Investment Platforms and Marketplaces

December 4, 2014 @ 7:49 am By JD Alois  |  

The newly formed London Co-Investment Fund (LCIF), along with six co-investment partners, have committed to invest over £80 million from 2014 to 2017.  Announced today, LCIF intends on funding over 150 science and tech/digital companies based in London that are committed to growth and job… Read More

December 3, 2014 @ 11:59 pm By JD Alois  |  

Australia recently encountered a bit of a regulatory stumble as CAMAC proposed rules for a new approach on investment crowdfunding that was widely denounced as “totally unworkable”.  One of the godfathers of equity crowdfunding himself, Paul Niederer, did not mince words as he lambasted regulators… Read More

December 3, 2014 @ 11:07 pm By JD Alois  |  

Landbay, a peer to peer lending platform that targets “buy to let” mortgages has gone quickly from crowdfunding success on Seedrs to established platform.  Last month Landbay joined the UK Peer to Peer Finance Association (P2PFA) a membership that is viewed as a seal of… Read More

December 3, 2014 @ 10:46 pm By JD Alois  |  

SocietyOne, described as Australia’s first and largest peer to peer lending platform, has announced a successful Series B funding round backed by a consortium of big name Australian investors including News Corp. Australia, Consolidated Press Holdings and Australian Capital Equity.  The big name investors include… Read More

December 3, 2014 @ 7:05 pm By JD Alois  |  

New peer lending platform Borrowell, has announced a significant seed funding round, plus loan commitments, in the amount of $5.4 million.  The Canadian company received funding from key strategic investors including Equitable Bank, Oakwest Corporation Limited along with high profile individual investors including Roger Martin,… Read More

December 3, 2014 @ 2:30 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

After reading Orchard Platform’s Bill Ullman elegantly deliberated “Is Fin-Tech History Rhyming Again?” on the platform’s blog last week and prepared for Thanksgiving, I wondered how the early days of online trading revisit fintech and crowdfunding disruption innovation.  While prepping for last week’s feast, I… Read More

December 3, 2014 @ 9:04 am By JD Alois  |  

Real estate crowdfunding platform Realty Mogul, is opening a San Francisco office to better serve investors and real estate companies based in the booming bay area property market. The new office will welcome two real estate professionals, Brian Esquivel and Bryan Schultz, both with deep experience in… Read More

December 3, 2014 @ 8:43 am By JD Alois  |  

JD.com is moving quickly to leverage their new crowdfunding platform initially titled  “Coufenzi” by signing an agreement to partner with Grameen China, a non-profit and non-governmental group dedicated to eliminating poverty.  JD Crowdfunding will be used to raise money to establish “ground operations” and then… Read More

December 2, 2014 @ 4:24 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Real estate crowdfunding platform, Fundrise, has teamed up with GlobeSt.com to release a document that highlights the ins and outs of commercial real estate crowdfunding. The presentation, which is titled, Why the Future of Real Estate Fundraising is Online: How Crowdfunding is Changing Capital Sourcing, gives readers a… Read More

December 2, 2014 @ 12:11 pm By JD Alois  |  

Kiva continues to roll through the major metropolitan areas across the US, partnering with municipalities as they fire up their microloan business.  Philadelphia is the next city on the list.  Kiva announced today their crowdfunded microloans are now available in the city of brotherly love…. Read More

December 2, 2014 @ 11:13 am By Erin Hobey  |  

OurCrowd, the leading global equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors, will bring together 36 of its innovative portfolio companies to meet with over 600 investors and executives from 17 countries in the largest global gathering of its kind during its OurCrowd Global Investor Summit which opens… Read More

December 2, 2014 @ 11:12 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

With crowdfunding scams continuing to be on the rise, global giant Indiegogo announced it is offering an optional insurance free that will help ease backer worries for future projects. According to TechCrunch, Indiegogo’s new feature will provide a refund if backers do not receive the… Read More

December 2, 2014 @ 10:11 am By JD Alois  |  

There is definitely something to be said for being at the right place, at the right time, and for Orchard this is certainly the case.  Now this is not to say the creation of Orchard is totally serendipitous because this is a company that has… Read More

December 2, 2014 @ 9:40 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

RallyUp, a crowdfunding platform that helps nonprofits take their fundraising efforts online, is honoring #GivingTuesday 2014 by waiving their normal service fees. Through the end of December, RallyUp is offering access to its entire fundraising platform for $0.99 per contribution to organizations that use the promo code GT2014…. Read More

December 2, 2014 @ 8:09 am By JD Alois  |  

Real estate crowdfunding portal iFunding is going to the crowd to raise capital for its young platform.  iFunding has launched an equity crowdfunding round on Crowdfunder to raise up to $2 million.  The minimum raise is for $1 million.  Individual investors may participate beginning at $10,000…. Read More

December 2, 2014 @ 7:39 am By JD Alois  |  

Switzerland may be the next country to jump into the real estate crowdfunding boom.  According to the site operators Swiss-Crowd is scheduled to launch their platform in late December.  Swiss-Crowd is owned and operated by Lugano based Abacus International, a company operated by Augusto Vecchi…. Read More

December 1, 2014 @ 3:31 pm By JD Alois  |  

Peer to peer lending platform Zopa has signed an agreement with Flow to provide financing to Flow customers.  Flow is a company that has been developing and commercialising alternative energy products for about a decade.  One of those products is the Flow Boiler.  The product is described as an… Read More

December 1, 2014 @ 2:20 pm By JD Alois  |  

Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Pony Ma, founder of Tencent Holding have purchased shares in large China insurer Ping An.  According to a report in the FT (subscription), the pair participated in a private placement by Ping An where the company raised $4.7 billion this past… Read More

December 1, 2014 @ 12:52 pm By JD Alois  |  

In an amended S1 filing today, Lending Club revealed the proposed maximum offering price per share, along with the aggregate offering amount.  The document filed with the SEC indicates 57,700,000 shares may be sold at a price of up to $12 / share.  The prospectus… Read More

December 1, 2014 @ 11:48 am By JD Alois  |  

The Crowdcube Accelerator held its pitch event this past week and 5 companies told their story to a “packed room of investors” hoping to drive investment in their companies. The 5 companies went live on the investment crowdfunding platform minutes before the pitch.  According to… Read More