Investment Platforms and Marketplaces

April 11, 2016 @ 9:58 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Monday, mortgage marketplace, LendingHome, announced at LendIt 2016 that it has funded over $550 million in mortgage loans and grew loan originations six times in 2015 vs. 2014. LendingHome notably serves borrowers looking for financing to purchase or refinance residential real estate properties. At the same time, it serves… Read More

April 11, 2016 @ 9:04 am By JD Alois  |  

Equity crowdfunding platform Growthdeck is highlighting the importance of the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, two tax benefits to encourage individuals to invest in small companies.  In a company statement, Growthdeck said that the success of the UK’s crowdfunding industry has… Read More

April 11, 2016 @ 8:58 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Australian marketplace lender, DirectMoney (ASX:DM1), announced last week that there has been significant growth in new loan originations this past quarter, which ended on March 31st. DirectMoney revealed during the quarter $4.71 million of loans to 219 borrowers were settled, a 48% increase on the prior quarter…. Read More

April 11, 2016 @ 7:00 am By Erin Hobey  |  

LendKey, a leading fintech company in the lending ecosystem, announced today the successful underwriting, origination, and deployment of more than $1 billion in lender capital to borrowers.  Private student loan and student refinancing opportunities contributed the lion’s share of deployment to LendKey, as borrowers accessed… Read More

April 10, 2016 @ 8:02 pm By JD Alois  |  

Equity crowdfunding platform Wefunder took their message and mission of helping entrepreneurs raise needed funding on the road this past March. The Wefunder team crossed the lower 48 states by taking the train stopping along the way.  The journey took them far beyond the venture… Read More

April 8, 2016 @ 3:45 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Following the closing of Vivobarefoot’s highly successful Crowdcube initiative, founders of the UK shoe brand, Galahad Clark and Asher Clark, shared their frustration the equity crowdfunding platform had to block international investors from joining in. Galahad told Business Insider that Vivobarefoot missed out on thousands of pounds due to Crowdcube… Read More

April 8, 2016 @ 11:54 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

With the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival set to be held next week in New York City, Indiegogo announced that 10 of its funded films will be premiering at the annual event. Since launching in January of 2008 at Sundance Film Festival, Indiegogo has reportedly helped… Read More

April 8, 2016 @ 10:22 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

In response to Rebus being called the “biggest UK crowdfunding failure to date,” Crowdcube addressed the company’s failure on Friday. Back in February, Rebus, a company that raised over£816,790 on Crowdcube in 2015, announced that it was filing for bankruptcy.  According to data provided by Crowdcube, the company… Read More

April 7, 2016 @ 2:50 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Crowdfunder now provides unprecedented access — for both experienced institutional investors and everyday investors — to early-stage deals from many of Silicon Valley’s leading VC firms.  Crowdfunder has launched a VC Index Fund which co-invests with a select list of leading VCs (the Index), investing $100,000 per deal… Read More

April 7, 2016 @ 2:47 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Earlier this week, crowdfunding portal Indiegogo announced the winner of its 2016 Fellowship Program with partner Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP). The Indiegogo team revealed: “Congratulations to the winner of the Indiegogo Fellowship: Skye Von’s Falling Out Of Love! Instead of making yet another traditional music video, Falling Out… Read More

April 7, 2016 @ 11:20 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Since the inception of online lending, P2P platforms have had to rely on outdated Self-Directed IRA (“SDIRA”) paper-based processes and infrastructure.  P2P platforms have grown increasingly frustrated in their inability to offer retail customers a simple and cost-effective way to purchase notes using 401(k) and… Read More

April 7, 2016 @ 11:00 am By JD Alois  |  

LendingRobot, an online automated investment tool helping investors manage their portfolio of assets from Lending Club, Funding Circle and Prosper, has launched a new mobile application. The Seattle based company states there have been over $6 billion in loans and yet not a dedicated mobile… Read More

April 7, 2016 @ 10:57 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Groundfloor,a real estate crowdfunding platform based in Atlanta, Georgia, announced on Thursday it has reduced its loan interest rates by 10 to 50 basis points. According to the funding portal, the loan rates will now start at 5.9 percent for “fix-and-flip” renovations. According to Groundfloor, investors… Read More

April 7, 2016 @ 9:41 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Thursday, global toy brand Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) announced it has teamed up with crowdfunding platform Indiegogo once again to launch its Gaming Lab Spring 2016 Next Great Game Challenge. As previously reported, Hasbro’s first crowdfunding gaming challenge with Indiegogo ran from August through… Read More

April 6, 2016 @ 11:27 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

PledgeMusic, a crowdfunding platform that’s dedicated to music, announced on Wednesday that it has appointed Dominic Pandiscia as its new CEO. This news nearly a month after the company acquired NoiseTrade & Set.fm. The company revealed that Pandiscia more than 20 years of experience in music and… Read More

April 6, 2016 @ 11:04 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Last week, Middle East peer-to-peer (P2P) liwwa announced that it has secured $2.3 million during a seed investment round, which was led by Silicon Badia with participation from by Bank al Etihad, DASH Ventures, and MENA Venture Investments (MVI). Established in 2012, Liwwa was incubated at Harvard’s Innovation Lab before… Read More

April 6, 2016 @ 9:40 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Peer to peer lender Folk2Folk announced on Wednesday that it has appointed law firms across the UK to its new national Legal Panel. The platform revealed details about the new panel earlier this year. According to Folk2Folk, a growing Legal Panel enables it to expand nationally… Read More

April 6, 2016 @ 9:27 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Wednesday, Kiva’s loan lender, Kiva Zip, announced that it has teamed up with ecommerce marketplace, Malena, to launch a crowdfunded order platform. The lender revealed how it works: Users invest in an entrepreneur or small business to fulfill an order of their products, and in return… Read More

April 5, 2016 @ 2:41 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

VendorMach, an SME vendor trust monitoring platform is one of the 10 companies selected to participate in Startupbootcamp Fintech Accelerator in NYC which includes banking partners such as Deutsche Bank, Santander, Rabobank and MasterCard and Thomson Reuters. The program offers insights on US fintech issues for the 2016 cohort… Read More

April 5, 2016 @ 12:09 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Last month, Seed&Spark, crowdfunding platform for independent films, announced it made direct distribution deal with cable and digital distributor, iN DEMAND. The portal hopes that the agreement will help expand its domestic distribution reach by 50%. Now, CEO and founder of Seed&Spark, Emily Best, is ready to… Read More