A to Z

digital lending

Crypto decentralized finance digital lending enterprise blockchain entrepreneurship fixed income neobank roboadvisor

·Jul. 17, 2020

Figure, SoFi and the Disruption of Finance with Mike Cagney

Mike Cagney is the Co-Founder and CEO of Figure, a full stack financial services blockchain company with consumer offerings in market or on the way in lending, banking and more. In late-2019, Figure raised $103 million at a $1.2 billion valuation and continues to grow.

Prior to starting Figure, Mike co-founded and ran SoFi, one of the most successful consumer fintech companies ever.

In this conversation, we discuss Figure’s routes to asset origination and capital markets disruption, Figure’s previously unannounced consumer banking and payments offering, lessons learned building and scaling multiple billion dollar companies and more.

Read Full Story

Crypto digital lending monetization / commercial Social / Community

·Apr. 5, 2021

Getting paid now for future performance with Pipe’s $150MM raise and BitClout’s $200MM of Bitcoin

This week, we look at:

Pipe’s $150 million raise at a $2 billion valuation to turn annualized revenue run-rate into a new peer-to-peer asset class
BitClout’s $200 million of Bitcoin contributions and its mechanisms to turn social media profiles into digital assets
How both projects trade future performance for current monetization

Read Full Story

Lending

·Oct. 23, 2023

Gig Economy Loan Approvals Could Lie in Income Probability

The UK gig economy is underserved by lenders' traditional affordability assessment. A shift to probability of future income could be key.

Read Full Story

acquisition digital lending digital transformation financial advisors Investing neobank roboadvisor

·May. 18, 2020

Goldman is trying to build a Fintech powerhouse, and this is how they should do it

This week, we put on the Goldman hat and go shopping for companies. We buy a little bit of Folio and sell some Motif. We look at Personal Capital and the $1 billion it wants for its $12 billion of assets. We examine the private markets with Addepar / iCapital and SharesPost / Forge, and then move over to the banking sector. Should we buy Wells Fargo, as rumored, or some digital wallet apps? Read on for how to acquire a best-in-class Fintech.

Read Full Story

acquisition digital lending enterprise blockchain financial advisors funding round marketing

·May. 20, 2019

Goldman pays $750M for wealth platform United Capital, Jefferies gives blockchain-lender Figure $1B

Two things are on my mind: (1) the acquisition of United Capital by Goldman Sachs, and (2) Mike Cagney's Figure securing a $1 billion funding line from Jefferies and WSFS for blockchain-tracked home equity loans. Both are outcomes of complex, interesting, somewhat unexpected processes -- and both are examples of demand-driven market expansion. Let me highlight that again. Both of these are consumer-centric developments, and not product-driven developments, which goes to the core of the problem in the financial services industry.

Read Full Story

augmented reality big tech digital lending eCommerce marketing Metaverse / xR

·Jul. 8, 2019

Google and Amazon’s mixed reality advertising could become digital lending and payments platforms

Finance is everywhere, and everywhere is finance. Smart city supply chains, self driving car insurance, video game real estate markets -- no matter which frontier technology you touch, it will have embedded implications on the delivery of financial services. And why wouldn't it? Like the use of language, finance is a human technology that allows societies to coalesce and compete with one another (in the Yuval Harari sense). It lifts people out of poverty and into entrepreneurship through microloans, providing generational sustenance for their families. And of course it also throws them into pits of corruption and greed, as they drink too deeply from the rivers of securitization and political power.

But enough poetry! I want to talk about augmented reality, attention platforms, and the re-formulation of payments and lending propositions in a global context.

Read Full Story

big tech digital lending digital transformation Investing mega banks Open Banking paytech roboadvisor super app

·Nov. 23, 2020

Google has come to Banking. What does that mean, and what should we do about it?

Google has done it. In a massive update to Google Pay, the company highlighted exactly the direction of travel for high tech, fintech, and the global banks. It has articulated a vision for competing with Apple Pay and Ant Financial. Let's walk through the features.

Read Full Story

big tech China digital lending digital transformation paytech

·Jul. 31, 2020

Growth of brand banking, tragedy of OnDeck vs. Kabbage, and the Indian Fintech war between WhatsApp and WeChat

The fintech world is not taking the summer off. New developments are coming fast and furious, from fundraisings to product launches to government intervention.

Banking for brands startup Bond raised $32 million to capitalize on the exploding trend of B2B2C banking.

Samsung Money launched, leveraging SoFi’s infrastructure. As SoFi again seeks a national banking charter, they could become the de facto leader in this space.

Kabbage and Intuit launched small business bank accounts as extensions of their already deep relationships with SMBs.

And WhatsApp is trialing all sorts of financial services in India just as Chinese fintech super apps are being banned from the country.

Read Full Story

artificial intelligence

·Nov. 7, 2023

How AI generates more lending opportunities

InformedIQ helps lenders find opportunities in today’s challenging environment while others pull back. The main difference is who embraces AI.

Read Full Story

digital lending digital securities / STO neobank

·Aug. 17, 2020

How Monzo, Revolut, and Starling get to break-even, and comparison with WeChat and Facebook

This week, we look at:

The financial model behind Monzo, and comparisons to Revolut and Starling
How the Eastern super apps inspired the marketplace model, and why that success is hard for neobanks to replicate
Paths from losing $100 million per year to break-even and enabling digital assets and other financial products
Facebook Financial forming to take over payments and commerce

Read Full Story