Featured Headlines

February 20, 2019 @ 8:13 am By Helena Murphy  |  

The world of business equity raising is still dominated by men. Melinda Gates wrote in ReCode back in 2017:  “We like to think that venture capital is driven by the power of good ideas. But by the numbers, it’s men who have the keys.”  Gates argued that… Read More

February 18, 2019 @ 8:00 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Today the direct real estate investment platform Groundfloor launched an online public offering enabling any Groundfloor account holder to purchase stock directly from the company. The platform indicated that the online public offering aims to “level the cap table” so members of the public can own… Read More

February 18, 2019 @ 8:01 am By JD Alois  |  

Bafin, Germany’s securities regulator, has given the green light to Bitbond to issue digital bonds. Bitbond is an online lending platform that operates globally. In business since 2013, Bitbond provides access to capital for small businesses. The Fintech boasts a peer to peer lending network… Read More

February 17, 2019 @ 8:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Tokenise is a trading name of Kession Capital Limited, a company registered in the UK and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA is well known for being Fintech innovationtion friendly. In fact, a recent cohort of their regulatory Sandbox included multiple blockchain… Read More

February 16, 2019 @ 8:50 am By Xu Gao  |  

Beijing to Start to Test “Personal Credit Score” System On January 30th, the “Opinions on Strengthening the Management of Fine Urban Management” was officially announced. According to the document, Beijing will start to test a “Personal Credit Score” system to raise the awareness for integrity… Read More

February 15, 2019 @ 12:49 pm By JD Alois  |  

Hong Kong may have been slow to join the financial innovation party but what it may have lacked in early awareness has now been made up for in fostering a booming Fintech ecosystem. The private-public partnership that has fueled sector growth continues to drive interest… Read More

February 14, 2019 @ 9:01 pm By JD Alois  |  

Periodically, Crowdfund Insider reviews the status of Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) the smallest crowdfunding exemption in the US. Reg CF has been in use since May of 2016. According to a recent report published by Crowdfund Capital Advisors (CCA), $194 million has been raised in… Read More

February 13, 2019 @ 10:10 pm By JD Alois  |  

Democratizing capital for small business and citizen investors The mission of NC3 is to help move a significant portion of the estimated $65+ trillion that Americans have in long-term savings from Wall Street to local and social entrepreneurs, and to inspire similar shifts worldwide. We are… Read More

February 12, 2019 @ 9:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

The initial coin offering (ICO) industry has morphed into the security token offering (STO) industry. This sector shift is due largely to the recognition, alongside the many regulatory enforcement actions, that have compelled digital assets to become compliant within existing securities law. For all intents… Read More

February 12, 2019 @ 3:11 am By Erin Hobey  |  

According to Innovate Finance‘s new report 2018 FinTech VC Investment Landscape, investment in UK Fintech rose by 18% to $3.3 billion in 2018. Some additional highlights from the report include: Growth private equity investment rose 57% to $1.6 billion, while venture capital dipped to $1.7 billion… Read More

February 11, 2019 @ 9:00 pm By Michael B. Saryan and Charles S. Kaufman  |  

2017 saw a roaring ICO market, with billions of dollars raised by blockchain-based digital asset issuers selling “utility tokens” in initial coin offerings. As the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) began cracking down on token issuers for failing to follow securities laws, in late… Read More

February 11, 2019 @ 9:48 am By JD Alois  |  

Elevated Returns (ER) and Securitize claim they will tokenize $1 billion of real estate assets using the Tezos blockchain. Elevated Returns is the company behind the first tokenized real estate offering with the launch of Aspencoin last year. Securitize is a compliance platform for digitizing securities…. Read More

February 11, 2019 @ 8:58 am By Karsten Wenzlaff  |  

The European Parliament Elections are looming in May – and so far, there is no progress in sight regarding the European Crowdfunding Service Provider Regime. It remains unclear whether the Romanian Finance Minister TEODOROVICI will make the conclusion of the negotiation process a priority. The… Read More

February 10, 2019 @ 6:47 pm By JD Alois  |  

Baromètre du Crowdfunding en France 2018 Recently the French Crowdfunding Association (Financement Participatif France or FPF) published their annual report on alternative finance in France. The report, produced in partnership with KPMG, is now in its third year and provides an important snapshot of sector growth for online… Read More

February 8, 2019 @ 5:27 pm By Onki Kwan  |  

As I discussed in a previous article, in November 2018, the SEC staff  (the “Staff”) notified Kik Interactive Inc. and the Kin Foundation (collectively, “Kik”) that they would recommend that the SEC file an enforcement action against Kik for violating registration requirements of the securities… Read More

February 7, 2019 @ 12:26 pm By JD Alois  |  

The House Financial Services Committee is one of the most powerful Congressional committees on the Hill. The Committee oversees not only the entire financial services industry but its policy portfolio also includes other overlapping responsibilities such as Housing, entrepreneurship and international financial organizations. Last election… Read More

February 7, 2019 @ 2:17 am By Max Lyadvinsky  |  

A successful startup needs successful venture capital (VC) backing, right? Well, not always. The status quo of startup funding is beginning to shift as smaller, more nimble outfits backed by crowdfunding campaigns have proven that they, too, can reach stratospheric heights. Moreover, the founders of… Read More

February 6, 2019 @ 12:15 am By David V Duccini  |  

There’s a Fintech revolution happening in Minnesota. Since passing its own version of intrastate crowdfunding legislation in 2015 and quietly opening its doors in 2016 the state has taken the regional lead in raising more money for more businesses under its “MNvest” exemption as well… Read More

February 4, 2019 @ 12:00 pm By Onki Kwan  |  

Kik Interactive Inc. (“Kik”), a company based in Canada, raised close to $100 million selling Kin tokens during the initial coin offering (ICO) boom of 2017, making it one of the most successful ICOs. It first sold tokens to accredited investors through a SAFT (Simple… Read More

February 4, 2019 @ 10:20 am By JD Alois  |  

Cutting the Red Tape. We elect and appoint public officials to represent our best interests. Far too often, these policymakers take this mandate as a carte blanche to enact new laws and craft more rules. Unfortunately, this approach can be misguided as well-intentioned politicians and… Read More