Tagged: perspective

May 4, 2020 @ 12:50 pm By Andrés Abumohor  |  

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) contribute substantially to the global economy. They now make up 90% of businesses and 50% of employment worldwide. In emerging markets, SMEs are propelling development by introducing new products, processes, and competition. Although it is difficult to gather and track… Read More

April 30, 2020 @ 4:30 pm By JD Alois  |  

  The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), part of the CARES Act, has emerged as an exceptionally popular policy program by the US government in its efforts to support a faltering economy. In brief, the PPP provides a loan for 2.5X times monthly payroll for struggling… Read More

April 29, 2020 @ 6:30 pm By Trilliam Jeong  |  

What happens when a business is forced to try something new amid a crisis? Usually a lot of pain and a lot of failed attempts. But today’s capital market players may have it easy. While major Wall Street banks and asset managers are being forced… Read More

April 28, 2020 @ 2:01 pm By JD Alois  |  

This is an interesting discussion. Todd H. Baker and Kathryn Judge, both from the Columbia Law School, posted an article earlier this month on banks and Fintechs in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. As most people recall, during the last big financial crisis, policymakers fumbled… Read More

April 24, 2020 @ 10:14 am By JD Alois  |  

While everyone expects the People’s Bank of China to launch a limited trial of its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) as it is called in the country questions have frequently emerged as to how the government will utilize the… Read More

April 23, 2020 @ 10:49 am By JD Alois  |  

The Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) in China aims to change the existing problem of the high cost of developing and deploying blockchain applications by providing public blockchain resource environments to developers. According to BSN, just like the internet, the ubiquity of access can greatly reduce… Read More

April 22, 2020 @ 7:30 pm By Michael Burtov  |  

It’s no secret that there has always been a disconnect between the Venture Capital (VC) industry and the Startups that they fund. VCs are the embodiment of old school funding and their investments have, until recently, been the judge, jury, and executioner for countless innovation… Read More

April 22, 2020 @ 3:57 pm By JD Alois  |  

Yesterday, Crowdfund Insider covered the news that LendingClub (NYSE:LC), the largest Fintech consumer lender in the US, was furloughing and eliminating jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The crisis has apparently driven the elimination of 471 individual jobs. Shockingly, LendingClub’s President saw his position eliminated…. Read More

April 20, 2020 @ 9:16 am By JD Alois  |  

In a widely anticipated move, HM Treasury announced a new package of bailout programs for early-stage ventures that did not qualify for programs initially set into place to support the COVID-19 battered economy. There have been profound concerns that younger, entrepreneurial firms that require ongoing… Read More

April 18, 2020 @ 4:48 pm By Marcie Terman  |  

The heady days of a booming token sales market driven by FOMO are long gone. Firms looking to raise money on the blockchain in 2020 are faced with a far more cautious investor base, and with good reason. A high percentage of early tokens failed—… Read More

April 17, 2020 @ 2:53 pm By JD Alois  |  

As has been widely reported, the Paycheck Protection Program – part of the CARES Act that provided SMEs with 2 months of payroll loans that may be forgiven – has run out of money. The widely lauded plan has struggled to distribute the funds as… Read More

April 17, 2020 @ 9:05 am By JD Alois  |  

This is interesting because it is indicative of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally approved Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) investment in Deliveroo. Before the Coronavirus, the investment was not a given as the CMA was “concerned that… Read More

April 15, 2020 @ 10:28 am By JD Alois  |  

The three largest European digital banks have over 18 million registered users combined. That number is predicted to soar to over 23 million by the end of this year, according to a writeup by Finanso. Today, Revolut (UK) is the biggest at over 10 million… Read More

April 14, 2020 @ 2:56 pm By JD Alois  |  

Startups and early-stage firms are vital to any economy that seeks to foster robust growth and wealth creation. Yet many early-stage firms are focused more on growth than earnings, and thus would not qualify for the programs bundled together by the UK government during the… Read More

April 11, 2020 @ 5:00 pm By Ben DiScipio  |  

Earlier this month, The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a set of amendments to the exemptive framework under the Securities Act of 1933. This includes a notable update to Reg CF – increasing the funding cap from its current $1.07 million to $5 million…. Read More

April 5, 2020 @ 7:07 pm By JD Alois  |  

Fintechs are starting to furlough employees as the economy tanks due to the COVID-19 induced decline. While not officially in recession, major economies are bracing for the worse while businesses are compelled to let employees go as business activity slows. On Monday, it was reported… Read More

April 2, 2020 @ 8:30 pm By Renaud Laplanche  |  

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Our biggest concern this year was going to be the Presidential election, or for some of us the Tokyo Olympics or the Warriors missing the NBA playoffs. Instead, the world’s population is experiencing an unprecedented shock that is… Read More

March 31, 2020 @ 11:46 am By Karsten Wenzlaff and Ronald Kleverlaan  |  

The Crowdfunding industry is well aware of what economists call externalities – the fact that behavior of some people has an unintended impact on other people. Positive externalities can be observed on the Crowdfunding platforms every day due to the willingness of people to join… Read More

March 30, 2020 @ 2:36 pm By JD Alois  |  

Seedrs founder and Chairman Jeff Lynn has distributed his thoughts on the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the UK government’s approach to aid the struggling economy – more specifically for early-stage firms. Lynn dices the issue up between the Good, the Bad and… Read More

March 30, 2020 @ 7:30 am By Andrés Abumohor  |  

Small businesses in emerging economies are notoriously underfinanced. Despite making up over 99.5% of the economy in Latin America, SMEs face a financing gap in the trillions of dollars. For example, up to 78% of small businesses in Argentina and 45% in Peru struggle to… Read More