Global

December 20, 2020 @ 11:34 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Europe-based online SME lender October noted that this year the Christmas holidays will be quite different for everyone. The digital lending platform pointed out that isolation and social distancing will limit the celebrations this holiday season. October also mentioned that for many small businesses, the… Read More

December 20, 2020 @ 10:37 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Digital bank Monzo, which recently scored an additional £60 million investment, has revealed that personalized cards have now arrived for US customers. The Monzo team notes in a blog published on December 16, 2020, that they’re pleased to announce that they’ve introduced their newly designed,… Read More

December 20, 2020 @ 9:42 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Katana Dumont, who writes about personal finance and financial literacy topics, notes in blog post published by Chime Financial Inc., a US-based banking challenger valued at around $14.5 billion, that modern technology is shaking up or disrupting the finance industry in a major way. She… Read More

December 20, 2020 @ 8:31 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Meltem Demirors, the Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares, a digital asset management firm, has argued that “as evidenced by the recent corruption of all US systems, from the government to corporate, securing networks is very difficult to do persistently.” 1/ as evidenced by the recent… Read More

December 20, 2020 @ 5:27 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

As the price of Bitcoin (BTC), the flagship cryptocurrency, surpasses its previous all-time high (and recently breaking past the $24,000 mark), a new report reveals that “attitudes” toward the digital asset are “improving” with nearly one in five or 20% of Australians now “owning some”… Read More

December 20, 2020 @ 4:13 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Robo.cash, a peer to peer (P2P) lending marketplace, has revealed that 40% of investors have “allocated over €20,000 on P2P platforms.” As mentioned in an update shared with CI, a recent survey carried out by the European P2P platform Robo.cash found that 2 out of… Read More

December 19, 2020 @ 8:19 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

MassChallenge, an 11-year-old non-profit, no-equity accelerator program, has added 30 new Fintech and 30 Healthtech startups to its 2021 program. Both groups will be introduced at a virtual MassChallenge Verticals Opening Nights event on January 13, 2021. Five of this year’s MassChallenge Fintechs are based… Read More

December 19, 2020 @ 6:00 pm By Xu Gao  |  

China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission Issues Regulations Towards Internet Insurance On December 14th, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) issued the “Internet Insurance Business Regulatory Measures.” Key contents of the Measures include: clarifying the nature of Internet insurance business and applicable regulations… Read More

December 19, 2020 @ 5:59 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Brazilian lending firm Creditas has secured $255 million in capital as Fintech startups across Latin and South America continue to attract large investments. Creditas’ credit portfolio has reportedly surpassed 1 billion reals (appr. $196.66 million) and this latest funding round will value the firm at… Read More

December 19, 2020 @ 2:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Object Astra, a sweat equity platform intended for individuals who may have been furloughed or layed off during the COVID-19 pandemic and founded by former JPMorgan professionals, has officially launched operations in the United Kingdom. The Object Astra team states: “[We offer a] Platform to… Read More

December 19, 2020 @ 1:43 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Fintech-focused venture capital mega-rounds ($100 million+) reached a record high this year, according to a report from research firm CBInsights. With just a couple of weeks left in Q4 2020, the CBInsights team took an early look at the global Fintech investment trends taking place… Read More

December 18, 2020 @ 2:32 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

We recently connected with Omar Arab, EVP of Corporate Business at VeriTran, a leading low-code platform provider for enterprises. Arab talked about how low-code solutions make it easier for everyone, including non-programmers, to create applications for a wide variety of use cases – including banking… Read More

December 18, 2020 @ 2:01 pm By JD Alois  |  

Apple Pay seems to be helping investors purchase Bitcoin, at least according to Lumi Wallet. The company reports that one week after launching with Apple Pay, Lumi Wallet saw a 209% growth of in-wallet Bitcoin purchases. Lumi believes this is due to a simpler crypto… Read More

December 18, 2020 @ 1:53 pm By JD Alois  |  

SPACs are hot. We all know that. And now one of OurCrowd’s portfolio companies is going public via a $1.4 billion SPAC. Innoviz, a LiDar startup in the autonomous vehicle tech sector, saw the company acquired in a SPAC deal this past week. Omer Keilaf,… Read More

December 18, 2020 @ 1:30 pm By JD Alois  |  

CoinDeal says it is now the first company to have obtained a Class 4 Virtual Financial Assets (VFA) Licence in Principle Approval from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). The exchange reports that it has just received a letter on 16 December 2020. CoinDeal explains… Read More

December 18, 2020 @ 10:16 am By JD Alois  |  

The British Business Bank has published Future Fund data on the 971 companies that have been approved for £975.5 million worth of Convertible Loan Agreements since launch last May. The Future Fund is designed to support early-stage ventures that typically do not have the capacity… Read More

December 18, 2020 @ 8:40 am By Omar Faridi  |  

US-based Wahed Inc, an Islamic-finance Fintech firm that’s backed by Saudi Aramco, is reportedly planning to acquire Niyah Ltd, a UK company that operates a digital banking platform for the Muslim community. Wahed’s management noted that they’re hoping the acquisition will allow them to offer… Read More

December 18, 2020 @ 8:06 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Peer to peer lending platform Bondora notes in an update post on December 17, 2020 that the normal trend for portfolio returns is to decline over a period of time as more origination payments are missed slightly. But in November 2020, Bondora portfolio returns were… Read More

December 18, 2020 @ 7:58 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Netherlands-based core banking platform Five Degrees has acquired €22 million in capital through an investment round that was led by Velocity Capital Fintech Ventures. Reggeborgh and Atlas Invest also took part in the round. Karmijn Kapitaal, 5Square and several other existing investors made contributions to… Read More

December 18, 2020 @ 7:48 am By Omar Faridi  |  

French mobile payments firm Lydia has extended its Series B investment round, raising an additional $86 million in capital led by Accel. Lydia’s total Series B funding currently stands at €131 million, which reportedly makes it the largest round ever closed by a French Fintech… Read More