Global

July 28, 2021 @ 9:46 am By Omar Faridi  |  

SEBA Bank, a FINMA licensed Swiss Bank offering a seamless, secure, and easy-to-use bridge between digital and traditional assets, has confirmed the appointment of Sam Lin to the position of CEO Asia with “immediate effect.” This appointment “demonstrates SEBA Bank’s commitment to strengthening its status… Read More

July 28, 2021 @ 9:00 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Biconomy, a multichain relayer infrastructure network and transaction platform that enables Web3.0 developers to easily build applications, has revealed that it secured $9 million in a private funding round that was led by DACM and Mechanism Capital, along with contributions from  Coinbase Ventures, Coinfund, True… Read More

July 28, 2021 @ 8:47 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Credit Suisse-backed SME lending Fintech Tradeplus24 has finalized an “oversubscribed” $25 million pre-series B equity raise, which was led by a European family office with an established track record of investing in “high-growth” startups like Klarna, Delivery Hero, and Lyft. Existing investors Credit Suisse, SIX… Read More

July 28, 2021 @ 8:10 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

While some testing remains on Umbria Network’s cross-chain Narni bridge, the initial results are promising, the company said this week. Narni’s goal is to enable users to move ERC-20 tokens securely from one blockchain network to another cheaply, quickly, and easily. In testing, USDT was… Read More

July 28, 2021 @ 8:06 am By Omar Faridi  |  

GoCardless, a global Fintech in account-to-account payments, has reportedly appointed Alexandra Chiaramonti as its GM of Southern Europe. Chiaramonti will be responsible for leading GoCardless‘ ongoing growth in the region by continuing to recruit new talent in order to strengthen the firm’s presence in its… Read More

July 27, 2021 @ 11:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

William Callahan, Director of Government & Strategic Affairs at Blockchain Intelligence Group,  has noted that Tether CTO and General Counsel had made an appearance live on CNBC last week. William has asked us whether we think the U.S. Department of Justice was watching this “slow… Read More

July 27, 2021 @ 11:19 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Consumers are warming to the concept of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), research from European deep tech company Guardtime shows. Guardtime surveyed people in 10 countries and found 64 per cent of people would likely use a CBDC launched in their country, with 33 per… Read More

July 27, 2021 @ 10:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Sila, an API platform that offers payment infrastructure as a service while ensuring regulatory compliance, has acquired $13 million in capital through a Series A round that was by Revolution Venture. Sila‘s latest investment round was joined by Madrona Venture Group, Oregon Venture Fund, Mucker… Read More

July 27, 2021 @ 6:07 pm By JD Alois  |  

Investment crowdfunding in Australia, or crowd-sourced funding (CSF), has doubled in the first half of 2021 in comparison to the same period year prior according to a note provided by Birchal. In aggregate since CSF became legal, over 144 Australian SMEs have raised over $100 million… Read More

July 27, 2021 @ 4:24 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Daniel Schreiber, CEO at Insurtech Lemonade (NYSE:LMND), reveals that it’s now their 5th year in a row of givebacks. It’s actually grown 4000% across those years, Daniel notes, while adding that it has been growing quite steeply this year compared to 2020’s 100%+ growth. He… Read More

July 27, 2021 @ 3:43 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

James Butterfill, Investment Strategist at London-based CoinShares, a digital asset manager focused on expanding access to the cryptocurrency ecosystem while serving as a “trusted partner” for its clients, notes in a blog post published on Monday (July 26) that for the week ending July 26,… Read More

July 27, 2021 @ 3:31 pm By JD Alois  |  

VC funding of Fintechs continues to boom as more established Fintechs capture outsized funding rounds and smaller firms continue to provide new spins on digital financial services. S&P Global Market Intelligence is out with a focused report stating that $5.56 billion went into the payments… Read More

July 27, 2021 @ 3:09 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Bitcoin’s recent travails are a reminder to retail investors to watch the whales, GlobalBlock sales trader Alexandra Clark said in a recent research note. After dipping to $29,393, signs show Bitcoin is on the upswing, Clark said. A group of Bitcoin whales purchased a total… Read More

July 27, 2021 @ 12:04 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

We recently connected with Fernando Martinelli, the Co-founder and CEO at Balancer Labs, which supports the ongoing development of Balancer, an automated portfolio manager and digital asset liquidity provider. As covered in May 2021, Balancer Version 2.0, the “most flexible” and efficient automated market maker… Read More

July 27, 2021 @ 11:55 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking will be utilizing Mastercard’s Open Banking merchant payment solution to launch PayFrom Bank. The solution allows people to carry out online payments directly from their bank accounts, giving customers more choice over “how they pay” while providing merchants with “instant settlement… Read More

July 27, 2021 @ 10:43 am By JD Alois  |  

Fireblocks, an enterprise-grade platform providing an infrastructure for digital assets, has raised a $310 million Series D funding round at a huge $2 billion valuation. The funding was led by Sequoia Capital, Stripes, Spark Capital, Coatue, DRW VC  and SCB 10X, Siam Commercial Bank, along… Read More

July 27, 2021 @ 10:06 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Solarisbank AG, which claims to be Europe’s leading Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform, reveals that it has acquired EUR 190 million in an “oversubscribed” Series D round, valuing the firm at EUR 1.4 billion. The company’s investment round has been led by Decisive Capital Management, along with… Read More

July 27, 2021 @ 8:15 am By JD Alois  |  

iAngels has announced its first institutional fund raising $55.5 million. iAngels received the backing of the European Investment Fund (EIF), part of the European Investment Bank group. EIF’s mission is to support Europe’s micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them to access finance…. Read More

July 27, 2021 @ 7:54 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The team at Assetz Capital, a marketplace lending platform originating secured loans, says it’s no secret that there’s been an “unprecedented construction material shortage this year,” in the United Kingdom and few would have “forecast the near-perfect storm that has swept through the sector.” The… Read More

July 27, 2021 @ 7:50 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK-based digital bank Starling has confirmed the acquisition of specialist buy-to-let mortgage lender Fleet Mortgages as part of a £50 million cash and share deal. Fleet Mortgages, based in Hampshire, focuses on offering mortgages to professional and semi-professional buy-to-let landlords, “only via mortgage adviser distribution… Read More