Global

April 9, 2019 @ 8:19 am By JD Alois  |  

OurCrowd portfolio company, Hong Kong-based Klook, has raised $425 million in funding in a Series D round led by Softbank Vision Fund. Klook is a travel activity and services booking platform. Klook said it raised $225 million in Series D+ funding increasing the company’s total… Read More

April 9, 2019 @ 5:52 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Festicket, one of the world’s largest marketplaces for music festival experiences which is backed by Edge Investments, Beringea and Channel 4 and with over 1M customers to date,  allows customers to discover, plan and book their festival experiences in one place. Last month Festicket initiated… Read More

April 8, 2019 @ 11:07 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Sarah John, Chief Cashier at the Bank of England told Currency Conference 2019 attendees in Dubai this week that use of cash is declining in the UK but that bank notes are not yet passé. John cited statistics showing that cash use dropped from 61%… Read More

April 8, 2019 @ 11:02 pm By Cali Haan  |  

North Korea has added to its standard program of hacking banks in the developing world by launching computer-borne attacks against cryptocurrency exchanges, Wired reports. To further complicate matters, at least part of the billions of dollars so far garnered in these hacks is being used… Read More

April 8, 2019 @ 10:58 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Lithuania has been moving for some time to establish itself as a Fintech leader in the Baltics. According to the previous reporting at Crowdfund Insider, the country registered 35 new Fintechs in 2017, and in early 2018, Invest Lithuania Managing Director Mantas Katinas promoted the… Read More

April 8, 2019 @ 9:00 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Fresh from its new partnership with Nationwide, BlueVine, a provider of online working capital financing for small and medium-sized businesses, is adding term loan financing to its suite of online financing solutions. The BlueVine Term Loan seeks to provide small and medium-sized business owners fast… Read More

April 8, 2019 @ 6:49 am By JD Alois  |  

Digital money transfer Fintech Azimo has secured a license from the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank) to operate its services in the Netherlands, according to a release from the firm. Azimo said its headquarters will remain in London and its engineering and operations in… Read More

April 8, 2019 @ 6:26 am By JD Alois  |  

Online lending company Robocash Group has moved into the Islamic finance sector via a partnership in Indonesia with Reliance Finance. Robocash has launched a new Fintech service providing personal financing in full compliance with the Shariah law. Robocash said the new service has been labeled… Read More

April 8, 2019 @ 6:17 am By JD Alois  |  

LendInvest, one of the most successful online lending platforms in the UK, has raised £200 million from HSBC UK to help fuel expansion into the regulated home loan market. In a release, LendInvest said this marks the company’s next step towards achieving its ambition of… Read More

April 7, 2019 @ 9:07 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Finland based peer to peer lender Fellow Finance announced last week that it facilitated €18.2 million of loans in March 2019 and its total number of investors grew to more than 12,000. As previously reported, Fellow Finance was founded in 2014 and its main business… Read More

April 7, 2019 @ 6:23 pm By Yoav Dror  |  

We need to get with the times. Your good old leather wallet now comes in a non-physical, electronic alternative. We need to brace ourselves for the use of digital wallets and the mass benefits they have to offer the world of finance. Digital wallets may… Read More

April 6, 2019 @ 12:37 pm By JD Alois  |  

Late last month, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced the issuance of the very first virtual banking licenses. While many jurisdictions around the world are pursuing policies that encourage Fintech innovation and digital banking what was unique about the HKMA’s announcement was the rapidity… Read More

April 5, 2019 @ 3:32 pm By JD Alois  |  

Earlier this week, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published an interesting report covering the usage and investigation of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).  It has been widely reported that many central banks have been kicking the tires of CBDC with some making proclamations regarding the… Read More

April 5, 2019 @ 11:35 am By JD Alois  |  

Vanbex, a blockchain based firm based in Vancouver, has posted a statement defending itself regarding allegations made by the British Columbia Director of Civil Forfeiture and covered in the media. The original report, covered by the Vancouver Sun, revealed strong statements alleging a “$30-million cryptocurrency… Read More

April 5, 2019 @ 10:03 am By Jelena Keatley  |  

Millennials are blamed for the destruction of many industries that were initially incepted by the baby boomer generation. These industries include but are not limited to, the housing market, restaurant chains, 9-5 office jobs, and even plastic straws (with good reason). However, millennials aren’t quite… Read More

April 5, 2019 @ 8:28 am By JD Alois  |  

Peer to peer lender Crowdstacker has appointed former RBS Senior Corporate Director, Ken Hillen, as Chairman of its Credit Committee. The move comes following a report that Crowdstacker had facilitated a loan to Burning Night Group in the amount of £7.5 million. Burning Night went… Read More

April 4, 2019 @ 7:30 am By JD Alois  |  

Canada may be a smaller market but it has a robust, highly sophisticated economy and a vibrant Fintech sector. Toronto, the financial center of the country, is home to dozens of Fintechs including payment firms, online lending, AI, wealth management, blockchain and more. Yet while… Read More

April 4, 2019 @ 7:03 am By JD Alois  |  

CABIM Ltd, the parent company of Crown Agents Bank has acquired Segovia, a US-based payments firm. In a release, Crown Agents Bank said the purchase will enable it to extend its payment network, including mobile money, and integrate Segovia’s payments infrastructure with Crown Agents Bank’s… Read More

April 4, 2019 @ 4:51 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Fintech innovator Fenixera has launched its reporting and tracking platform. Fenixera, a global debt recovery platform tool designed to protect people from having to write-off international debt, is based in Norway. The platform account software aims to enable users to check people’s credit and payment history… Read More

April 3, 2019 @ 9:59 am By Cali Haan  |  

An anonymous trader who recently placed $100 million USD worth of concurrent Bitcoin buy orders on Coinbase, Kraken and Bitstamp probably triggered a ‘frenzy’ of automated buys, a source to Reuters claims. These factors contributed to Bitcoin’s recent price jump of up to 20% on… Read More