For stablecoins, the push for new regulation seems to be taking on new urgency, sounding alarm bells over what might be a systemic risk in financial services.
Revolut has closed a $500 million round led by TCV; the challenger bank has now raised $836 million in total;...
Qonto is a french startup building a modern business banking solution, aiming to become "The banking alternative for entrepreneurs and startups" according to its website; the company raised $1.7 million from Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures and Alven Capital; Valar Ventures has also invested in digital bank N26 and TransferWise; Qonto wants to provide a wide variety of services including allowing receipt uploads to make filing taxes easier; they plan to integrate with other fintech products to transfer money and manage payments; launch is currently slated for April. Source
Blend Network is a UK-based company, offering asset-backed property loans to retail, high net worth and institutional investors; officially launching loans on the site two weeks ago, the firm has raised GBP350,000 ($460,115) from a small network of investors; loans are expected to offer between eight and 15% with a minimum investment of GBP1,000 ($1,315); loans are introduced by F&P who acts as a sponsor in the P2P sector; the firm introduces borrowers to a wide variety of lenders and currently works with platforms such as ThinCats. Source
In this episode, we talk with the founders of Keep Financial (formerly of Kabbage), Rob Frohwein and Kathryn Petralia, as they discuss employee compensation, why it is broken, and how a comprehensive fintech approach can fix it.
London-based ethical lender Plend released its first Financial Inclusion Report, created in collaboration with Nationwide Building Society, Nationwide Incubator, Responsible Finance and StepChange, to highlight the UK’s financial exclusion crisis and those most at risk in society.
The new company called Vive just received their restricted banking license from the Bank of England; Vive plans to launch...
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) works with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK to protect investments for consumers; the FSCS is comparable to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the US; the FCA is currently conducting research and undergoing consultation on the crowdfunding market; current consultation has involved communication between the FSCS and FCA on potential solutions for insuring funds; it's not likely that insured funds will be integrated into the FCA's new crowdfunding regulations however the two agencies are discussing options. Source
Curve allows consumers to combine their credit and debit cards into one card and a smart app; the company has...
Georg Ludviksson, the head of Meniga, a digital bank that was started in Finland back in 2009, says that banks are at risk of losing the top spot among their customer base; tech giants like Google, Facebook and Alibaba are placing themselves between banks, and their customers are no longer seeing their traditional bank as the go to place for financial services; Georg Ludviksson also points out that the coming PSD2 regulation will shift the balance of power from banks to the customer and that the regulation has the potential to transform banking in Europe. Source