Investment Platforms and Marketplaces

March 8, 2018 @ 9:06 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

The House Crowd, a UK property crowdfunding platform, announced on Thursday the launch of its new auto-invest service. This news comes just two months after the funding portal received full authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). It was revealed: “If you are a regular investor in… Read More

March 8, 2018 @ 8:30 am By JD Alois  |  

FundedByMe, an investment crowdfunding platform based in Sweden, is expanding into Poland. The platform has now established a new office in Warsaw representing the sixth international location beyond Sweden. FundedByMe says the aim is to meet the funding needs of a rapidly growing market consisting… Read More

March 8, 2018 @ 8:00 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Wednesday, online lender Funding Circle announced investors lent more than £113 million to over 1,700 UK businesses throughout the month of February. Funding Circle also reported that over the last six months investors have helped more than 10,200 small businesses be able to gain access… Read More

March 8, 2018 @ 7:42 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

UK-based peer-to-peer lender Landbay announced this week it has hit its £100 million in lending milestone. The online lending platform achieved its half-way point in lending this past September and revealed that since then momentum has accelerated to result in near-on double of lending volumes… Read More

March 8, 2018 @ 1:58 am By JD Alois  |  

Investment crowdfunding platform FundedByMe says that more women are investing through crowdfunding than ever before. The Sweden based operation says that in 2017 women accounted for 27% of aggregate capital invested in early stage companies on the FundedByMe platform. When comparing January and February of… Read More

March 7, 2018 @ 11:34 pm By JD Alois  |  

Republic, a US based crowdfunding platform that utilizes the Reg CF exemption, says it had a gang-buster week – one of their biggest ever. Activity was driven in part due to their second crypto offer – Witnet. that easily hit the max amount allowable. Witnet… Read More

March 7, 2018 @ 12:39 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

RealtyShares, an online marketplace for real estate investing, announced on Wednesday the results from its Commercial Real Estate Investing Survey, which was conducted online among over 2,000 U.S. adults in December 2017 by Harris Poll on its behalf. The results revealed that many Americans believe… Read More

March 6, 2018 @ 4:18 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

The World Economic Forum announced the creation of a new consortium to strengthen cybersecurity for fintech companies and data aggregators. The consortium’s founding members include global bank Citigroup, insurance company Zurich Insurance Group, fintech lender Kabbage, infotech company Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), and financial infrastructure… Read More

March 6, 2018 @ 10:30 am By JD Alois  |  

Following its January launch, Blend Network has expanded its senior management team with the appointment of Beauty marketplace founder and former Morgan Stanley Vice President Roxana Mohammadian-Molina. This comes after Blend hired former senior Lloyds banker Charles Lamplugh. Roxana Mohammadian-Molina joins Blend Network after exiting… Read More

March 6, 2018 @ 9:34 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Atlanta-based fintech direct loan provider, LendingPoint, announced on Tuesday the launch of its new platform, LendingPoint Merchant Solutions, which is to provide merchants and other service providers a fully integrated one-stop retail financing platform to convert more consumers at the point of sale. The launch of LendingPoint Merchant… Read More

March 6, 2018 @ 8:43 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

iwoca, one of Europe’s largest small business lenders, announced on Tuesday it is pledging to lend £100 million to micro and small businesses in the North of England by 2020. The alternative finance provider revealed the pledge is in response to the withdrawal of credit… Read More

March 6, 2018 @ 8:01 am By JD Alois  |  

NextSeed is one of a handful of FINRA approved Reg CF crowdfunding portals that is successfully providing access to growth capital for small businesses across the US. It is the only platform in operation that focuses solely on debt financing as most other platforms are… Read More

March 5, 2018 @ 3:02 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Collateral, a UK-based peer to peer lending platform, has reportedly gone into administration after trading without a proper license. According to various reports, a letter was sent to investors from the company’s administrator, named Gordon Craig, that stated the company was operating in the belief that… Read More

March 5, 2018 @ 1:39 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Folk2Folk, a peer-to-peer (P2P0 lending platform for local and rural businesses, announced on Monday it has now lent £200 million, providing a valuable source of capital to hundreds of local businesses across the UK. According to the online lending, this milestone demonstrates the strong demand… Read More

March 5, 2018 @ 12:01 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Maliyya, a Dubai-based fintech company engaged in the development of a P2P lending and borrowing platform, announced on Monday it secured $1.3 million during its latest seed funding round, which was led by Ground1 Ventures, a private investment firm based out of UK.  Founded in 2016, Maliyya… Read More

March 5, 2018 @ 9:47 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Elevate Credit, Inc. (Elevate), a tech-enabled provider of innovative and responsible online credit solutions for non-prime consumers, announced on Monday its customers have saved more than $3 billion to date, versus what they would have paid for payday loans. $1.3 billion was saved in 2017… Read More

March 5, 2018 @ 7:38 am By JD Alois  |  

BondMason, a direct lending service for investors that focuses on peer to peer lending opportunities, has released a note on recent actions in the SIPP space (Self Invested Pension Plans). Stephen Findlay, CEO of BondMason, says that SIPP administrators are right to tread carefully when reviewing… Read More

March 4, 2018 @ 6:35 pm By JD Alois  |  

    The very first initial coin offering (ICO) took place in June of 2013 when Mastercoin raised around $5 million in Bitcoin. That was the same year that Title II of the JOBS Act launched allowing general solicitation (SEC lingo for advertising) under Regulation… Read More

March 2, 2018 @ 10:41 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

UK-based equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube announced this week that during its seventh birthday celebration, it revealed the winners of its 2017 annual awards. As previously reported, the Crowdcube Annual Awards celebrate the best of British Entrepreneurship, showcasing a range of fantastic companies that hail from a… Read More

March 1, 2018 @ 10:15 pm By JD Alois  |  

The French Crowdfunding Association (Financement Participatif or FPF) has asked the French authorities to increase the investment crowdfunding cap to €8 million. Today platforms may raise up to €2.5 million (a bit over USD$ 3million), a level that has been deemed far too low. When crowdfunding rules… Read More