General News

January 19, 2016 @ 9:46 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Last week, marketplace lender CommonBond announced the introduction of the “MBA Accelerator” program, a unique summer internship experience that will select a team of the country’s top MBA students to build a startup from the ground up inside of CommonBond. Over the course of 10… Read More

January 19, 2016 @ 6:43 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Platform Black, a provider of alternative finance to UK businesses, has expanded its team, signalling continuous growth and increasing demand in the sector. Helen Mackenzie, Gayle Townsend and Robert Rajeswaran bring significant invoice trading and supply chain finance expertise and will support the company, which has provided… Read More

January 19, 2016 @ 6:16 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Commonwealth Bank of Australia today launched an Innovation Lab in Hong Kong and announced plans to launch an Innovation Lab in London later this year. This innovation network is a natural extension of the Bank’s successful Innovation Lab in Sydney and creates a global approach to… Read More

January 19, 2016 @ 5:52 am By Erin Hobey  |  

2016 proved eventful for payments network MasterCard, as the company has been involved in in many global fintech industry deals, according to a release.  With the intention of expanding its electronic payments network in other countries, MasterCard heavily invests in fintech and organises a six month… Read More

January 19, 2016 @ 5:16 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Cashfloat’s data-modelling scientists have developed an advanced affordability model, designed to generate a clearer picture of the client’s affordability. This enables the Cashfloat team to make decisions about lending, better aligned with the FCA compliance framework. Western Circle Ltd, a London-based lending company trading as Cashfloat.co.uk, confirmed that… Read More

January 18, 2016 @ 4:28 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Peter Thiel, Paypal’s co-founder and first outside investor in Facebook, has reportedly made an investment in Deposit Solutions GmbH, which is considered the first open architecture platform for retail deposits in Europe. Since its establishment in 2011, Deposit Solutions has already mediated deposits in excess of… Read More

January 18, 2016 @ 3:45 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Earlier this month, Oculus creator Palmer Luckey sat down to chat about his experience on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter and career decisions. During his interview, Luckey revealed that his career was never motivated by salary: “This may sound – everyone says this – but it’s not about the money…. Read More

January 18, 2016 @ 3:37 pm By JD Alois  |  

The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA) has slated their 2nd annual gathering to be held in Toronto on March 3rd of 2016. The Canadian Crowdfunding Summit is crafted to be the most prominent event for leaders in the quickly emerging Canadian crowdfunding sector of finance…. Read More

January 18, 2016 @ 12:58 pm By JD Alois  |  

GamCrowd and Clarion Events have announced the participants in the forthcoming Pitch ICE event taking place at ICE Totally Gaming in February. GamCrowd is a crowdfunding platform that focuses specifically on the gaming / gambling industry. GamCrowd shares that 14 new businesses have produced a… Read More

January 18, 2016 @ 10:49 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Earlier this month, CEO of Seedrs, Jeff Lynn, sat down with Seedcamp to discuss the power of community when it comes to equity crowdfunding. The interview’s description reads: “In the ‘Seedcamp Podcast Series’ we talk with key people in the tech startup industry to hear their… Read More

January 18, 2016 @ 10:28 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Last week, Kickstarter alum Pebble took to its blog to take a look back at 2015 (i.e. one of its historic years). Pebble hit Kickstarter for the second time last year for its new watch and surpassed its initial goal within just mere hours. By the… Read More

January 18, 2016 @ 9:38 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Monday, Crowdcube alum and #FundedClub member ioLight announced that it will be demonstrating its Magnificent Mobile Microscope at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester on January 21st and 22nd. As previously reported, ioLight took to Crowdcube in September for the microscope and surpassed its initial £150,000… Read More

January 18, 2016 @ 9:00 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Monday, Crowdfunder UK announced details about crowdfunding campaign, Bootcamp 2016. The reward-based crowdfunding platform stated that Bootcamp is an intensive three-week campaign, hosted by the Crowdfunder Academy to get new projects into shape throughout January. Each day, industry experts will be on hand to reveal the… Read More

January 17, 2016 @ 4:51 pm By JD Alois  |  

Buying a house or an apartment is a lot of work. Applying for a mortgage to complete the purchase typically means multiple trips to the broker/bank/realtor etc. Reams of documentation, questions and forms. Fintech startups have been addressing many of the analog challenges by providing… Read More

January 16, 2016 @ 12:37 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Earlier this month, film acquisition and distribution company FilmRise announced it has acquired the rights to Star Wars documentary Elstree 1976. The film surfaced on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter and made its theatrical debut at the 2015 London Film Festival. Elstree1976, which was directed by John Spira, shares the behind-the-scene… Read More

January 15, 2016 @ 4:22 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

This week, Kickstarter’s second full-time employee and vice president of data, Fred Benenson, announced that he is stepping down from his position with the crowdfunding giant on February 19th. Benenson shared in a Medium post: “‘All or nothing’ describes Kickstarter’s unique model of fundraising —… Read More

January 15, 2016 @ 3:55 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Friday, affordable housing developer Pocket announced it is extending its second mini bond on Crowdcube, which was launched last month.  As previously reported, Pocket aims to raise the funds as part of it helping even more middle-income Londoners get their foot on the housing ladder.  The launch… Read More

January 15, 2016 @ 3:18 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Marketplace lending platform Open Energy announced the closing of a loan totaling $1.2 million to SunLight General Solar Fund III. The New York City-based investment fund invests in distributed generation solar projects. The SunLight investment fund received a hybrid term and construction loan for four commercial solar… Read More

January 15, 2016 @ 1:45 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Friday, Crowdcube announced some exciting news about its #FundedClub member Tempus Energy. The equity crowdfunding platform declared in its blog: “Tempus Energy, which raised over £600,000 from 235 investors on Crowdcube last summer, has secured a further £3.78m of funding. This latest investment round,… Read More

January 15, 2016 @ 1:38 pm By JD Alois  |  

“Despite knowing that Bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that it has failed still saddens me greatly. The fundamentals are broken and whatever happens to the price in the short term, the long term trend should probably be downwards. I will no… Read More