General News

May 21, 2015 @ 4:00 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Karma, a platform that makes it easy to determine the reliability of people online through the use of its Karma Score, is launching out of private and into public beta today. The Karma Score’s unique algorithm makes it an ideal benchmark for the peer-to-peer community. With… Read More

May 21, 2015 @ 2:00 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Glowforge announced a $9 million Series A funding round to bring their 3D Laser Printer to market this year. The round was led by Foundry Group and True Ventures, with participation from Bre Pettis, cofounder and former CEO of MakerBot, and Jenny Lawton, former CEO… Read More

May 21, 2015 @ 10:46 am By Erin Hobey  |  

The European Crowdfunding network (ECN) released a Joint Declaration on the Capital Markets Union, together with seven other significative European federations representing capital market players and SMEs including AFME, EBF, Eurochambres, EBAN, EBN, European Issuers and Business Angels Europe and the European Crowdfunding Network. “Joining forces for the first time with other organizations representing capital market players… Read More

May 21, 2015 @ 9:33 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Adzuna, the UK-based job search engine today launched its £1.5 million crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube for its mission to “get Britain working.” In just a few hours, the campaign has raised over £659,330 of its £1,500,000 targeted goal for 5.89% equity offered. Nearly 70 investors helped Adzuna hit 43% of its goal…. Read More

May 21, 2015 @ 9:20 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Earlier this week, the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), a peer-to-peer community of entrepreneurs, introduced Vijay K. Tirathrai as its new chief executive officer. Tirathrai, who brings a wealth of business experience from both corporate and non-profit sectors, will focus on strengthening EO’s impact while driving the organization’s initiative of… Read More

May 21, 2015 @ 9:04 am By JD Alois  |  

Orchard Platform has announced two new partnerships as it extends its reach into a growing number of financial verticals in the direct lending space.  Orchard has signed up Auto One Acceptance and The Interface Financial Group (IFG).  Auto One is described as the “vehicle lender… Read More

May 20, 2015 @ 9:48 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Shelvspace, aiming to transform the way US consumer packaged goods are sold in retail with   its cloud-based mobile platform, announced it has received $1 million in seed round funding.Headquartered in Scottsdale Arizona with regional sales in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Chicago, Shelvspace is a portfolio company of Tallwave,… Read More

May 20, 2015 @ 9:25 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Financial services giant MasterCard made its official entrance into the person-to-person payments business, according to Natalie Gagliordi for ZDNet. The company announced the launch of MasterCard Money Send, a near real-time P2P digital payments service that securely transfers funds domestically and internationally. Shopping site FreeShipping.com and Berkshire Hathaway Travel… Read More

May 20, 2015 @ 9:19 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

In an effort to help musicians make their way to the spotlight, Indiegogo announced that Spotify is now supporting multiple music projects on its crowdfunding platform. Earlier this week, Indiegogo revealed: “As a global platform focused on bringing people together to make big things happen, our… Read More

May 20, 2015 @ 9:08 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Retailer loyalty App Loyalzoo has raised over £251,395 in funding on its equity crowdfunding on Seedrs, having raised £170,000 in just three days in late April. To date 157 investors have helped the small company exceed its £250,002 goal for 12.15% equity in the company.  This campaign marks the second time… Read More

May 20, 2015 @ 8:43 am By Erin Hobey  |  

In an article posted today in the Luxumburger Wort, Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna commented that FinTech is the engine driving new financial services business models, promoting the Grand Duchy as a location for the burgeoning ICT sector. “What Silicon Valley has in Tech, we have in Fin,”… Read More

May 20, 2015 @ 8:41 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

P2Binvestor (P2Bi), a crowdlending platform for commercial lines of credit that serves the fastest growing companies in the United States, today announced it has been selected as a new network company by Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network Colorado (BENCO), a select group of Colorado’s best entrepreneurs. The company is one… Read More

May 20, 2015 @ 8:21 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Continuing to grow its brand, Startupbootcamp FinTech has announced Liz Lumley‘s appointment as the new managing director for London and will be responsible for the running of the accelerator programme in London. “We are extremely happy to have Liz join us,” added Nektarios Liolios, global managing director,… Read More

May 19, 2015 @ 12:55 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

eProdigy, a fintech holding company with several subsidiaries serving the alternative finance space, announced today that an undisclosed private equity firm has made an agreement to provide $100 million to eProdigy through a term loan, a convertible note feature and participation rights. “This deal changes our entire… Read More

May 19, 2015 @ 12:32 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

OurCrowd set a new Australian funding record, closing out a $1.5 million round of funding for Global Kinetics Corporation (GKC), an Australian medical IT company . To recap from an earlier post, GKC was established in 2007 to commercialize innovative technology developed by Professor Malcolm Horne, from the Florey… Read More

May 19, 2015 @ 12:17 pm By JD Alois  |  

VPC Speciality Lending Investments has issued a note stating they are ahead of their goal in deploying investor capital into online lending assets.  According to the Board of Directors, approximately 70% of net IPO funds have been invested in assets such as peer to peer… Read More

May 19, 2015 @ 12:12 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Cloud Lending Solutions, an end-to-end lending solution built natively on salesforce.com, announced the appointment of  Harold Rosen to the company’s Advisory Board, bringing his more than 30 years of experience in the microfinance industry, including driving social impact investing at the World Bank. In addition, the company is expanding… Read More

May 19, 2015 @ 11:37 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Ideas Britain, a mobile platform wherein people submit an idea in less than a minute and compete for support, expert advice and real world commercial backing, has chosen Crowdcube to power its next phase of growth. Aiming to raise £300,000 on Crowdcube, Ideas Britain has already secured over… Read More

May 18, 2015 @ 8:03 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Peer-to-peer lending pioneer Zopa today announced a partnership with leading challenger bank, Metro Bank, to lend funds through Zopa’s online marketplace.This innovative deal is the first of its kind in the UK and a clear signal that some parts of the UK banking sector are embracing… Read More

May 18, 2015 @ 11:55 am By JD Alois  |  

Lawrence Wintermeyer has been selected as the new Chief Executive Officer of Innovate Finance while founding CEO Claire Cockerton exits. Innovate Finance was launched with much fanfare in 2014, along with the verbal support of Chancellor George Osborne, in the recognition of the UK’s growing role… Read More