Investment Platforms and Marketplaces

June 15, 2018 @ 3:39 pm By JD Alois  |  

puddlePuddle, an online lender that provided micro-credit in a peer to peer platform, is shutting down. In an email circulated by the company, Puddle founders stated that after five years of operation the businesses model was “unsustainable.” Founded in 2012, the site was envisioned as… Read More

June 15, 2018 @ 7:53 am By JD Alois  |  

UK based peer-to-peer lender RateSetter is reporting that subscriptions to its IFISA have surpassed £100 million. This milestone took four months to reach and, according to RateSetter, faster than any other P2P lender. To date, RateSetter has originated over £2.5 billion in online loans to… Read More

June 14, 2018 @ 2:14 am By Erin Hobey  |  

The Seedrs alum Wrisk began its second crowdfunding campaign in May — its second within a year — and is crushing it again within a few weeks. Having already raised over £954,550 on its current Seedrs convertible campaign (a mere £500K was the platform’s initial goal),… Read More

June 14, 2018 @ 1:40 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Spanish startup WOOM, a data app that empowers women to maximize chances of pregnancy, is overfunding and poised to easily surpass £400,000 on its equity crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube. Just last week, WOOM celebrated hitting its £300K initial goal. More than 77 investors have stepped up… Read More

June 13, 2018 @ 7:49 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Funding Circle has announced that a new report produced by Oxford Economics revealed that lending through its platform unlocked 45,000 jobs in the UK in 2017. Globally this number jumps to 75,000 across all four of the Funding Circle markets. Overall, Funding Circle’s platform contributed £2.4… Read More

June 13, 2018 @ 6:38 pm By JD Alois  |  

The JOBS Act of 2012 was create with the recognition of the importance of providing funding to early stage ventures and entrepreneurs. Access to capital can be really hard. This is even more true if you happen to live outside of prominent hotbeds of innovation… Read More

June 12, 2018 @ 8:50 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

LendingTree, Inc. (NASDAQ:  TREE) announced on Tuesday its subsidiary, LendingTree, LLC, completed its acquisition of Ovation Credit Services, Inc., a leading provider of credit services with a strong customer service reputation. The acquisition was announced last month. According to LendingTree Ovation Credit Services utilizes a proprietary software… Read More

June 12, 2018 @ 11:31 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Lending Express, an AI-powered marketplace for business loans, has opened a new Silicon Valley office in San Mateo, as well as the appointment of Moshe Kazimirsky to VP of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development to support the West Coast team. The announcement comes on the… Read More

June 12, 2018 @ 8:30 am By Erin Hobey  |  

The in-space propulsion market is reportedly valued currently $9.2B and growing 22% annually. Tesseract, a higher-performance, cheaper propulsion systems for satellites, avers that we are on the cusp of a massive satellite market that will bring Internet access to every corner of the world, vastly expand… Read More

June 12, 2018 @ 8:00 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Just a few months after opening its new Poland office, Swedish crowdfunding platform FundedByMe announced the upcoming launch of its first Polish campaign, which is for the mobile app for scooters, Blinkee.city. FundedByMe reported that the Blinkee.city app has been up and running in eight… Read More

June 12, 2018 @ 4:00 am By JD Alois  |  

With Brexit top of mind, online mortgage lender LendInvest has become a fellow of the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT), the country’s leading Fintech innovation hub. LendInvest has had a presence in Luxembourg since 2014 when it established a Luxembourg fund. Now LendInvest will… Read More

June 10, 2018 @ 11:19 am By JD Alois  |  

Republic, an investment crowdfunding platform that is mission driven, has published a new Diversity Report that recognizes the fact that “good ideas are universal – opportunity isn’t.” In the US, securities laws have been skewed to favor the wealthy (think of the current punitive definition… Read More

June 8, 2018 @ 4:59 pm By JD Alois  |  

StartEngine, one of the largest investment crowdfunding platforms in the US, is nearing its $5 million self crowdfunding goal standing at over $4.7 million. The Reg A+ offering was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last September and soon after went live on their… Read More

June 8, 2018 @ 9:52 am By JD Alois  |  

  Online mortgage lender LendInvest reports it is scrambling to hire new employees due to the demand of its Buy-to-Let (BTL) product. The LendInvest team has now grown to 15 people in the short period since the  BTL product was launched in November 2017. Antonia… Read More

June 8, 2018 @ 8:11 am By JD Alois  |  

Huobi Group, a fast growing digital asset solutions provider, is now accepting listing submissions from European and Australian blockchain companies on the Huobi Autonomous Digital Asset Exchange (HADAX). On HADAX, teams may self-submit an application online to list their project for community voting. Following an… Read More

June 7, 2018 @ 11:12 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Finanbest, a Madrid-based licensed securities agency, offers a digital end-to-end wealth management solution for retail investors, reportedly reducing costs for clients up to 70%. The platform has partnered with Crowdcube to raise £175,000 for 6.22% equity. The agency was pre-valued at £2,638,522.  At this writing, the… Read More

June 6, 2018 @ 10:07 pm By JD Alois  |  

The number of Reg CF crowdfunding platforms in the US continues to slowly grow with several recent additions. Last time we reviewed the number of FINRA approved investment platforms in March, there were 38 regulated sites. So what has changed? First, to update on what… Read More

June 6, 2018 @ 9:00 am By JD Alois  |  

Huobi Group , a crypto exchange and digital asset solution platform, has launched the Huobi Chain Project (HCP) and the Huobi Chain Superhero Championship Program (HCSCP).  The  new initiatives have been backed with 20 million Huobi Tokens (HT), which is about $100 million dollars at the… Read More

June 5, 2018 @ 10:35 am By JD Alois  |  

Hailo, an artificial intelligence (AI) company developing a proprietary chip for deep learning on edge devices, has closed on a $12.5 million Series A round. Investors include leading global crowdfunding platform OurCrowd, Maniv Mobility, the Drive accelerator fund, Next Gear, plus angel investors, Hailo Chairman… Read More

June 4, 2018 @ 1:00 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Renew Financial, the inventor of Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing and a leading provider of financing for home improvements, announced last it has appointed Kirk Inglis, currently Renew Financial’s CFO, as its new CEO. According to Renew, Inglis has more than 20 years of experience… Read More