General News

February 28, 2019 @ 3:12 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Hedera Hashgraph, a next-generation public ledger designed to have highly diversified governance and the most distributed consensus at scale, today announced it has named Brett McDowell as the Founding Executive Director and Vice Chair of the Hedera Hashgraph Governing Council.  Last week Hashgraph announced its first… Read More

February 27, 2019 @ 10:44 am By JD Alois  |  

The Online Lenders Alliance (OLA), a group that claims up to 80% of all online lending in the US, has published a report on industry fraud and abuse. The report, created in part by using a web crawler designed to “weed out” bad actors, has… Read More

February 26, 2019 @ 4:16 am By Erin Hobey  |  

FCA-regulated P2P lender Albrate has surpassed its initial £350,000 Crowdcube crowdfunding target, having secured over £456,325 for 1.72% equity from more than 166 investors. Ablrate aims to not just be a peer to peer lending platform but an “integrated deal financing platform for the alternative finance industry.” “Ablrate brings lenders… Read More

February 26, 2019 @ 3:29 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Less than one week into its Wefunder SAFE Future Equity crowdfunding campaign, Wefunder vet MySwimPro has freestyled past $250K from 70+ investors toward its $1,000,000 maximum target. In 2017 MySwimPro raised $280,629 from 164+ investors.  This new round of funding will enable MySwimPro to invest in growing… Read More

February 25, 2019 @ 7:16 am By JD Alois  |  

UK Finance has launched a national campaign encouraging small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to prepare for the potential changes as Brexit nears. Entitled “Let’s Talk Business,” the campaign is being supported by various organisations including the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), British Chambers of Commerce… Read More

February 22, 2019 @ 9:18 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Allianz X, the digital investment unit of the Allianz Group, announced earlier this week it has increased the size of its fund size to €1 billion. This news comes just after Allianz X received an investment from Allianz SE and the increase is claimed to be the… Read More

February 22, 2019 @ 12:09 pm By Cali Haan  |  

UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, was fined 4.5 billion Euros ($5.1 billion USD) Wednesday for “aggravated money-laundering of the proceeds of tax fraud” as well as “illegal bank soliciting” for its alleged role in helping wealthy French citizens avoid taxes, Associated Press reports. Five former UBS… Read More

February 22, 2019 @ 7:43 am By Cali Haan  |  

Close on the heels of Danske Bank being ordered out of Estonia this week for its alleged role in laundering funds totaling $234 billion USD for Ukrainian, Azerbaijani and Russian clients, Danske Bank has now announced it will be, “clos(ing) down its banking activities in… Read More

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 20, 2019 @ 7:31 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Naspers-owned PayU, an India-based online payments service provider, has appointed Anirban Mukherjee as its new Chief Executive Officer of PayU India. Mukherjee will report to PayU Global CEO Laurent Le Moal. As well as leading PayU’s Indian business, Mukherjee joins PayU’s global leadership team with… Read More

February 20, 2019 @ 7:01 am By Erin Hobey  |  

TrueAccord, an automated debt recovery platform, has partnered with Lenexa, Kansas for its new shared services operation, committed to investing $1.34 million with a plan to expand to over 150 professionals over the next three years across sales, operations and technology functions. “We chose the… Read More

February 19, 2019 @ 8:18 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Mambu, a Berlin-based fintech SaaS banking platform, has raised $34 million (30 million euros) in a funding round led by U.S. investment firm Bessemer Venture Partners. Action Capital, CommerzVentures, Point Nine Capital and Runa Capital also participated in the round. Mambu will use the funding to invest… Read More

February 19, 2019 @ 8:02 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Tomorrow MySwimPro, which was named one of the Best Apple Watch App of the 2016, will launch its second Wefunder round, this time for a SAFE Future Equity crowdfunding campaign. In 2017 MySwimPro raised $280,629 from 164+ investors.  Increased funding from the SAFE campaign will allow… 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 14, 2019 @ 6:56 am By JD Alois  |  

JP Morgan Chase, a traditional bank whose CEO Jamie Dimon famously called Bitcoin a fraud, is issuing its own stablecoin: JPM Coin. According to CNBC, Umar Farooq, Head of JP Morgan’s blockchain projects predicted the JPM Coin may be huge for corporations. “Money sloshes back and… 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 13, 2019 @ 3:07 pm By JD Alois  |  

Valuation and strategy consultancy Brand Finance has published its annual report on the top brands for the world’s most valuable exchange brands. According to their numbers, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is the top regulated exchange in the world. CME held the top spot last… Read More

February 12, 2019 @ 8:59 am By JD Alois  |  

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), the leading research institute for all things Fintech,  has launched its first survey of Regtech (regulatory technology) and Suptech (supervisory technology) firms. The new report is being completed in partnership with EY Japan. CCAF states that fieldwork is… 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 @ 10:36 pm By JD Alois  |  

The House Subcommittee on Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions, part of the Financial Services Committee, has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, February 13th to discuss the Cannabis industry and access to financial services. The Hearing, entitled Challenges and Solutions: Access to Banking Services for Cannabis-Related… Read More