General News

October 25, 2016 @ 8:32 am By Erin Hobey  |  

No transaction fees until 2017! The India-based online recharge and mobile wallet company MobiKwik announced that it is waving its per transaction fee for all unorganized retail merchants until December 31 to promote the adoption of e-cash among the local grocery stores, chemists, apparel stores… Read More

October 24, 2016 @ 4:42 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Mizuho Bank recently announced the opening of its innovation center, which will be located in the Fintech Center of Tokyo Finolab. The company stated the center would be jointly operated by Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd., Dentsu Inc., and Information Services International–Dentsu, Ltd. Mizuho reported that… Read More

October 24, 2016 @ 3:06 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Monday, Indiegogo and Arrow Electronics announced the final flash funding recipient for the month of October. The duo revealed Andy Karuza and the FenSen team were selected to receive $75,000 in the funding prize.  The companies explained the FenSens team is hoping to transform… Read More

October 24, 2016 @ 1:16 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Last week, the winners of the 2016 British Small Business Awards were announced. Held at London’s Grand Connaught Rooms, the event is organized by Small Business UK and celebrated the small business community in the UK and among the winners was equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube. … Read More

October 24, 2016 @ 11:38 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Last week, UK-based alternative finance lender for SMEs, LendingCrowd, announced the launch of its new P2P deal to investors. The platform stated that by investing £5000, investors will get a 2.5% joining bonus allocated to their accounts and access to a lending platform that achieved… Read More

October 24, 2016 @ 10:49 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Monday, H2Ventures and KPMG Fintech teamed up to announce the third annual Fintech 100 list, which notably includes 50 “established” fintech companies from across the global and 50 “emerging stars.” The Fintech 100 includes 35 companies from the Americas, 28 companies from EMEA, plus… Read More

October 23, 2016 @ 6:46 pm By JD Alois  |  

Investing in early stage companies is a risky venture. The advent of internet finance has made it easier than ever before to gain access to purchasing securities in startups.  Correspondingly, the debate regarding risk versus return has always been a very hot topic. Recently Crowdfund… Read More

October 22, 2016 @ 4:12 pm By JD Alois  |  

This is another cautionary tale in the world of rewards-based crowdfunding.  Stikbox, a cool selfie-stick that raised money on Kickstarter in January of this year is being challenged with copies from China that are pretty much the same but far less expensive. The creator has… Read More

October 21, 2016 @ 1:41 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Bondora, a European peer to peer lender based in Estonia, announced on Friday it is removing the Primary Market View feature from its user interface. This change will go into effect on November 1st. Bondora stated it was removing the feature because the speed of their… Read More

October 21, 2016 @ 12:00 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Wealthify, the online investment service, announced on Thursday it was named the UK’s most investable company, at Crowdfest 2016. The award was notably presented Wealthify CEO and co-founder Richard Theo at day two of the event in London, recognizes the robo’s business model, and its rapid growth since… Read More

October 21, 2016 @ 10:51 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Thursday, app-only bank and Crowdcube alum, Monzo, announced it has raised £4.8 million during an “interim” funding round, which was led by Passion Capital. The company crushed past records by securing £1 million in an astounding 96 seconds.  According to Business Insider, the funding round now values Monzo… Read More

October 20, 2016 @ 4:21 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

GoFundMe announced on Thursday its awarded ten recipients a total of $100,000 through its first scholarship program. Each of the students was given $10,000, which will go towards college expenses. Last month, GoFundMe shared details about the scholarship program and revealed that over few years… Read More

October 20, 2016 @ 4:05 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Thursday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch announced it formed a new strategic relationship with ModoPayments, LLC (Modo), a digital payment company. The new relationship will notably give the bank access to Modo’s patented COIN Operating Digital Payments Hub. According to the companies, Bank of… Read More

October 20, 2016 @ 11:24 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Leetchi, a European money collection platform, announced on Thursday it is launching its services in the UK. The company, which was launched in 2009, was acquired by French bank Crédit Mutuel Arkéa last year. It has over six million users from more than 150 countries and… Read More

October 20, 2016 @ 11:14 am By JD Alois  |  

FINRA is a non-governmental entity that acts as a financial regulator over a wide swath of the financial industry.  Their mission is to detect and prevent wrongdoing in the US financial markets. FINRA also has enforcement powers. Last year alone they rendered over 1500 disciplinary… Read More

October 20, 2016 @ 10:40 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Heeros Oyj, a Finnish cloud-based financial management software solutions company, announced this week it is IPOing on Nasdaq First North growth market in Finland. The company revealed the subscription period of the IPO started on Wednesday through crowdfunding platform Invesdor. This launch comes one year after… Read More

October 20, 2016 @ 6:05 am By Erin Hobey  |  

The European Fintech Alliance, established in Berlin early this summer, seeks to represent the interests of startups in the political arena and to build bridges between policymakers and regulators at European level.  The platform touts a non-national, but EU-wide approach, for FinTechs only. Initiated by political… Read More

October 20, 2016 @ 5:36 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Bank Negara Malaysia, the country’s central bank, has put together a framework for the sandbox following a month-long consultation with startups, banks and other stakeholders. Malaysia is the latest country following Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Singapore, to set up a fintech regulatory sandbox in an effort to help startups… Read More

October 20, 2016 @ 5:13 am By Erin Hobey  |  

US online lenders have quickly seized opportunities to meet demand for more targeted, easy-to-access digital financial services; however, inherent weakness in the online lender business model will likely limit it to a small segment of the market, Moody’s Investors Service says in a report only… Read More

October 20, 2016 @ 4:43 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Moving from fintech to farmtech. Online meat brand ZappFresh has appointed former MobiKwik executive Ankur Shrivastava as the CTO where he will be responsible for building a 360 degree farm tech supply chain architecture and developing technology and processes for farmtech which will help connect farmers, vendors… Read More