According to Peer2Peer Finance News, "The inaugural Peer2Peer Finance News Power 50 list aims to identify the big names in the industry who have helped it grow into a force to contend with over the past decade and who will play a key role in its future."; rounding out the top 10 include executives from RateSetter, Zopa, Funding Circle as well as Christine Farnish from the P2PFA, Bruce Davis, co-founder of Abundance, Mark Carney, governor, Bank of England and Andrew Bailey, chief executive, Financial Conduct Authority. Source
Non-bank lender Pemberton Asset Management sees a big opportunity in business lending with the uncertainty surrounding Brexit; Pemberton is confident that European banks will pull back as a result of Brexit and slow their lending practices; the sizable raise also points to the confidence in private debt funds as an option for companies unable to get financing from the banks.
Pemberton has received investment of 1.2 billion euros for its European mid-market debt fund; the fund will invest in private debt of European companies with a turnover between €75 million and 1 billion euros; investors in the fund include insurance companies, pension funds, family offices and foundations from Europe, Asia and the US; strategy was launched due to high demand from European mid-market companies seeking financing; Keith Jones, chairman of Pemberton, says, "As the private debt market matures, we are very well-placed to play a significant role in this increasingly important asset class." Source
Penta is a German based fintech company that is looking to improve business banking with their Compass platform; Penta is streamlining the process to allow founders the ability to open up an account in less than 15 minutes; further features will be added in the coming months to assist founders with other registration and legal issues related to starting a small business. Source
Penta is a Berlin-based business bank which also has operations in Italy; RTP Global led the round with investors HV...
Credit card company Petal, which has tripled its user base in the last year, has raised $140 million in a Series D round led by Tarsadia Investments.
PayPal founder Peter Thiel, and his fund Valar Ventures, led a $10 million seed round in German insurtech startup Coya; other investors in the round include e.ventures and La Famiglia; Dr. Peter Hagen, one of the founders of Coya, tells Business Insider, "This investment will allow Coya to further extend our team and build up an exceptional product for our customers."; the company is planning to build a digital insurance provider and is in the process of trying to get full authorization from German regulators; founders of Coya include two former Kreditech employees and ex-CEO of Vienna Insurance Group. Source
U.K. based personal financial management app Emma recently launched in December and has struck data sharing deals with Starling Bank and Monzo; the app also works across 17 banks to screen scrape data as the banks work towards compliance with open banking; Emma is a budgeting app that helps customers avoid overdrafts and sees a big opportunity with the open banking regulations; “We’re building a tech company, and we understand that the data [play] goes beyond just overdrafts — it’s about understanding when certain events happen, money can be saved or invested,” said Emma founder and CEO Edoardo Moreni to TearSheet. Source.
Philip Hammond is the former UK chancellor and foreign secretary; now he has joined OakNorth’s advisory board; Hammond stated to...
Buy now pay later (BNPL) startups are proliferating around the world and the Philippines is no exception. Today, one of the country’s biggest BNPL providers, BillEase, announced it has raised an $11 million Series B. The round was led by BurdaPrincipal Investments, growth capital arm of Hubert Burda Media. Other participants included Centauri, a joint...