfunding,… Read More

January 13, 2015 @ 8:51 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Since late November, The University of Cambridge teamed up with EY, the global professional services organization, and launched the European Alternative Finance Benchmarking Survey with the support of major European industry associations. As readers may know, this is the largest study to date on crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending and other forms of alternative… Read More

January 8, 2015 @ 7:30 am By Erin Hobey  |  

SeedUps, one of Canada’s early equity crowdfunding platforms, was founded by Sandi Gilbert, a well known investment crowdfunding advocate and co-founder of the Equity Crowdfunding Alliance of Canada.  She is also COO of ECN Capital – a partner company of SeedUps. Today Gilbert summarized SeedUps’ activity since launching in mid-2014:… Read More

January 7, 2015 @ 8:04 am By Erin Hobey  |  

2014 proved to be a strong year for fledgling Sliced Investing, an investment platform connecting accredited investors to hedge fund investments: in November the platform closed seed financing of $2 million to develop new funds for investors and accelerate the platform’s growth. Venture capital firms… Read More

January 6, 2015 @ 12:25 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

In its 2014 summary, WiSEED shared its growth:  37,700 members, 51 startups funded and  € 14 million in funds raised (a 100% increase from 2013).  Integral to its own growth and French crowdfunding became WiSEED’s involvement with financial regulations in October 2014: “After months of discussions with… Read More

January 6, 2015 @ 11:48 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Paymentandbanking.com named Hamburg-based Kreditech  as the FinTech Startup of 2014. The jury explains its choice noting  Kreditech “obvious disruption and, unfortunately, one of the few German FinTech startups that has substantial foreign investment.” Kreditech applies big data to score the creditworthiness of customers. In addition, Founder Institute initiated its… Read More

January 6, 2015 @ 11:28 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Today El Pais posted news reguarding Spain’s Audit Court’s about a loophole in party financing legislation that could be used to circumvent legal restrictions on donations: “The problem lies with financial contributions made through crowdfunding websites, which make it difficult to identify individual donors. The… Read More

January 6, 2015 @ 11:02 am By Erin Hobey  |  

OurCrowd, the leading global equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors, reported significant growth and expansion during 2014. Yesterday the company posted achievements on its blog, today more highlights were shared in a yearend summary.  In under two years, OurCrowd has established itself as a major international… Read More

January 6, 2015 @ 9:26 am By Erin Hobey  |  

The European Alternative Finance Benchmarking Survey deadline is today, 6 January 2015. Since late November, The University of Cambridge teamed up with EY, the global professional services organization, and launched the European Alternative Finance Benchmarking Survey with the support of major European industry associations. As readers may know, this is the largest study to date on… Read More

January 5, 2015 @ 2:01 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

“Imagine the work of Angry Woebots, Jim Mahfood, Junko Mizuno, kozyndan, Skinner, and Tara McPherson popping up from the page in magnificent detail before your eyes? That’s the experience readers will have when they crack open The Pop Up Art Book,” according to Poposition Press, referring to… Read More

January 5, 2015 @ 1:30 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

The StartUp Nation Scales Up. According to OurCrowd’s blog, “This past week, we waved 2014 goodbye and welcomed in the new year – but not without a bit of self reflection at what an amazing year it’s been for the Startup Nation. In 2014, Israel… Read More

January 5, 2015 @ 11:34 am By Erin Hobey  |  

EDITION F launched its modest Companisto equity crowdfunding campaign in November, seeking to raise a minimum of 50,000€ for 5€ a share; to date, with the help of over 435 backers, the lifestyle platform for women has raised well over its initial modest goal, securing 167,600€ for the… Read More

January 5, 2015 @ 10:51 am By Erin Hobey  |  

EeBria, the UK craft alcohol marketplace, enables customers to buy alcohol directly from small independent craft breweries, distilleries and vineyards around the UK.  The platform was established in 2013 and has grown consistently since its launch.  Currently crowdfunding on Seedrs, EeBria has secured over £128K of its… Read More

January 5, 2015 @ 10:09 am By Erin Hobey  |  

In a recent post on FxPro by Ron Finberg, he cites the fintech tends to watch during 2015, may they be “either high opportunities or stumbling blocks,” as “service-based investing,” robo investing (“anti-social trading”) and digital-based crowdfunding. “Fintech was a great sector to be in… Read More

December 30, 2014 @ 11:28 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Seedrs just posted its “12 Months of Seedrs” on Facebook, highlighting the platform’s monthly successes in 2014.  “From broken records to crowdfunding firsts, funding everything from great startups to established publicly-traed businesses, we’re looking back at a really transformative years for Seedrs, Seedrs-funded businesses and… Read More

December 30, 2014 @ 8:08 am By Erin Hobey  |  

In an international effort, the Malaysian media platform Vulcan Post joined forces with Swedish crowdfunding platform FundedByMe and Korean dating app Between in an effort to raise cash funds for flood victims in Malaysia; more than 132,000 people have been forced to evacuate and crowdfunders… Read More

December 30, 2014 @ 7:30 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Cloud Lending, the industry’s end-to-end lending solution built on Salesforce.com, recently added CL Marketplace, a unified cloud platform that simplifies and automates the entire loan process in marketplace lending, to its suite of cloud-based industry applications that enable non-bank financial institutions to manage loan portfolios, increase transaction volume and rapidly bring new… Read More

December 29, 2014 @ 9:42 am By Erin Hobey  |  

In his blog on Spend Matters Network, David Gustin eloquently highlights several themes that impact the world of business credit during 2014: “The first of course is the rise of alternative lending products that go by such categories as online receivable auctions, private pcard exchanges, and peer… Read More

December 29, 2014 @ 8:40 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Beamonte Investments, along with its affiliate, Beamonte,  a leading private investment firm in Boston, announced it has invested in Arthena, a cooperative investment platform that focuses on crowdfunding for investments in fine arts. Operated by Arthena Fine Arts, Inc., Arthena aims to lower the cost… Read More