Featured Headlines

January 17, 2019 @ 3:47 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last month, CI covered the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) Americas Report. Overall, alternative finance grew 26% with the US dominating the sector as the largest market in the region. But digging into Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), this market grew by a huge 94%… Read More

January 16, 2019 @ 9:07 am By JD Alois  |  

MicroVentures, an equity crowdfunding platform, has just announced the elimination of all fees associated with issuers using Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF). MicroVentures says “gone are the days of high commissions and equity compensation for funding portals.” A quick visit to their site and you may… Read More

January 16, 2019 @ 8:40 am By JD Alois  |  

CI has recently covered two European reports on the emerging crypto-asset or digital asset marketplace. Both the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Banking Authority (EBA) have had their say on what the European Commission should do. A few days later, the European… Read More

January 15, 2019 @ 8:18 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last week, it was picked up by Crunchbase that Wefunder, a Reg CF crowdfunding portal, has closed on a $1.7 million Series A funding round. Depending exactly how you measure it, Wefunder is a top portal providing access to capital for mainly smaller firms. Wefunder… Read More

January 14, 2019 @ 9:48 pm By Anthony Zeoli  |  

While most people were busy with last minute Christmas shopping, on December 20th of last year, Representatives Warren Davidson and Darren Soto were busy finalizing and introducing the proposed new “Token Taxonomy Act” (HR 7356). The proposed Token Taxonomy Act seeks to modify both existing… Read More

January 13, 2019 @ 9:29 pm By Filipe Castro  |  

Are stablecoins the future of cryptoassets? In the quest to develop a digital token with the decentralization aspects of bitcoin and none of the associated volatility has sparked interest from many. From talented tech teams, economists and VCs it seems stablecoin projects have the potential… Read More

January 12, 2019 @ 9:02 pm By Xu Gao  |  

Tsinghua PBCSF Releases “2018 Global Insurtech Report by Subsector” Early this month, the China Insurance and Pension Research Center of the National Finance Research Institute of Tsinghua University released the “2018 Global Insurtech Report by Subsector“. The report provides case studies of Insurtech companies in… Read More

January 11, 2019 @ 9:23 am By JD Alois  |  

US Marketplace HBUS Rebrands to Huobi Matching Asian Platform HBUS, the US strategic partner of digital asset platform Huobi Group, has rebranded its retail trading marketplace to Huobi thus matching the Asian platform. The flagship operation Huobi Global will continue to operate under the same… Read More

January 10, 2019 @ 10:23 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last month, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) published their annual report on alternative finance covering the Americas. “Reaching New Heights” covered online alternative finance data in North, South, and Central America as well as the Caribbean. CI wrote about the report when it first came… Read More

January 9, 2019 @ 6:54 pm By Richard van Hooijdonk  |  

Technology has infiltrated our lives, and the wave of digital disruption has impacted various industries. The finance sector is no exception. Since the industry is becoming more complex, relying on traditional methods is no longer enough. In fact, it can do your business more harm… Read More

January 8, 2019 @ 2:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Fintech Predictions for 2019. Financial innovation continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Startups launch and shutdown with regularity. Traditional financial firms experiment and partner with more agile firms. It’s all about the digitization of finance where services are ubiquitous and instantaneous – all available… Read More

January 7, 2019 @ 6:00 pm By Lorna Smith  |  

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are booming in offshore financial centres. In 2017, only a small minority of cryptocurrency transactions were taking place offshore but just a year later, according to a study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and CryptoValley, the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Singapore… Read More

January 6, 2019 @ 5:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Reg CF (or Regulation Crowdfunding as it is inconveniently called) is a securities exemption that enables companies to raise up to $1.07 million online via a regulated funding portal or broker-dealer. The concept of a funding portal was created alongside the exemption which was part… Read More

January 5, 2019 @ 4:20 pm By JD Alois  |  

Lithuania wants to be the leading Fintech hub in Europe. Beginning in 2013, the small Baltic nation decided to take action and become one of the EU’s “hottest destinations for Fintech.” Mantas Katinas, MD of Invest Lithuania – the public entity leading the Fintech charge in… Read More

January 5, 2019 @ 9:10 am By JD Alois  |  

PeerStreet, a real estate crowdfunding platform that has crafted an interesting niche that pairs retail investors with institutional money, has posted an update on 2018 performance. PeerStreet, having funded $1 billion in debt based financing during 2018 has now topped $1.7 billion in real estate… Read More

January 4, 2019 @ 3:30 pm By JD Alois  |  

On December 24th, the French Government issued a decree (Décret n°2018-1226 du 24 décembre 2018) outlining the utilization of blockchain for securities. Specifically, for the “use of a shared electronic recording device for the representation and transmission of financial securities and for the issue and sale… Read More

January 3, 2019 @ 10:09 pm By JD Alois  |  

Fintech, or financial innovation, is pervasive within the financial services industry. Innovation has always existed in this sector of business but the advent of the internet combined with the creativity of risk taking entrepreneurs has engendered an accelerated period of disruptive change in finance. Think about… Read More

January 2, 2019 @ 11:06 am By Timothy Li  |  

As we head into a market correction, 2019 and beyond will be very interesting for the evolving Fintech industry. This sector of finance saw significant M&A activity and massive fundraising during the 2nd half of 2018 and I predict that we will see more of… Read More

December 31, 2018 @ 7:00 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

As the year comes to a close, let’s get the scoop on Cryptocurrency predictions for 2019! Crowdfund Insider reached out to the Fintech and crypto community for its thoughts on how the sector will change during the next year. What disruptions, innovations, regulation, and partnerships can… Read More

December 31, 2018 @ 10:25 am By JD Alois  |  

In a blog post, UK crowdfunding platform Seedrs shared that it has now topped £500 million in investment crowdfunding. The money has been raised for 720 deals that have been successfully funded since the platform launched. Seedrs co-founder and Executive Chairman Jeff Lynn stated: “It’s… Read More