Singapore state investment giant Temasek led the round of funding, which will be used for global expansion.
Monzo has grown its customer base over five times in one year and used different methods that help keep that base coming back; they ask for community feedback, open the company for equity crowdfunding rounds so users can invest and they host small, intimate events; 80 percent of their growth is word of mouth, the remaining 20 percent is through ads on Facebook and Twitter; “The biggest challenge is that we’re growing very fast — our customer and employee numbers are growing fast — we want to keep the customer focus, how we operate a transparent customer growth approach, and how we do that at scale,” as Tristan Thomas, Monzo’s head of marketing and community, tells TearSheet. Source.
PitchIt @ LendIt Europe is one of the industry's most popular startup competitions providing eight finalists with unparalleled access to industry expertise and funding opportunities as well as invaluable exposure, branding and more at the event; hosted in partnership with Startupbootcamp, the event also offers fast-track status to the finalist round for Startupbootcamp Fintech Accelerator as one of its prizes; interested startup companies must submit their application by September 4 and finalists will be announced on September 10; more details about the competition can be found here. Source
There is increased focus on UX Design but few understand its importance. Going beyond visual design, for many fintechs, UX can spell success or failure. We took a dive into UX with Design Accelerator's Federico Spiezia, understanding the value it brings to a business and how it can be measured.
Every month P2P-Banking shares the loan volumes of the top international p2p lending companies; In January Mintos led originations with...
Balderton Capital is best known for their fintech investments in Nutmeg, Revolut, Crowdcuve and Prodigy Finance; the firm has now launched their sixth fund totaling $375 million from investors in Europe, Asia and the US; they have made 10 investments across five countries since March. Source
Invoice financing platform, BillFront, has secured $35 million in financing from a Series A funding round which included 4Finance, NIBC Bank and FinLeap; BillFront offers a working capital solution to media companies; uses advanced technology to evaluate a company's invoices for financing approval; the firm will use the new capital for company expansion and continued development of its technology. Source
Monzo's CEO talks about the digital bank's growing business in an interview with TechCrunch; the firm was recently granted a UK banking license with some restrictions; the digital bank has 100,000 users with activity driven by pre-paid Mastercards and mobile applications; Tom Blomfield gives his perspective on the fintech banking market and new PSD2 regulations; Blomfield also confirmed Monzo has already turned down an acquisition offer from a major bank. Source
Michael and I talk about how Altro was able to work with bureaus to create this trade line, where the credit score is today, and more.
Hey everyone, and welcome back to Chain Reaction. Last week, we talked about the rough road ahead for Coinbase. This week, we’re talking a bit about Andreessen Horowitz’s multibillion-dollar bet on web3’s continued viability.