Featured Headlines

August 22, 2016 @ 5:40 pm By JD Alois  |  

  Oppo Ice cream is a bit like the Holy Grail of food: Ice cream that tastes great, is low calorie and is good for you.  The creation of two brothers, Charlie and Harry Thuillier, the duo were exposed to many different natural foods while… Read More

August 19, 2016 @ 2:57 pm By JD Alois  |  

  A few weeks back Crowdfund Insider published an article on the regulatory environment in Canada that labeled new crowdfunding securities exemptions as “Dead in the Water“.  In brief, regulators in multiple provinces have enacted rules that were ostensibly created to foster entrepreneurship and access… Read More

August 18, 2016 @ 1:55 am By JD Alois  |  

In Mumbai this week there was an annual banking conference where Indian government officials presented or participated. The Hindu interviewed Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor R Gandhi and he made several interesting statements. According to Gandhi; “Banking is necessary, but banks are not adding…… Read More

August 17, 2016 @ 7:23 pm By Nathan Rose  |  

  As part of an upcoming book on equity crowdfunding, I have asked past campaigns about their very best marketing tactics. They have used these exact strategies to raise millions of dollars, pounds and euros! In this article, I have distilled their advice into these… Read More

August 16, 2016 @ 9:53 pm By JD Alois  |  

United Overseas Bank (UOB) is determined not to be just an observer in the Fintech revolution. UOB has recently begun conducting training sessions with over 100 bankers to update and educate them on alternative finance.  UOB wants its management to be well-versed in the most… Read More

August 16, 2016 @ 5:17 pm By Amy Wan & Darren Marble  |  

I read an article in WIRED the other day about the LaFerrari, the world’s most coveted supercar, and one particular sentence stuck out. As writer Jordan Golson plainly stated, “When it comes to this car, you don’t choose Ferrari. Ferrari chooses you.” Well, ladies and… Read More

August 15, 2016 @ 2:35 pm By JD Alois  |  

In December of 2015 Fundrise, a trailblazer in the real estate crowdfunding sector, made a dramatic strategic shift. The platform decided to leverage Title IV of the JOBS Act, otherwise known as Reg A+, to create a fund of diversified real estate assets they labeled… Read More

August 15, 2016 @ 10:33 am By JD Alois  |  

In November of 2015, a group of well-known tech names banded together to create a new lobbying entity to lobby Capitol Hill on Fintech and financial regulations. Financial Innovation Now is a unique alliance of Apple, Google, Amazon, Intuit and Paypal joining in one specific… Read More

August 14, 2016 @ 7:31 pm By Amy Wan  |  

Within its first three months, Regulation Crowdfunding investor commitments for campaigns that have met their minimum funding goals have surpassed $5 million, as reported by NextGen Crowdfunding. Regulation Crowdfunding, also known as Title III or Reg CF for short, enables companies to raise up to… Read More

August 12, 2016 @ 8:34 am By Bret Conkin  |  

So you want to start a Crowdfunding Portal…. Crowdfunding and Fintech in general are demonstrating dramatic growth due to many factors including the growth of the sharing economy, technology innovations and the liberalization of securities regulations in the US and Canada. A sure indicator of… Read More

August 10, 2016 @ 10:47 pm By Scott Andersen & George S. Georgiades  |  

General solicitation is growing for securities offerings conducted under Rule 506(c) and Reg A+ Tier II in the US.  A more limited form of general solicitation is also available to issuers participating in offerings pursuant to Title III of the JOBS Act (Crowdfunding).  Issuers may… Read More

August 9, 2016 @ 10:20 pm By JD Alois  |  

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Chief Executive Andrew Bailey gave a Parliament Treasury Committee a crash course on Crowdfunding 101 this past June.  The letter by Bailey was recently posted on the Treasury Committee website, along with a statement from Andrew Tyrie MP, Chairman of the Committee,… Read More

August 9, 2016 @ 9:50 am By JD Alois  |  

“CMA Sticks to its Guns” The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published its final report on the UK retail banking sector. The government initiative has concluded that highstreet banks do not compete enough for customers’ business. Simultaneously, challenger banks find it difficult to compete… Read More

August 8, 2016 @ 4:23 pm By JD Alois  |  

There is another shocking change of leadership at Lending Club (NYSE:LC), the largest marketplace lending platform in the US. Longtime CFO Carrie Dolan has resigned her role as Chief Financial Officer in what must be a significant blow to the online lender.  Dolan joined the… Read More

August 8, 2016 @ 4:11 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last month it was reported that Skully, a company launched to create a super cool augmented reality motorcycle helmut, had jettisoned its founders as investors had enough of the lack of progress and mismanagement. Yesterday, TechCrunch reported that Skully is no more. While the very… Read More

August 8, 2016 @ 12:13 pm By JD Alois  |  

Orchard Marketplace is a platform that is uniquely positioned at the intersection of institutional money and online lending. If you are a large investor you are using Orchard to manage and access loans on all marketplace lending platforms. This perspective means that Orchard can easily… Read More

August 6, 2016 @ 6:08 pm By JD Alois  |  

Canaan Partners is a Silicon Valley VC firm that has over $4.0 billion under management with a good portion of their investments going into seed / early stage companies. They have also set up offices in Israel to be closer to the StartUp Nation phenomena… Read More

August 5, 2016 @ 11:46 am By JD Alois  |  

Earlier this week PwC (under the DeNovo label) published a wide-ranging report on the evolution of Fintech. The document was the production of many PwC executives covering topics like blockchain, payments, banking and the overall transformation of financial services. In one respect the report is… Read More

August 4, 2016 @ 10:21 am By JD Alois  |  

Equity for Punks Crosses the Atlantic and Invades the USA. BrewDog to Challenge “Archaic Financial Institutions.” BrewDog, Scotland’s largest independent brewer, has launched its US equity crowdfunding offer following years of success in raising capital from its consumers in the UK. BrewDog was founded in… Read More

August 4, 2016 @ 8:15 am By JD Alois  |  

  The Bank of England (BoE) has cut its benchmark rate by 0.25% – the first time in 7 years. The pound quickly moved lower reacting to the announcement. The move was telegraphed several weeks back in reaction to Brexit fallout. The interest rate cut… Read More