General News

April 19, 2016 @ 9:03 am By JD Alois  |  

    The marketplace lending industry has gone from 0 to 100 in just a few short years. While it seems like only yesterday when Zopa launched in the UK capturing the title of the first P2P lender, platforms now number in the thousands and… Read More

April 18, 2016 @ 11:12 pm By Robin Sosnow  |  

Exploring the dynamics of equity crowdfunding and provoking thought about what crowdfunding means to you.  Crowdfunding has always existed, and will continue to exist, as long as there are people and scarcity of resources. People have pooled and transferred resources for the benefit of another,… Read More

April 18, 2016 @ 4:33 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Pocket App, a UK-based independent app developer, announced last week that it has been shortlisted as a finalist in the Best Use of Mobile Payment category of 2016’s The Drum Marketing on Mobile Awards (MOMAs). The company launched the campaign on Seedrs last month to raise  £750,000 in funding… Read More

April 18, 2016 @ 2:55 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Monday, crowdfunding platform for music, PledgeMusic, announced that it has appointed Warner Music Group veteran, Paula Woollatt, as head of UK/EUR manufacturing and fulfillment. According to the funding portal, Woollatt held various positions at Warner Music Group including head of creative production for the Atlantic, Parlophone,… Read More

April 18, 2016 @ 12:37 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced the release of an online tool to help companies calculate certain Edgar registration fees. The new online application covers the “most common filings companies” used to register initial public offerings, debt offerings, asset-backed securities, closed-end mutual funds, limited partnerships,… Read More

April 18, 2016 @ 12:19 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Last week, equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube announced its first quarterly edition of Cubed magazine. The publication reportedly demonstrates the power of the crowd and all that can be achieved thanks to backers’ investment. The portal revealed: “Crowdfunding came into existence just five years ago when Luke Lang… Read More

April 18, 2016 @ 10:37 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Just before the premiere of the Kickstarter-success Leonard Nimoy film, For the Love of Spock, at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival  the Star Trek actor’s son, Adam Nimoy, sat down with the Hollywood Reporter to discuss the film and legacy his father left. Last year, before Leonard’s passing, he and Adam approached… Read More

April 18, 2016 @ 10:07 am By JD Alois  |  

The Global Crowdfunding Convention (GCC), created by Ruth Hedges, has formed a partnership with  the Launchpad Agency. According to information provided by the agency, Launchpad is now a minority owner in GCC. “We have been a big part of the crowdfunding ecosystem for many years… Read More

April 18, 2016 @ 8:31 am By JD Alois  |  

Regulation A+, an updated exemption created by Title IV of the JOBS Act of 2012, took a largely moribund exemption and turned it into something useful. Old Reg A was crippled by state blue sky review. The SEC, given the necessary latitude by Congress to… Read More

April 16, 2016 @ 2:52 pm By JD Alois  |  

Coming on the heels of the announcement of the launch of their payments partner program, multiple news outlets are pointing to Amazon as gearing up for a deeper Fintech push. The payments program helps by providing an Amazon-branded option for their growing legion of e-commerce… Read More

April 15, 2016 @ 4:52 pm By JD Alois  |  

EquityZen is a platform that seeks to provide liquidity in private company securities. This is one company that has benefited from the plunging decline in early stage IPOs. Founders Atish Davda, Shriram Bhashyam, and Phil Haslett created the company with a single ambition: to redesign… Read More

April 15, 2016 @ 2:52 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

In early March Witt Energy launched a Crowdcube campaign to secure £750,000 for its patented fully scalable innovative energy harvesting system. During its first week on the equity crowdfunding platform, the UK tech company scored £500,000.  Now, in the campaign’s final hours the amount raised for 7.08% equity has surpassed the… Read More

April 15, 2016 @ 10:50 am By JD Alois  |  

This is important.  In the United States, the wealth disparity is growing – not closing. While there are multiple reasons why this wealth gap has occurred, the growing dominance of big money over smaller investors has clearly exacerbated this societal challenge.  Unfortunately, policy officials have… Read More

April 15, 2016 @ 10:41 am By Erin Hobey  |  

The California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) has issued a summary report of aggregate data provided by the companies that responded to the DBO’s online survey sent to 14 marketplace lenders engaged in online consumer and/or small business lending (or other types of financing such as merchant cash advances)…. Read More

April 15, 2016 @ 10:21 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Montreal-based FinTech company Mobeewave has launched its mobile P2P payment application PayMeTap to people across Canada. This free application allows users to securely accept a payment by tapping their phone with a credit card. Available for Android in the Google Play Store, PayMeTap aims to enable… Read More

April 15, 2016 @ 7:46 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Funding Circle, a small-business lending platform, hired Deutsche Bank AG as the sole  arranger of the first securitization of P2P loans in Europe, according to a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The firm will meet investors in London April 18-20 to discuss a possible deal in pounds,… Read More

April 15, 2016 @ 7:24 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Frost & Sullivan’s latest study, “Fintech in Australia – Trends, Forecasts and Analysis 2015 – 2020” forecasts that the Australian Fintech Sector will grow at a CAGR of 76.36% and reach A$4.2 billion by 2020; of which A$1 billion will be completely new added value to… Read More

April 15, 2016 @ 7:06 am By Erin Hobey  |  

  Beyond Bank, one of Australia’s largest customer owned banks, has achieved recognition as a Celent Model Bank for 2016. The award was made for its omni-channel customer engagement platform, designed and delivered by Avoka, the leader in digital customer acquisition for financial services. The… Read More

April 15, 2016 @ 12:01 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Venture capitalists invested $12.1 billion in 969 deals in the first quarter of 2016, according to the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), based on data provided by Thomson Reuters. Total venture dollars deployed to startup companies for… Read More

April 14, 2016 @ 5:42 pm By JD Alois  |  

Event organizer Crowdfinders has joined with a group of high-profile partners to launch an annual £100 million funding drive to raise both equity and debt capital to help scale UK SMEs. The partnership includes the following entities; Seedrs, SyndicateRoom, UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA), Crowdcube,… Read More