Investment Platforms and Marketplaces

September 29, 2016 @ 1:35 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Wednesday, crowdfunding platform for music, PledgeMusic, announced it has officially finalized its acquisition of Set.fm and has appointed founder and CEO of Set.Fm, Matt Peterson, as its Austin general manager.  Peterson will be reporting to PledgeMusic’s CEO Dominic Pandiscia. Launched in 2012 by Peterson, Set.fm allows… Read More

September 29, 2016 @ 12:30 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Fig Publishing, Inc., a crowdfunding and publishing platform that allows non-accredited investors to financially support video game development and publishing, announced on Thursday it secured SEC qualification to issue Double Fine’s Psychonauts 2 game shares. Fig stated it would be the first and only company to allow fans… Read More

September 29, 2016 @ 10:00 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Wednesday, Kickstarter announced it was set to present The Future Fablab, which is described as a collection of machines that turn digital dreams into physical reality, at World Maker Faire 2016 at the New York Hall of Science this weekend (October 1st and 2nd)…. Read More

September 29, 2016 @ 8:50 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Since Monday morning, ICONOMI, the globally licensed and regulated bitcoin exchange, has quickly raised an additional $3 million through its “ICO” (Initial Coin Offering) after the “uberized fund management” platform raised to its approximately $5.8 million raised in the campaign’s first month. As of this writing, ICONOMI has now eclipsed… Read More

September 29, 2016 @ 7:46 am By Erin Hobey  |  

This month the Spanish financial regulator Securities Exchange Commission (CNMV)  authorized MytripleA as a Platform for Participatory Financing, the formal name for a crowdlending platform. This is one of the first actions to implement Law 5/2015 Promotion of Corporate Financing. “Alternative financing is growing rapidly in… Read More

September 28, 2016 @ 4:11 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Wednesday, RealtyShares announced it financed a $500,000 preferred equity investment to fund the acquisition and rehabilitation of a 22-unit multi-family property in the San Francisco Bay Area called Greenleaf Apartments. The real estate crowdfunding platform reported that the project is being sponsored by Tesseract Capital… Read More

September 28, 2016 @ 11:54 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Yirendai (NYSE:YRD), the publicly traded offshoot of huge P2P lender CreditEase, announced on Tuesday it has been named an inaugural member of the Internet Financial Industry Information Sharing Platform(IFIISP). According to the company, the IFIISP was launched by China Internet Finance Association (CIFA) and aims to… Read More

September 28, 2016 @ 10:51 am By JD Alois  |  

Dubai based Eureeca, a global investment crowdfunding platform, has officially opened its European hub with an office in the Netherlands.  FCA regulated Eureeca is seeking to expand its services and investment offerings across Europe. The company, which offers a digital marketplace for early stage entrepreneurs to… Read More

September 28, 2016 @ 8:21 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Centaur Analytics, a Greece-based AgTech IoT startup that provides real-time stored agriproducts monitoring and protection solutions, announced on Wednesday it has raised $1.3 million during a recent funding round, which was led by seed-stage venture fund OurCrowd First. The company stated the funds will be used… Read More

September 28, 2016 @ 7:42 am By Erin Hobey  |  

The Best German Tourism Startup winner of 2015 by Verband Internet Reisevertrieb, Beach-Inspector records and digitizes beaches worldwide and makes the images available online to travelers.  The platform launched its crowdfunding campaign with Companisto yesterday, already bringing in more than 113,070€ from over 130 investors… Read More

September 27, 2016 @ 3:55 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Tuesday, Minnesota-based software company, SportsEngine, announced it has acquired RallyMe, a crowdfunding platform that dedicated to sports. The funding portal has notably helped athletes, teams, and national governing bodies raise the funds needed for various sports and events. Sharing details about the acquisition, Justin Kaufenberg,… Read More

September 27, 2016 @ 1:50 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Tuesday, OnDeck (NYSE: ONDK) announced it has teamed up with real estate entrepreneur and Shark Tank judge, Barbara Corcoran, for its new national marketing campaign.  The online lender stated that starting October, Corcoran will be featured in television and radio commercials and customer communications emphasizing OnDeck’s unique ability to… Read More

September 27, 2016 @ 10:19 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Able Lending, a low-cost online lender in the nation for small businesses, announced on Tuesday it secured $100 million in debt financing from Community Investment Management (“CIM”). The company announced the funds would be used to make more low-cost loans towards growing small businesses. The Able Lending team… Read More

September 27, 2016 @ 9:30 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Tuesday, Duke Energy announced it has teamed up with DonorsChoose for a new classroom crowdfunding challenge. The company is set to match up to $200,000 to help Ohio and Kentucky teachers bring STEM projects (science, technology, engineering, and math) to the classrooms. Sharing details about… Read More

September 27, 2016 @ 8:13 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

StartEngine, one of the leading investment crowdfunding platforms in the U.S., announced the launch of its innovative investor referral competition, Refer And Earn. Starting today (September 27th), the first person to refer the most investors who join the website by December 31st will win a grand… Read More

September 27, 2016 @ 7:40 am By JD Alois  |  

Investment crowdfunding platform SeedInvest is now making it super simple to create a highly diversified portfolio of early stage investments. In an email to site users, CEO and cofounder Ryan Feit explained the new feature; “We are excited to announce the launch of SeedInvest Automated Investing. We… Read More

September 26, 2016 @ 5:19 pm By JD Alois  |  

Lending Club (NYSE:LC) has been on a steady pace rebuilding its executive bench.  Today, the largest marketplace lending platform in the US has announced a new General Counsel. Russell Elmer has been named as the new GC replacing Jason Altieri who has been Lending Club’s… Read More

September 26, 2016 @ 1:51 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Bondora, a European peer to peer lender based in Estonia, announced last week the launch of its own refer-a-friend offer. The company stated users may now earn an extra income by introducing their friends to its website. The Bondora team stated anyone who joins with a… Read More

September 26, 2016 @ 11:18 am By JD Alois  |  

In explaining how they are different, Folk2Folk, an up and coming peer to peer lender explains they are “resetting the values around lending money.” While embracing technology that facilitates the lending process, Folk2Folk maintains numerous brick and mortar locations as they believe in dealing with… Read More

September 26, 2016 @ 11:13 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Monday, co-founder and CEO of Kickstarter, Yancey Strickler, announced the official launch of the funding portal’s new project, The Creative Independent.  As previously reported, The Creative Independent is described as a “growing” archive of the creative processes and is on a mission to help… Read More