Investment Platforms and Marketplaces

May 25, 2020 @ 12:26 pm By JD Alois  |  

SIM Swaps, the nefarious act when criminals surreptitiously take over your mobile phone with a different SIM card, hit crypto lending platform BlockFi earlier this month. BlockFi quickly posted an “incident report” outlining the scam: “From approximately 07:17 UTC to 08:43 UTC on May 14,… Read More

May 24, 2020 @ 10:54 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Fintech Zopa, the one platform to launch an entire sector of Fintech as it became the first peer to peer lending platform in the UK, recently reintroduced C risk loans back into its Plus product offering. Zopa, which still offers online lending in a more… Read More

May 22, 2020 @ 5:38 pm By JD Alois  |  

Late last week, Prosper Marketplace filed its first-quarter report on operations and the document provides some insight into how the marketplace lender is faring during an economic landscape impacted by the Coronavirus. Overall, Prosper has originated $17.1 billion since platform inception through March 31, 2020…. Read More

May 22, 2020 @ 12:17 pm By JD Alois  |  

SyndicateRoom, previously an investor-led investment crowdfunding platform and now more of an early-stage fund, says April was a record month. According to an email distributed by SyndicateRoom CEO Graham Schwikkard nine startups completed their funding rounds during the lockdown. Reportedly, Kluster, Thermulon, Lumi-Plugin, Note Taking… Read More

May 22, 2020 @ 11:37 am By JD Alois  |  

Young, an Italian crypto-exchange startup that raised seed funding on Seedrs last fall, has raised additional capital at a valuation of €10 million. When Young raised funding on Seedrs the pre-money valuation was pegged at €8.5 million. The company ended up raising €787,480. Details on… Read More

May 21, 2020 @ 11:00 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group, a global markets company and the world’s largest financial derivatives exchange with over $75 billion in assets, has reported a considerable increase in its Bitcoin (BTC) options contract volume during the past week. An options contract is an agreement… Read More

May 21, 2020 @ 1:43 pm By JD Alois  |  

This past week, Reg CF (or Regulation Crowdfunding) celebrated its 4th birthday. Reg CF is one of three securities crowdfunding exemptions that were created by the JOBS Act of 2012. While Reg CF became law back in 2012, it took the Securities and Exchange Commission… Read More

May 21, 2020 @ 10:33 am By JD Alois  |  

The Alternative Financial Services Association of Latvia has published Latvia’s Crowdfunding Industry Guidelines. The association seeks to provide industry rules to foster a transparent and sustainable sector of finance. Twino, a well-established peer to peer investment platform, is the first crowdfunding operator to adhere to the… Read More

May 21, 2020 @ 9:41 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Future Planet Capital, a UK and Cayman Islands-based global venture capital and impact platform, is now seeking £1.4 million through its equity crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs. Founded in 2017, Future Planet Capital claims to be the world’s foremost global innovation investment platform. The company has… Read More

May 21, 2020 @ 8:22 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Brian Armstrong, CEO at San Francisco-based crypto exchange Coinbase, noted on May 20, 2020 that the firm would be moving to a remote-first policy, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This means that most Coinbase employees will be able to work remotely from home. Armstrong confirmed… Read More

May 20, 2020 @ 1:30 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Lendahand, a Netherlands-based for-profit crowdfunding platform for impact investing, has successfully secured its initial €1 million funding target through its equity crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs. The funding round was launched earlier this month and has attracted nearly 425 Seedrs investors. As previously reported, Lendahand describes… Read More

May 20, 2020 @ 10:31 am By JD Alois  |  

EstateGuru, a European lending marketplace, has topped €630,377 in a securities offering on Seedrs. Launched at the beginning of this month, EstateGuru set a minimum hurdle of €350,000 but quickly surpassed that goal. EstateGuru is seeking a maximum of €2 million on Seedrs as part… Read More

May 20, 2020 @ 10:00 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

LendInvest, a UK-based marketplace for property financing, announced on Wednesday it has made some updates to its Buy to Let (BTL) products as valuations are permitted to go ahead. As previously reported, the BTL Plus product is designed for landlords who are currently on a… Read More

May 20, 2020 @ 8:42 am By JD Alois  |  

OurCrowd, the world’s largest investment crowdfunding platform, is reporting that the number of job openings at its portfolio companies has risen to 354, with 90 new job vacancies added since the start of April. OurCrowd is based in Israel and 41 of the jobs are… Read More

May 19, 2020 @ 3:01 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Leading multinational digital asset exchange Binance has reportedly registered a new domain name with the government in China. Public records show that the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has approved Binance’s requested domain name (binance.cn). The approval was granted in April 2020. Records… Read More

May 19, 2020 @ 2:58 pm By JD Alois  |  

EquityZen is broadening pre-IPO access to RIAs and Family Offices through a new partnership with Addepar, according to a note from the company. Addepar is a Wealthtech management platform that specializes in data aggregation, analytics, and performance reporting. Currently, $1.7 trillion in assets are tracked… Read More

May 19, 2020 @ 12:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last summer, Binance, the largest digital asset exchange in the world, announced a partnership with “BAM Trading Services” to launch crypto trading services for users in the United States. That same week, Binance updated its terms of service to exclude “any U.S. person.” Binance explained:… Read More

May 18, 2020 @ 11:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Uniswap, a widely-used non-custodial digital asset exchange, has revealed that the second version of the decentralized protocol has now been launched. The developers of Uniswap had noted in March 2020 that they would be releasing the second iteration of the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol. Uniswap’s… Read More

May 18, 2020 @ 3:10 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Commercial real estate crowdfunding platform ArborCrowd announced on Monday it has exited its investment in the Sioux Falls Multifamily Portfolio, a collection of Class B apartment communities located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. ArborCrowd reported the decision generated a net internal rate of return (IRR)… Read More

May 18, 2020 @ 2:11 pm By JD Alois  |  

The previously announced Future Fund will open for applications beginning May 20, 2020, following a period of deliberation where the UK government sought to sort out the details as to how, and for who, the COVID-19 support program would provide capital. The British Business Bank… Read More