General News

April 14, 2017 @ 10:43 am By JD Alois  |  

Renren (NYSE: RENN), an early investor in the first Fintech unicorn SoFi, recently announced it had sold preferred shares in SoFi to investors on April 4th. The transaction was completed in conjunction with SoFi’s $500 million funding round. Renren is an early investor in SoFi which… Read More

April 14, 2017 @ 9:50 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

California-based company Meed announced on Thursday it is collaborating with Oracle to deliver its suite of digital financial services to banks worldwide. The company stated it will integrate with Oracle’s Digital Banking Experience (OBDx) solution, using the Oracle platform, to deliver end-to-end digital experiences while… Read More

April 14, 2017 @ 9:19 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Fifth Third Bank announced on Thursday an investment and expanded partnership with nonprofit small business lender network, Accion U.S. Network, to support lending to underserved small businesses in Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio. The bank revealed that the partnership highlights its focus on championing… Read More

April 13, 2017 @ 3:40 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has filed a regulatory notice and a request for comments regarding capital formation. The review includes aspects of the JOBS Act and crowdfunding. FINRA said the request for comments was part of its FINRA360 initiative, a comprehensive review of… Read More

April 13, 2017 @ 1:53 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Student loan marketplace, College Ave Student Loans, announced on Thursday it secured $30 million during its fourth equity round. Investors of the funding round included new and existing participants, which included Comcast Ventures and Leading Edge Ventures. Speaking about the funding, Joe DePaulo, College Ave… Read More

April 13, 2017 @ 11:15 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Online lender SoFi recently announced the launch of its new two-step verification feature that will offer users the next level of account protection. The company revealed that two-factor authentication (or 2FA) would provide an additional layer of security to help protect accounts from unauthorized access. While sharing… Read More

April 13, 2017 @ 10:57 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Humaniq, a UK-based blockchain financial platform offering financial inclusion solutions for the unbanked, announced on Wednesday it appointed a new CEO, Dinis Guarda, and also 20 members to its global advisory board. Sharing details about the appointments, Alex Fork, President and co-Founder of Humaniq, stated:… Read More

April 13, 2017 @ 9:56 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Fintech startup and new app Dosh announced on Thursday more than 100,000 companies have joined its merchant network. The latest companies to make their way to the network are Forever 21, Applebees, and IHOP. The company revealed that its platform auto-magically incentivizes consumers with cash and allows merchants… Read More

April 13, 2017 @ 9:27 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

OFF3R, a UK based aggregator of alternative finance platforms, released its latest installment of the OFF3R Index that revealed more than £40 million was invested in early stage businesses in March 2017 through equity crowdfunding platforms in the UK. The company states this new record-breaking figure smashes… Read More

April 12, 2017 @ 10:32 pm By Simon Douw  |  

In 2016 a total of €170 million was raised through crowdfunding in the Netherlands. This sets a new all-time high for the size of the crowdfunding market in the country. However, for the first time since its rise, crowdfunding in the Netherlands has not grown… Read More

April 12, 2017 @ 2:16 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

San Francisco fintech company, Ripple, announced on Wednesday it has appointed former business director at SWIFT gpi, Marjan Delatinne, as its new sales director for Europe. The company reports that Delatinne will lead its sales efforts for financial institutions in Europe and will sell its commercial blockchain… Read More

April 11, 2017 @ 10:37 pm By JD Alois  |  

Draper Esprit (AIM: GROW, ESM: GRW), a publicly traded venture capital firm, has provided an update since its IPO back in June 2016.  According to management, the VC has been “very active” since its admission to AIM & ESM. Draper Esprit was originally launched in… Read More

April 11, 2017 @ 10:16 pm By JD Alois  |  

Londoners are being invited to pitch for cash to improve their local areas in an initiative sponsored by the city of London. Crowdfund London will allow select projects to be supported with up to £50,000 through crowdfunding model. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is inviting… Read More

April 11, 2017 @ 8:30 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

  “Fintech, online lending, AI and privacy are complicated issues, so we’ve created innovative solutions and approaches that D.C. embraces once they understand them. Our message to Washington is: call us! We have someone to translate tech speak and “bureaucratese” for all of Washington’s questions.”… Read More

April 11, 2017 @ 3:41 pm By JD Alois  |  

Perkins Coie LLP, a legal firm with offices in the United States and Asia, has boosted their Fintech horsepower with the addition of Jacob S. Farber and Frederick B. Fedynyshyn as senior counsel in its Technology Transactions & Privacy practice. Perkins Coie considers itself legal experts… Read More

April 11, 2017 @ 11:50 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Platform as a service company, Katipult, announced on Tuesday it formed a partnership with Fineqia to bring risk-mitigated investment to the crowd. According to the companies, Fineqia will use Katipult’s crowdfunding software product to start its UK business that will bring crowd investors to some… Read More

April 11, 2017 @ 11:04 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Biz2Credit announced on Tuesday that its latest small business lending index revealed that loan approval rates at institutional investors and small banks improved in March 2017. Big banks’ ($10 billion-plus in assets) loan approval was stagnant during the month but remained at an all-time Index… Read More

April 11, 2017 @ 7:52 am By JD Alois  |  

OPC Live! Innovation Challenge launched today during the Innovate Finance Global Summit in London. The worldwide competition is to encourage developers and Fintech firms to innovate and transform business to business payments – an industry that drives an estimated $290 billion in revenues but trails consumer… Read More

April 10, 2017 @ 10:24 pm By JD Alois  |  

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a discussion paper on distributed ledger technology (DLT) also commonly called Blockchain. The document was released today amidst of a flurry of Fintech related news as the Innovate Finance Global Summit kicked off in London.  The FCA… Read More

April 10, 2017 @ 5:07 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Independent financial advisory organization, deVere Group, announced on Monday it is launching its new global e-money app, deVere Vault. According to deVere Group, the debut of deVere Vault has been facilitated by the company receiving its e-money banking license. While sharing details about the new app, Nigel… Read More