Investment Platforms and Marketplaces

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

April 5, 2016 @ 11:26 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Tuesday, a small business financial technology platform, Biz2Credit, released its latest Small Business Lending Index, which revealed that loan approval rates at big banks and institutional lenders have hit new highs in March 2016. According to the report, big banks ($10 billion+ in assets) approved 23% of funding… Read More

April 5, 2016 @ 9:12 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Tuesday, South African crowdfunding platform, Thundafund, announced the launch of its new website, which will debut on Wednesday April 6th. According to the funding portal, the new website was build in Africa for Africa and will be easy-to-use and 100% mobile-responsive. The new site offers… Read More

April 5, 2016 @ 8:56 am By JD Alois  |  

Alternative finance provider Neyber has hired Heidi Allan to lead “insights and engagements” at the direct lending firm. Allan was previously vice president, proposition manager at Barclays where she participated in the delivery of thought leadership pieces including ‘Talking About My Generation’ and ‘Financial Well-being: The… Read More

April 5, 2016 @ 7:53 am By JD Alois  |  

While some of the larger peer to peer lending platforms have not yet announced FCA regulatory approval to offer an Innovative Finance ISA (IF ISA), Crowd2Fund is ready to go for tomorrow’s (April 6) launch of the updated savings vehicle. Crowd2Fund also announced the creation… Read More

April 4, 2016 @ 5:12 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Following the long search for PledgeMe’s new board member, CEO of the New Zealand crowdfunding platform, Anna Guenther, announced on Monday that it has appointed Jessica Venning-Bryan to the vacant spot. According to Guenther, Venning-Bryan has spent nearly 15 years advising organizations on how to engage… Read More

April 4, 2016 @ 3:13 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Monday, crowdfunding platform PledgeMe announced that its new feature, CrowdfundingU, is now registered under the Regional Business Partners Network. This network reportedly helps New Zealand businesses innovate and grow by making it easier to access early stage business support. CrowdfundingU offers a structured 6-week program… Read More

April 4, 2016 @ 2:15 pm By JD Alois  |  

Orchard Platform connects most of the established marketplace lending platforms to institutional investors via their virtual data pipes.  The company is at the epicenter of the online lending industry and recently held a gathering of many well-known lenders this past March. During their inaugural partner… Read More

April 4, 2016 @ 2:08 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

In celebration of this year’s #MuseumWeek, crowdfunding giant Kickstarter revealed its top eight most memorable collaboration it has done with various institutions throughout the world. The Kickstarter team shared: “In the nearly seven years we’ve spent helping new creative projects come into the world, we’ve seen… Read More

April 4, 2016 @ 11:57 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Taking time away from his duties at Indiegogo, co-founder of the site Slava Rubin sat down with Times of Israel to share details about the global crowdfunding platform and the funding method. Back in 2008, Rubin alongside other co-founders Danae Ringelmann, Eric Schell teamed up to launch… Read More

April 4, 2016 @ 9:23 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Monday, crowdfunding platform Crowdfunder UK announced that it has partnered with online marketplace, NotOnTheHighStreet to launch a search for UK’s future food and drink innovators. This partnership will provide food inventors, producers, and gastro aficionados with the opportunity to raise funds and also gain… Read More

April 2, 2016 @ 10:38 am By JD Alois  |  

Since originating its first loan in 2015, Lendix has grown quickly to become a dominant player in the online lending sector in France.  At the beginning of the year, Lendix had raised €11 million in loans to finance 57 SME projects. As of last week,… Read More

April 1, 2016 @ 2:34 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

This week, CEO of Seedrs, Jeff Lynn, sat down with The Memo to share details about the crowdfunding industry’s growth and his opinion on competitor, Crowdcube. During his interview, Jeff discussed Crowdcube: “I have a lot of respect for the way Crowdcube [has] done some things, they have… Read More

April 1, 2016 @ 1:42 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Friday, equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube announced it will be celebrating the opening of its new Manchester office on April 28th at 6:00 p.m. While sharing details about the event, the Crowdcube team stated: “We’re inviting you to come along and meet some of our… Read More

April 1, 2016 @ 10:32 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Friday, Chicago-based marketplace lending platform Avant announced it has appointed President of Washington College and former head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Sheila Bair as a new member of its board. Al Goldstein, co-founder and CEO of Avant, stated: “Sheila’s proven track… Read More

April 1, 2016 @ 7:34 am By JD Alois  |  

On the eve of the launch of the IF ISA, RateSetter has announced the appointment of two senior executives; Jim Gunner has joined the RateSetter board ad Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Risk Committee and Nigel Wilkinson is now Head of Commercial Credit. Both… Read More

March 31, 2016 @ 2:22 pm By JD Alois  |  

Leading equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube has announced surpassing £150 million (about $216 million) since launching in 2011.  According to a company report £83 million took place in 2015 alone representing a solid growth trajectory. The milestone was passed with the crowdfunding campaign of Vivobarefoot that… Read More

March 31, 2016 @ 11:38 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Thursday, global crowdfunding platform Indiegogo announced that it has appointed Joe Martin as Vice President of Engineering. Martin will be responsible for the company’s engineering team and will also lead in the development of new products/features. According to Indiegogo, Martin’s recent position was  Senior Director… Read More

March 31, 2016 @ 10:04 am By JD Alois  |  

Millennium Trust Company is a custody solution for IRAs, private funds and alternative assets with over 432,000 individual accounts and $17.4  billion in assets under custody. Lending Club is the largest marketplace lender in the US that offers individual investors the opportunity to generate respectable… Read More

March 31, 2016 @ 9:19 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

With crowdfunding continuing to grow in popularity, Indiegogo has unveiled ten reasons why entrepreneurs are making their way to its funding portal. The global crowdfunding website shared: “The Indiegogo community has explored the potential of crowdfunding and helped shape our platform into what it is… Read More