General News

April 12, 2021 @ 10:39 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Just six months into its launch, Maybank SME Digital Financing has reportedly cleared RM1 billion (appr. $240 million) worth of financing, serving over 8,200 SMEs, of which around 85% or 6,950 are startups and micro-enterprises based in Malaysia. Maybank stated that all applications that were… Read More

April 12, 2021 @ 3:23 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

  Talon Cyber Security, an Israel-based cybersecurity solutions provider, announced on Monday it raised $26 million through its Seed funding round, which included participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Team8, and Zohar Zisapel. Founded earlier this year by Ofer Ben-Noon and Ohad Bobrov, Talon Cyber Security… Read More

April 10, 2021 @ 8:13 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Ping An OneConnect Bank (PAOB) recently revealed that it has teamed up with JETCO in order to provide cardless ATM withdrawal services. PAOB clients will now have the option to make cash withdrawals from over 1,700 JETCO ATM machines based in Hong Kong. Customers may… Read More

April 8, 2021 @ 11:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Axiata Group and Telenor Asia revealed on Thursday (April 8, 2021) that they’ve revisted and confirmed their merger plans involving Celcom and Digi. At present, the deal is in advanced discussions. Malaysian telecoms company Axiata Group Bhd and Norway-based Telenor ASA will be focused on… Read More

April 8, 2021 @ 6:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Billionaire Mark Cuban-backed Nifty’s has reportedly hired Olta Andoni, an NFT copyright legal expert as its new Chief Legal Officer. Andoni will notably be the first CLO of the nascent non-fungible token or NFT-focused social media platform. Nifty’s is a fairly new online network for… Read More

April 8, 2021 @ 8:22 am By JD Alois  |  

Publicly traded VC firm Draper Esprit (LSE: GROW, Euronext Growth: GRW), has distributed an update on recent developments in its portfolio in advance of full year reporting for the year. Draper noted that it will provide a full year trading update on April 26, 2021,… Read More

April 8, 2021 @ 1:17 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Madrid-based Allfunds, a B2B Wealthtech solution provider, will reportedy be listing on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange. Allfunds has developed a comprehensive ecosystem that aims to cover the complete fund distribution value chain and related investment cycles, including through Allfunds Connect, which is a suite… Read More

April 7, 2021 @ 10:35 pm By JD Alois  |  

On April 1, 2021, the German Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) posted an update on “electronic trust services” in regards to video identification. Pointing to this update, IDNow said the decision to allow AI (artificial intelligence) based identification methods for new use cases in Germany is… Read More

April 7, 2021 @ 11:20 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Clubhouse will reportedly be adding a payments option that’s meant to generate more revenue for creators. The company also revealed that it could launch other initiatives in the foreseeable future. The move to add the new payments feature has come at a time when several… Read More

April 7, 2021 @ 9:43 am By JD Alois  |  

JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) is out with its annual report today and opening up the document is a letter from JPM CEO Jamie Dimon. The annual missive has emerged as the most widely read “dear shareholder” letter in the financial services sector as Dimon is broadly… Read More

April 7, 2021 @ 8:23 am By Omar Faridi  |  

ABN Amro (AMS:ABN), a Dutch bank with headquarters in Amsterdam, and Rabobank, a Dutch multinational banking and financial services group, are reportedly working with research platform TNO in order to test technology that allows banking institutions to share data that’s used for identifying financial crime… Read More

April 7, 2021 @ 1:42 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Dominik Schiener, Co-founder at IOTA, which claims it has “re-engineered the principles” of existing distributed ledger technology (DLT) to offer a fee-less, open-source, secure data and financial exchange protocol, has revealed that one of the biggest upgrades in IOTA’s history is “right in front of us.”… Read More

April 6, 2021 @ 10:27 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Singapore-headquartered neo-banking platform StashFin has finalized a Series B extension equity financing valued at $40 million from several international investors. New investors taking part in StashFin‘s investment round included Altara Ventures and Uncorrelated Ventures along with contributions from investors such as Integrated Capital, Kravis Investment… Read More

April 6, 2021 @ 9:25 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The team at Security Token Market (STM), which is focused on the fast-evolving blockchain-enabled security tokens space, has published their monthly report. The report reveals that the total security token market cap (as tracked by stomarket.com) stood at  $613,442,470. The market cap monthly change was… Read More

April 6, 2021 @ 1:00 am By JD Alois  |  

The Recovery Loan Scheme is now open for application. Administered by the British Business Bank, this is a new scheme to support access to finance for UK businesses as they turn the corner on the COVID-19 health crisis. The scheme, announced at the Budget on… Read More

April 5, 2021 @ 8:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

BNPL Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM) notes that US consumers happen to agree that the best or ideal surprise in life is “randomly finding money in your pocket or on the street closely followed by getting a tax refund, no matter the amount.” As mentioned in a recent… Read More

April 5, 2021 @ 12:25 pm By JD Alois  |  

PeerIQ, a data house for online lending platforms, reports that consumer bankruptcy filings fell sharply last year. PeerIQ notes that filings under chapter 7 were down 22%, while those under chapter 13 were down 46%. Certain government programs have helped to mitigate bankruptcies as well… Read More

April 3, 2021 @ 8:34 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The team at UK-based Blend Network, an online P2P lender, notes that after a “short-lived” slowdown, the United Kingdom annual house price growth managed to recover with “renewed vigor” in February 2021. Blend Network writes in a blog post that January 2021 saw price growth… Read More

April 3, 2021 @ 4:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

In 2020, over €400 million was invested into securities offerings in Germany via crowd investing or investment crowdfunding platforms according to research by Crowdinvest.de augmented by data from Bundesverband Crowdfunding (the German crowdfunding association). The first quarter of 2021 saw approximately €100 million. According to… Read More

April 2, 2021 @ 2:24 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Wealth management tech platform Addepar published a blog post on March 31, 2021, noting that it was Women’s History Month, when they look forward to celebrating the impressive accomplishments of women in “every avenue of business, government and our communities.” At Addepar, they feel privileged… Read More