In its most recent podcast, ReBank talked with Rob Moffat of Balderton Capital; the podcast provides a venture capitalist's view on European fintech; Moffat talks about the market opportunities for investment and the firm's investment portfolio; LendIt will also be featuring Rob Moffat as a PitchIt judge at this year's LendIt Europe event in October. Source
The European robo adviser has gained 10,000 customers and reported GBP260 million ($339.25 million) in assets under management; customers include Italian and UK consumers; source provides other data from the company's earnings results reporting a loss of GBP6.3 million ($8.22 million) from revenue of GBP167,628 ($218,721) for 2016; company says it is forecasting profitability by 2019; currently partnering with Allianz and another firm in Italy on two new servicing deals; also focused on launching a pension product this year. Source
Fellow Finance is a Finnish P2P lender; the new offering will allow businesses to turn trade receivables into cash; invoices will be placed on the marketplace for investors; the loans will be offered in addition to traditional business loans; Jouni Hintikka, CEO of Fellow Finance, stated: "Financing a trade receivable is one of the easiest and most reasonable ways for companies to acquire working capital. By financing an invoice, a firm immediately receives its money, which accelerates money circulation and supports the growth of the business. The invoice finance service by Fellow Finance is technologically a forerunner compared to traditional services and operators in Europe." Source
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has released new rules for banking business lenders regarding APR transparency and pricing; the CMA has confirmed that P2P lenders will be exempt from its new banking rules; despite the exemption, it is likely that the new rules will cause more P2P lenders to provide greater APR transparency in order to maintain market competitiveness. Source
Ratesetter took a minority stake in George Banco in May but now the firm is being acquired; all George Banco loans will be refinanced and RateSetter lenders will be paid in full; RateSetter has GBP30 million ($39.11 million) of outstanding loans with the company; George Banco provides loans to borrowers with poor credit and brings in a third party in case the borrower fails to repay. Source
Blocksure is looking to bring the beneficial aspects of blockchain technology to the insurance market; according to Coverager, Blocksure has developed an insurance policy delivered by a SMART contract; SMART stands for see-through, multifaceted, authoritative and real-time; this would enable insurers and the many parties involved in a transaction to use one centralized location for the contract; this would be a more efficient and secure way to operate; we are likely to continue to see blockchain based proof of concepts across the insurance space in the future. Source
ID Finance will collaborate with Yuri Popov and asset manager Da Vinci Capital to launch the FinTech Credit Fund; estimated fund value is $200 million with debt financing focused on fintech and alternative lending; ID Finance is a growing fintech firm with three businesses: MoneyMan, Ammopay and Solva. Source
Firm says the platform is the first to introduce hire purchase loans for businesses; the firm has developed the product in collaboration with former wholesale lending partner Corporate Asset Solutions who will serve as a distribution channel; RateSetter will take full security over the specified asset and the platform says its hire purchase agreements will range up to GBP750,000 ($993,000). Source
P2P-Banking.com has released international lending volumes for July; Zopa topped the list with originations of EUR119.6 million ($USD141.9 million) for the month; report includes a number of milestones including cumulative lending of GBP2.5 billion ($3.28 billion) for Zopa and GBP2 billion ($2.63 billion) for RateSetter; the report does not include data from US P2P lending platforms. Source
UK invoice financing platform MarketInvoice reported a record day of transactions this week; the platform transacted GBP4.1 million ($5.38 million) in invoice advances to UK businesses; the firm's MarketInvoice Pro product has been a factor supporting increased lending volumes on the platform with the new product offering an open funding line for businesses. Source