Opinion

October 22, 2015 @ 12:38 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

In a Deloitte report entitled “Bitcoin at the crossroads,”  Managing Director Jon Watts opines that Bitcoin need not yet be regulated, offering three reasons why global policy makers and regulators may want to consider giving Bitcoin more time to develop. Regulation could in fact slow innovation, an innovation with a… Read More

October 22, 2015 @ 8:05 am By JD Alois  |  

Uber is a poster child for the collaborative economy and the new breed of unicorns cropping up. The profound success of Uber and their disruptive approach to public transport has flipped the taxi-cab industry upside down – for the better. Sure, they are marching in… Read More

October 21, 2015 @ 2:40 am By Therese Torris  |  

A random collection of people met and statements heard at the LendIt Europe conference, day 1, October 20th, 2015. Samir Desai, Cofounder and Director, Funding Circle: “We’re a marketplace, we don’t hold inventory, we don’t take any balance sheet risk, yet our interest is truly… Read More

October 19, 2015 @ 4:21 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

This week, UK-based craft brewery Honest Brew finished its equity crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube. Originally looking to raise £300,000, the startup managed to capture over £400,000 from nearly 450 backers. Now, Honest Brew’s founder, Andrew Reeve is ready to share his thoughts on using the funding method.  During… Read More

October 19, 2015 @ 8:30 am By Anthony Zeoli  |  

As many of you know, since the release of the final Title IV (i.e. “Regulation A+”) rules earlier this year, Massachusetts and Montana have been vehemently contesting the provisions allowing for pre-emption of State regulation with respect to “Tier II” offerings. They have even gown… Read More

October 16, 2015 @ 2:22 pm By JD Alois  |  

The team at Engine, under the leadership of Evan Engstrom, Policy Director of the group, has crafted a must-read document on what needs to be fixed to address the shortcomings of Title III, equity crowdfunding.  While both Reg A+ (Title IV) and accredited crowdfunding (Title… Read More

October 16, 2015 @ 9:54 am By JD Alois  |  

Fintech is super-hot these days.  Finance is having its newspaper moment where all aspects of the industry are moving online.  The disruptive shift is global too as change is taking place in the Americas, Asia and across Europe. The UK is in many ways the… Read More

October 15, 2015 @ 1:38 pm By JD Alois  |  

Congressman Eric Swalwell (CA), along with House Representatives Derek Kilmer (WA), Seth Moulton (MA), Grace Meng (NY), Ruben Gallego (AZ), and Patrick Murphy (FL) joined the chorus of elected officials demanding rules for Title III, retail crowdfunding be released immediately.  The letter addressed to SEC… Read More

October 15, 2015 @ 11:49 am By JD Alois  |  

Is IOSCO asleep at the wheel? That appears to be the implication of its current Secretary General David Wright. In a recent interview in Hong Kong, given to Reuters, the leader of the International Organization of Securities Commission rang a Fintech warning bell that his… Read More

October 14, 2015 @ 9:37 am By Ian Rosen  |  

  “Millennials hate their banks” is a common phrase thrown around in some circles.  I’m not sure it’s true. I’m not sure young people care about banks at all, in any practical way. For a long time, people have thought of “banks” as an all-encompassing… Read More

October 14, 2015 @ 9:21 am By JD Alois  |  

Scandalous news hit the peer to peer lending world this week as TrustBuddy revealed allegations of serious misconduct.  The malfeasance was deemed so severe that Swedish authorities immediately shut down the direct lending operation and Swedish Police were contacted to investigate if criminal activity has… Read More

October 12, 2015 @ 2:00 am By Barry James  |  

Crowdfunding and the democratisation of finance where key themes as over 300 experts from banks, startups, technology and finance came together for France’s first conference on FinTech. Perhaps surprisingly, a major centre for MedTech and computer science,  Bordeaux had gone out of it’s way to… Read More

October 11, 2015 @ 6:33 pm By JD Alois  |  

“The Death Star has a sick sound system” – Yahoo “The gravity defying speaker that floats above the rest” – Maxim “The OM/ONE is the Criss Angel of Bluetooth speakers” – NBC The above quotes are posted on the OM/ONE web site highlighting the media… Read More

October 9, 2015 @ 1:27 pm By Victoria Silchenko, Ph.D.  |  

Recently I’ve been noticing a lot of hype in the entrepreneurial community regarding Reg A+ and there have been a lot of cheerful pitches about the new regulation that would allow young companies “to raise up to $50 million without the expense and complexity of a traditional… Read More

October 9, 2015 @ 11:19 am By JD Alois  |  

Another big Kickstarter crowdfunding success has made the decision to migrate its campaign to competitor Indiegogo following the end of the project on Kickstarter.  PUGZ, called the “worlds smallest wireless earbuds charged through your phone”, raised a hefty $1.43 million from over 10,000 backers on… Read More

October 9, 2015 @ 10:41 am By Erin Hobey  |  

The People Versus Carmichael Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign continues to gain momentum as it swiftly passed the £106,140 mark with the help of over 5,955 backers. Fiona MacInnes and Tim Morrison’s original campaign was 102% funded on June 24, 2015. The purpose of the continued crowdfunding campaign… Read More

October 7, 2015 @ 10:18 am By Bret Conkin and Alixe Cormick  |  

Real estate investment is a consistently hot news topic.  Open any newspaper or news website in Canada and coverage of the real estate market is easy to find, particularly in Vancouver and Toronto.  Fortunes are made investing in residential and commercial properties. Speculation, offshore investors,… Read More

October 6, 2015 @ 10:55 am By Zhao Liang  |  

The concept of crowdfunding is derived from crowdsourcing and micro-finance. Crowdfunding is a financing process for individuals and enterprises to raise funds from the public via the internet. Crowdfunding platforms, project initiators, and investors are the participants in crowdfunding. Open online project exhibition, fund raising… Read More

October 5, 2015 @ 7:40 am By Samuel Guzik  |  

  Are Final JOBS Act Crowdfunding Rules Truly Upon Us? It’s been too long since I graced the pages of Crowdfund Insider with one of my many missives – or as some at the SEC might say: missiles.  Well, since Regulation A+ went live in… Read More

October 4, 2015 @ 10:20 pm By JD Alois  |  

There were over one hundred submissions for the RFI by the US Department of Treasury on Marketplace / Peer to Peer Lending. As one would expect, most commenters came with either an ax to grind or an urgent message to deliver.  In reading many (not… Read More