Investment Platforms and Marketplaces

March 21, 2016 @ 9:32 am By JD Alois  |  

The founder and CEO of Staffcare, Phil Hollingdale, has joined the Advisory Board of Neyber, a provider of financial employee benefits. Neyber co-founder and chief strategy officer, Monica Kalia, commented on the appointment; “I’m delighted that Phil has decided to join Neyber’s Advisory Board. With… Read More

March 21, 2016 @ 8:31 am By JD Alois  |  

FundedHere, an equity and debt based crowdfunding platform, has claimed the title of “First” as it has received a Capital Markets Services (CMS) license on March 18, 2016 to operate by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The license allows FundedHere to deal in securities… Read More

March 18, 2016 @ 9:55 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Thursday, online marketplace lender LoanHero announced that its co-founder and president, Derek Barclay, has been selected as a new board of directors member of San Diego Venture Group (SDVG). SDVG is a non-profit organization that has a mission to provide a networking forum for its 800… Read More

March 18, 2016 @ 9:22 am By JD Alois  |  

  Crowd2Fund has just revealed it is going global. According to information provided by the crowdfunding platform, Crowd2Fund has opened its platform to investors in 163 different countries to create accounts and invest in UK SMEs.  Crowd2Fund is an FCA regulated platform that offers both… Read More

March 18, 2016 @ 8:46 am By JD Alois  |  

There has been a lot of chatter regarding the numerous announcements by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and his budget presentation to parliament this week.  One of the areas that received a government update is the structure of the ISA.  As many people understand, in… Read More

March 17, 2016 @ 2:07 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

CEO and co-founder of Kickstarter, Yancey Strickler, announced on Thursday that the crowdfunding platform has officially acquired artist community website, Drip. This has been named Kickstarter’s first acquisition. Drip is described as a curated platform that gives creators and communities a place to interact through… Read More

March 17, 2016 @ 9:35 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Thursday, Argentina-based peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, Afluenta, announced it has secured a total of $8 million during its recent Series B funding round. Funds raised from the round were from International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Elevar Equity (each invested $4 million). Afluenta previously stated that… Read More

March 17, 2016 @ 9:20 am By JD Alois  |  

Last month, Crowdfund Insider reported that Fundrise had terminated its CFO for allegations of extortion.  In a filing with the SEC, Fundrise CEO and founder Ben Miller stated; “I am saddened to have to inform you that an employee of our company has engaged in… Read More

March 17, 2016 @ 8:09 am By JD Alois  |  

Prêt d’Union, a leading peer to peer lender operating in France, is expected to expand operations into Italy soon. First reported by TechCrunch, Prêt d’Union apparently will operate under the brand “You United Credit”.  As TC points out, several domains (http://younited-credit.it) are registered under the name… Read More

March 17, 2016 @ 7:53 am By Erin Hobey  |  

After just 11 months of brewing Barcelona-based Garage Beer Co “maxed out” their brewery capacity. Jointly announced by Crowdcube Spain MD Pepe Borrell and Garage Beer’s website, the brewer is in the works to build a bigger plant and is looking to the crowd —… Read More

March 17, 2016 @ 6:53 am By Erin Hobey  |  

In late December, retail giant Overstock, a publicly traded company managed by maverick CEO Patrick Byrne, received SEC approval to regarding a plan to issues shares using Bitcoin Blockchain.  According to a filing with the SEC, the use of the “technology and distributed ledger technology by the Pro… Read More

March 17, 2016 @ 5:48 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Top banking executives fear that up to a quarter of their business could be at risk from emerging fintech firms, according to research conducted by PwC.  The report notes that information on FinTech is somewhat “dispersed and obscure,” which can make data synthesizing challenging. PwC’s… Read More

March 16, 2016 @ 10:18 pm By JD Alois  |  

Funding Options, a one-stop shop for SME finance, has been recommended for designation for the Bank Referral Scheme. Funding Options is a portfolio company of GLI Finance, an AIM listed company that controls multiple alternative finance platforms. In the Budget revealed earlier today, the Chancellor… Read More

March 16, 2016 @ 3:18 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Real estate crowdfunding platform, Sharestates, announced it has passed the $100 million in raised capital mark. As previously reported, Sharestates is a investment platform that allows investors to participate in  pre-vetted real estate projects. Sharestates sources and qualifies potential opportunities and offers securities to accredited investors… Read More

March 16, 2016 @ 2:09 pm By JD Alois  |  

In a pretty big win for the real estate crowdfunding platform iFunding, the lawsuit filed against it by CapStack Partners was “discontinued with prejudice in all respects” yesterday. Crowdfund Insider reported in January that CapStack Partners had filed a grievance with the Supreme Court of… Read More

March 16, 2016 @ 12:22 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Continuing the search for the next PledgeMe board member, co-founder of the crowdfunding platform, Anna Guenther, unveiled some pretty good advice on how other businesses can attract more members to their business. PledgeMe started searching for a new board member after Anake Goodall stepped down from… Read More

March 16, 2016 @ 10:21 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Funding Circle, a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, announced this week that it has dedicated an entire floor of its London office to startups and small businesses. This news comes nearly six months after the company moved into 71 Queen Victoria Street in Mansion House. During… Read More

March 16, 2016 @ 9:21 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

CrowdStreet, a real estate crowdfunding platform, investor acquisition and management platform , announced on Wednesday it has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding. This round was led by Rally Ventures with participation from various seed investors including Green Visor Capital, Seven Peaks Ventures and Portland… Read More

March 16, 2016 @ 7:44 am By JD Alois  |  

The Funding Circle SME Fund was listed on the London Stock Exchange in the fall of 2015 having raised £150 million. The permanent capital vehicle is now lending to small business in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.  The fund had previously commenced lending to UK… Read More

March 16, 2016 @ 7:34 am By JD Alois  |  

Direct lender DealStruck has increased the amount of money available for companies seeking invoice financing. The online lending platform will now offer up to $500,000 secured by outstanding invoices.  Previously the online lender capped the amount at $250,000. DealStruck described the service as targeting B2B… Read More