October 23, 2019 @ 5:33 pm By JD Alois  |  

Cogni, a digital challenger bank, has raised $5.4 million in a seed round, according to a note from the company. Cogni said it will launch its service in Q4 of 2019. Cogni last raised $1.7 million in funding in late 2018 in an earlier “seed”… Read More

October 23, 2019 @ 5:14 pm By JD Alois  |  

Global Payments platform PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) beat on earnings today and shares in the company responded after hours jumping by over 8%. Revenue for Q3 increased by 19% to $4.38 billion as users increased by 7% during the quarter adding 9.8 million users. In total, PayPal… Read More

October 23, 2019 @ 4:18 pm By JD Alois  |  

During a 6 + hour hearing today, Mark Zuckerberg defended both Libra and Facebook in general in front of the influential House Financial Services Committee. During the day shares in Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) rose by over 2% as the market rose overall but also, perhaps, boosted… Read More

October 23, 2019 @ 12:45 pm By JD Alois  |  

Stanford cryptographers and Findora co-founders Ben Fisch and Benedikt Bünz, along with Alan Szepeniec, have announced a “breakthrough in zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP)” – ‘Supersonic’. Supersonic proofs are said to be the “first practical, trustless, succinct, and efficiently verifiable zero-knowledge proofs, which are smaller than 10… Read More

October 23, 2019 @ 12:36 pm By JD Alois  |  

Global investment crowdfunding platform and Israel’s leading venture investor OurCrowd has partnered with the Toyota Tsusho Corporation (Toyota Tsusho), a member of the Toyota Group, which comprises of 17 companies including Toyota Motor. The new partnership will launch a new business that will act as… Read More

October 23, 2019 @ 9:13 am By JD Alois  |  

TokenSoft, a platform for issuing digital securities using blockchain technology, says the ERC-1404 token standard is seeing broad adoption for security token issuance. James Poole, co-founder and CTO of TokenSoft, says that creating a standard for security token issuers made sense to developers: “our customers,… Read More

October 23, 2019 @ 8:56 am By JD Alois  |  

Customers Lose as Fintech Charter Shot Down by US District Court This week, Judge Victor Marrero of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, ruled against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), in its ongoing legal battle to… Read More

October 23, 2019 @ 6:59 am By JD Alois  |  

Digital bank Starling Bank has raised £30 million in a new funding round, according to a company release. Merian Chrysalis Investment Company Limited is leading the round with an investment of £20 million. Starling’s existing investor, JTC, has topped off the round with £10 million…. Read More

October 23, 2019 @ 1:48 am By JD Alois  |  

McKinsey & Company has published its Global Banking Annual Review entitled “The Last Pit Stop? Time for Bold Late Cycle Moves.” The document is a probing examination of the global banking industry, based on a survey of over 1000 banks globally, highlighting both successful segments… Read More

October 22, 2019 @ 11:06 pm By JD Alois  |  

Leading Reg CF crowdfunding platform Wefunder has topped 300,000 individual investors, according to a Tweet from the platform’s Director of Fundraising. Wefunder now claims over $111 million raised for 310 different startup funding rounds. Over 300,000 @Wefunder angel investors! And you can become one today… Read More

October 22, 2019 @ 10:43 pm By JD Alois  |  

Mine Digital, a digital asset exchange, has launched in Australia. According to the company, the exchange is the first to launch with an Australian Financial Services License. The license allows Mine Digital to create markets in derivatives products including options and more. Mine Digital will… Read More

October 22, 2019 @ 9:37 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Investor Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting on Nov. 7, 2019. A portion of the meeting will address the SEC’s concept release on the Harmonization of Securities Offering Exemptions. The meeting, which is open to the public and… Read More

October 22, 2019 @ 3:41 pm By JD Alois  |  

IIRR Management Services (IRM) claims to be one of the largest crowdfunded real estate investment firms in the world. IRM is owned by RREAF Holdings and iintoo Investments. The company recently took over management of Realtyshares’​ portfolio – once a prominent entrant in the real… Read More

October 22, 2019 @ 2:15 pm By JD Alois  |  

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, will testify in front of the US House Financial Services Committee tomorrow in what will be a closely watched political event. Zuckerberg will be defending Facebook’s attempt to create a global non-sovereign cryptocurrency called Libra. The stablecoin has come… Read More

October 22, 2019 @ 11:26 am By JD Alois  |  

Revolut has partnered with Mastercard to issue credit cards using the global network. According to a release from Revolut, the new deal will reach 210 countries and territories with he first cards hitting the US by the end of the year. Revolut is a UK… Read More

October 22, 2019 @ 10:47 am By JD Alois  |  

Draft legislation has been posted on the US House of Representatives, Financial Services Committee website that may designate “stablecoins” as securities. Sponsored by Representative Sylvia Garcia, the ‘‘Stablecoins are Securities Act of 2019″ would mandate that stablecoins are investment contracts and thus are regulated under… Read More

October 22, 2019 @ 10:26 am By JD Alois  |  

The number of restaurants leveraging Reg CF is increasing dramatically, according to a report published by Crowdfund Capital Advisors (CCA). Reg CF is the smallest of the three crowdfunding exemptions utilized in the US. Under Reg CF, an issuer may raise up to $1.07 million… Read More

October 22, 2019 @ 9:54 am By JD Alois  |  

Luge Capital is reporting that iA Financial Group and BDC Capital have invested in the Fintech-focused VC fund, bringing the total size to $85 million. BDC Capital is the investment arm of BDC, Canada’s only bank devoted exclusively to entrepreneurs. Luge is a Canada based… Read More

October 22, 2019 @ 7:44 am By JD Alois  |  

Capitalise.com has announced a new partnership with iwoca and an unnamed “high street bank” to provide instant decisions on credit for participating businesses labeled “Instant Offers.” The service is said to remove any delay for online lending. iwoca is an online lender that offers loans… Read More

October 22, 2019 @ 2:55 am By JD Alois  |  

EstateGuru, an online lender for short-term, property-backed loans for SMEs, is reporting having financed 1040 loans for a total amount of €153 million since 2014. Geographically, 68.27% of them were in Estonia, 17.92% in Latvia, 12.24% in Lithuania, 1.37% in Finland, 0.1% in Portugal, and 0.1%… Read More