March 18, 2020 @ 11:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has posted a page dedicated to the Coronavirus, or COVID-19, outlining actions the Commission has taken to mitigate the pandemic driven shock. The “dedicated website” highlights a slew of temporary relief letters the CFTC has published during this challenging… Read More

March 18, 2020 @ 4:57 pm By JD Alois  |  

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), operated by Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), said it will initiate its business continuity plan (BCP) and migrate to fully electronic trading on Monday, March 23. The decision was made due to the Coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic. Recently, the NYSE… Read More

March 18, 2020 @ 4:30 pm By JD Alois  |  

Digital bank Cogni is planning to officially launch this week on March 20, 2020. Last year, it was reported that Cogni raised $5.4 million in a seed round and intended to launch towards the end of 2019. To date, Cogni has raised $6.6 million in… Read More

March 18, 2020 @ 1:01 pm By JD Alois  |  

Towards the end of 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed an update to the definition of an accredited investor. The rule change is part of a broader “concept release” that the SEC has issued to review the exempt offering ecosystem and how this… Read More

March 18, 2020 @ 10:17 am By JD Alois  |  

KingsCrowd has closed on a $1 million crowdfunding round on the NetCapital marketplace. KingsCrowd is a ratings and analytics firm for the private securities market. NetCapital lists private securities under both Reg CF and Reg D. The KingsCrowd offering leveraged both exemptions in a side… Read More

March 18, 2020 @ 9:52 am By JD Alois  |  

Hedera Hashgraph an “enterprise-grade” distributed ledger technology (DLT) that seeks to solve many of the issues plaguing existing iterations of blockchain, has received a nice endorsement of sorts. Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT) has joined the Hedera Governing Council.  Wipro is an India-based IT company. Wipro operates… Read More

March 18, 2020 @ 9:03 am By JD Alois  |  

OurCrowd, the largest securities crowdfunding platform in the world, has distributed a note highlighting its portfolio companies that are redirecting their efforts to help mitigate the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. Reported earlier, Sight Diagnostics is providing its OLO blood analyzer to be utilized at Tel… Read More

March 18, 2020 @ 9:00 am By JD Alois  |  

Online lender Kabbage has launched a new website “www.helpsmallbusiness.com” designed to support SMEs during the Coronavirus crisis. According to a release distributed by the Fintech, the initiative is a “call to action” that enables anyone to purchase an online gift certificate from participating small businesses… Read More

March 18, 2020 @ 9:00 am By JD Alois  |  

Sight Diagnostics, an OurCrowd portfolio company, is helping to lead the response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Sight’s OLO, a compact blood analyzer that can provide rapid, lab-grade CBC [complete blood count] results, has been installed in Sheba Tel Hashomer’s (Israel’s largest hospital that is supported… Read More

March 18, 2020 @ 7:45 am By JD Alois  |  

Leading UK crowdfunding platform Seedrs has distributed an email indicating it has transitioned to a virtual operation as employees are now working from home. The company said that as an online business the company was able to migrate to a remote business with “very minimal… Read More

March 18, 2020 @ 12:15 am By JD Alois  |  

Digital bank Revolut is looking to teach the youth safe ways to manage their money. As society transitions away from physical banks to ubiquitous, app-based financial services, Revolut sees an opportunity to accelerate money management skills for life. Today, Revolut is launching “Revolut Junior” –… Read More

March 17, 2020 @ 10:55 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Coronavirus is not only impacting the literal health of the world but it is poised to clobber startup funding – along with the rest of the global economy. According to a report by CBInsights, startup funding may tank more than 16% during Q1. You… Read More

March 17, 2020 @ 4:07 pm By JD Alois  |  

The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), the entity that lobbies on behalf of state and provincial regulators, is “urging the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) not to move forward with its proposal to expand access to high-risk private securities offerings to individual investors.” NASAA… Read More

March 17, 2020 @ 1:50 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the entire world. Traditional financial markets, as well as digital asset markets, have experienced extreme volatility. One asset that has held out relatively well is physical gold – a commodity that continues to interest certain investors in times of extreme… Read More

March 17, 2020 @ 1:34 pm By JD Alois  |  

Small business loans remained at a record high level during the month of February, according to the Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index. The report indicates that the approval percentage for small business loan applications at big banks ($10 billion+ in assets) stayed flat at 28.3%… Read More

March 17, 2020 @ 12:52 pm By JD Alois  |  

Robo.cash, a peer to peer lending platform operating in multiple jurisdictions, has distributed a note indicating that the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) is not impacting P2P investors. Robo.cash states that while global financial markets experience extreme levels of volatility, European P2P investors continue to invest with… Read More

March 17, 2020 @ 11:51 am By JD Alois  |  

Funding London, an investment vehicle provided by the Mayor of London, has backed 26 female founders, according to a note from the fund. Founded in 2004 by Maggie Rodriguez Piza on behalf of the Mayor of London, since inception Funding London has backed 673 SMEs… Read More

March 17, 2020 @ 9:59 am By JD Alois  |  

In a blog post today by BlockFi CEO Zac Prince, a digital asset lending platform, he shared that his company is well-capitalized and prepared to ride out the Coronavirus, or COVID-19, crisis. Prince stated: “Our Series B capital raise in January was well-timed and BlockFi remains well-capitalized,… Read More

March 17, 2020 @ 9:30 am By JD Alois  |  

Fireblocks, a digital asset platform for institutions, has integrated with Compound (compound.finance), a Decentralized Finance (DeFi) lending platform with $163M in interest-earning assets across 8 markets, according to a company release. Compound is backed by investors including a16z Crypto, Coinbase, Paradigm, and Polychain. Fireblocks claims… Read More

March 17, 2020 @ 1:08 am By JD Alois  |  

KlickOwn has launched its first security token offering for real estate in Germany. Launched in mid-2019, the first digital security is for a building based in Lüneburg, Germany. The offering is debt-based seeking up to €1.5 million. As of today, the offering has raised over €350,000…. Read More