March 30, 2016 @ 8:23 am By JD Alois  |  

Crowdfunding software provider Katipult has partnered with Mangopay in its push to enter the UK crowdfunding market. Based in Canada, Katipult clearly wants to be the dominant global, white label software provider and is already compliant in more than 20 different countries. An expansion into… Read More

March 30, 2016 @ 7:52 am By JD Alois  |  

Leading mortgage peer to peer lender LendInvest has published a statement of caution and concern regarding the recently increased stamp duty tax on buy-to-let properties.  Christian Faes, CEO of LendInvest, called the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) increase “bad news” as landlords will be facing… Read More

March 29, 2016 @ 7:13 pm By JD Alois  |  

Former Fox Business Network contributor Tobin Smith has settled fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Smith was terminated by Fox in 2013 for “sponsored investment research”.  Basically Smith was pumping penny stocks that he, along with NBT   Group (ironically as in the… Read More

March 29, 2016 @ 9:19 am By JD Alois  |  

Finstar Financial Group wants to build its Fintech portfolio and has hired Paul Muhr, an experienced investment banker to boost M&A and capital markets projects. Until recently Muhr was a Vice President at Citi and before that at Goldman Sachs. Muhr’s hiring is said to… Read More

March 29, 2016 @ 8:55 am By JD Alois  |  

Late last month the National Internet Finance Association of China (NIFA) was launched during a ceremony in Shanghai. CreditEase, the first (and largest) peer to peer lender in the country, was elected as an Executive Director to the new entity. Former People’s Bank of China Deputy… Read More

March 29, 2016 @ 8:32 am By JD Alois  |  

Following a year of change where senior management was replaced and Andy Whelan was appointed CEO of the company, GLI Finance (LSE:GLIF) has published annual results as it seeks to “materially strengthen the long term cash generation potential for GLI Finance”. Patrick Firth, Chairman of GLI… Read More

March 29, 2016 @ 6:29 am By JD Alois  |  

Raed Khawaja has joined fintech firm Even Financial to help boost platform growth. Khawaja was formerly VP, Business Development for Bankrate (NYSE:RATE), one of the largest players in the fast growing financial services customer acquisition market with a valuation of about $1 billion. According to… Read More

March 28, 2016 @ 10:20 pm By JD Alois  |  

While the rest of the developed world, and some of the developing world, is rushing to embrace the Fintech revolution Japan is mired in the financial past.  Japan possesses the worlds 3rd largest economy as measured by nominal GDP yet they have done little when… Read More

March 28, 2016 @ 9:40 pm By JD Alois  |  

Equity crowdfunding platform Growthdeck has updated their platform. The  new approach is said to be designed to improve their private equity style approach to raising capital online. Growthdeck has always set the bar a bit higher than some of the other UK crowdfunding sites. By… Read More

March 28, 2016 @ 4:06 pm By JD Alois  |  

The New Zealand investment crowdfunding market has progressed rapidly since the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) provided a regulatory structure to allow both equity and debt based platforms to operate. Today there are 8 equity operations and 4 licensed peer to peer platforms. New Zealand is… Read More

March 28, 2016 @ 1:13 pm By JD Alois  |  

Full service brokerage Capital One Investing has announced a “fund evaluator tool” to the bells and whistles of their investor services.  Capital One joins the growing legions of both Fintech startups and traditional financial firms that see the value in providing automated services as a… Read More

March 28, 2016 @ 10:14 am By JD Alois  |  

Israel is not just a hotspot of entrepreneurial activity it is a center of Fintech innovation having launched multiple companies targeting the financial sector. The Floor, Israel’s first Fintech Hub, was launched in 2015 and quickly caught the eye of Chinese Venture Capital firm the… Read More

March 28, 2016 @ 8:28 am By JD Alois  |  

A group of several prominent entrants in the crowdfunding sector will announce the formation of a new Islamic Crowdfunding Alliance or ICF Alliance on April 1st. Umar Munshi, founder of eThis Crowd (Singapore), M. Raafi Hossain founder of Narwi (Qatar), Erly Witoyo, founder of Kapital… Read More

March 27, 2016 @ 9:46 pm By JD Alois  |  

The SEC Enforcement division shut down an allegedly bogus operation run by John Bivona based in New Jersey. Bivona, via Saddle River Advisors and SRA Management Associates, raised money from unsuspecting investors promising access to pre-IPO tech companies in the San Francisco bay area.  According… Read More

March 27, 2016 @ 8:47 pm By JD Alois  |  

A growing number of platforms are offering credit to their consumers as it appears just about everyone is getting into the online lending business these days. Square (NYSE:SQ), in launching loans from Square Capital provided by Celtic Bank in Utah, has provided another incremental service… Read More

March 27, 2016 @ 6:42 pm By JD Alois  |  

The next meeting of the Investor Advisory Committee (IAC) is scheduled to take place at the offices of the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 14th. As always, the meeting is open to the public but most of the proceedings will be live-streamed on the… Read More

March 26, 2016 @ 10:18 am By JD Alois  |  

Pärtel Tomberg, CEO of Bondora, spoke about his platform’s plans for 2016 in a recent interview.  According to Bondora, one of the objectives for coming months is to “improve the loans quality in all [their] markets”. “We strive for a more secured but faster loan… Read More

March 25, 2016 @ 12:01 pm By JD Alois  |  

Virtuix CEO and founder Jan Goetgeluk visited the studios of Mad Money, to discuss his product the Omni VR platform and his equity crowdfunding round on SeedInvest. Ryan Feit, SeedInvest CEO, joined the interview as well to talk about the update in securities law that… Read More

March 25, 2016 @ 9:59 am By JD Alois  |  

Scottsdale Capital Advisors Corp is challenging the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) ability to act as a securities regulator in Maryland federal court by stating it does not truly have a Congressional mandate to wield such power. The lawsuit is in response to proceedings pertaining… Read More

March 25, 2016 @ 9:06 am By JD Alois  |  

Virtuix, creators of the Omni platform that pairs with VR headsets such as the Oculus Rift, immediately topped $2.5 million from approximately 500 investors in 24 hours as it raised capital via a Reg A+ equity crowdfunding round. Vortex is offering Series A preferred shares… Read More