General News

April 8, 2020 @ 9:24 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Austria-based digital asset exchange Bitpanda announced on Wednesday its expansion plans as part of its first institutional investment, led by early-stage venture capital fund Speedinvest. The company reported that the undisclosed funding round amount will allow it to increase the number of available digital and… Read More

April 8, 2020 @ 9:07 am By JD Alois  |  

Last weekend, a campaign to aid early-stage UK firms, entitled Save Our Startups, was launched by a group of very high profile platforms, founders, investors, and advocacy groups. An Open Letter addressed to the PM was included and as of today over 4500 individuals have… Read More

April 7, 2020 @ 10:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Big Four auditing firm Pricewaterhousecoopers (PwC) reports that the majority of global digital asset fundraising and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals last year took place outside of the United States for the very first time. As noted in PwC’s report (released on April 6, 2020),… Read More

April 7, 2020 @ 5:06 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Global financial service platform Kabbage announced on Tuesday it has partnered with a technology-enabled bank and authorized lender of the Small Business Administration (SBA) to deliver billions of dollars of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to American small businesses. Kabbage claims its program has received more… Read More

April 7, 2020 @ 3:57 pm By JD Alois  |  

“We’ve seen a significant contraction in the market with a reduction of 30 to 40% in the demand for personal loans. It’s our view that the fall in demand is being driven by faltering consumer confidence due to job insecurity and economic uncertainty amongst other… Read More

April 7, 2020 @ 3:02 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

UK-headquartered Privitar, a data privacy company, has secured $80 million in funding through a Series C investment round led by Warburg Pincus. ABN Amro Ventures, the VC division of ABN Amro, the third-largest bank in the Netherlands, also took part in Privitar’s latest round. Accel,… Read More

April 7, 2020 @ 1:55 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Online lending platform Lendio announced on Tuesday it has formed a new partnership with cyber protection services platform Acronis to business capital to cyber protection service providers. According to Lendio, Acronis delivers backup, anti-ransomware, disaster recovery, storage and enterprise file sync, and share solutions to… Read More

April 7, 2020 @ 10:58 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Up is the latest digital banking service provider to slash its savings rates following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s recent cut to the nation’s official interest rates. The Melbourne-headquartered neobank has adjusted the maximum rate on its Saver Account. The new rate has been marked… Read More

April 7, 2020 @ 10:50 am By JD Alois  |  

Chatter continues to trickle in that the Payroll Protection Program is floundering a bit during the first few days of the initiative. The Payroll Protection Program (PPP) is part of the $2 trillion CARES Act – the bailout package addressing the COVID-19 onslaught. The PPP… Read More

April 7, 2020 @ 10:02 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA) announced on Monday it has concerns about the website “Profit Bitcoin” has the hallmarks of being a scam. The organization revealed it was made aware that the digital currency platform is advertising on Facebook by promoting false news about… Read More

April 7, 2020 @ 9:22 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Swiss multinational food and drink company Nestlé announced on Monday it is expanding the use of the IBM Food Trust Blockchain technology platform to its Zoégas coffee brand. Nestlé revealed that it started using blockchain in 2017 when it joined the IBM Food Trust as… Read More

April 7, 2020 @ 9:05 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Digital asset exchange Bitfinex announced on Tuesday it is offering a new Staking Rewards Program that will allow users to earn rewards by holding funds on the Bitfinex platform. The Bitfinex team revealed that the program was designed to provide users with “another avenue” to… Read More

April 7, 2020 @ 8:20 am By JD Alois  |  

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all UK businesses. But smaller firms and early-stage companies may end up bearing the brunt of the impact as these companies can be less well prepared to endure an ongoing economic shutdown. Today, the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA) is… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 5:16 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Xpension, a German digital corporate pension and life insurance brand, announced on Monday it secured €25 million through its Series C funding round, led by HPE Growth with participation from  Cinco Capital, led by Lars Hinrichs (Founder of XING and Chairman of Xpension), and Armada… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 2:52 pm By JD Alois  |  

The US Federal Reserve, the central bank of the US, will establish a facility to facilitate lending to small businesses via the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by providing term financing backed by PPP loans. The news was distributed in a very brief… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 2:10 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

HUMBL, a U.S. fintech that delivers mobile payments and financial services, announced on Monday it has teamed up with One Kiosk, a Nigeria fintech specializing in local merchant ordering and deliveries, to pilot the HUMBL Mobile Pay, HUMBL Point-of-Sale (POS) and HUMBL Hubs delivery network,… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 11:31 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Marketplace lending company Funding Circle (LSE: FCH) announced on Friday it launched a pre-application system for small business owners interested in funds from the Paycheck Protection Program, which is offered by the U.S. Department of Treasury and Small Business Administration (SBA). Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 11:14 am By JD Alois  |  

On March 10, 2020, the Bank of England, Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to reduce Bank Rate and to introduce a new Term Funding Scheme with additional incentives for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (TFSME). Today, the Bank is announcing that the TFSME will open for… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 10:42 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

UK-based fintech Chip announced on Monday it has appointed Philip Wright as its new CFO. Chip reported that prior to joining its team, Philip was the CFO at Auto Service Finance and Babylon Health. He also leadership roles at Funding Circle (Interim Financial Operations Director)… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 9:58 am By JD Alois  |  

Last week in advance of the opening up of federal subsidized programs to backstop small businesses in the US crushed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Lendio CEO Brock Blake took to Twitter to criticize the lack of coordination between the US Department of Treasury and the… Read More