The ratings agency has put out a warning on the performance of loans on US peer to peer lending platforms;...
Flender, a marketplace lending platform in the UK, is seeking to raise 500,009 british pounds from an equity crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs; the company offers P2P loans through a mobile application; the firm's business model seeks to connect borrowers with lenders in their social network helping to facilitate social network lending. Source
Flender has launched a marketplace lending platform to facilitate social network lending for individuals and businesses; during its pilot period it successfully financed social network borrowing in Ireland for business startups, small business expansion, car finance, home improvements and student loans; the launch follows a successful Seedrs fundraising campaign that raised 500,000 British pounds ($608,680). Source
The firm recently launched in Ireland with a peer-to-peer platform lending model that integrates a borrower's social network in the lending process; it has received Financial Conduct Authority approval and says the additional funds will help it to launch in the UK; the firm is seeking GBP2 million ($2.60 million) in equity funding and will also potentially add more debt funding; Oli Cavanagh, founder of Flender, says he expects most of the funding to come from institutional investors. Source
Marketplace lending platform Flender has reached its investment goal on Seedrs; firm has received investment of 500,000 British pounds ($608,680); the firm's crowdfunding campaign will close on January 17 and it plans to launch in the first quarter of 2017; the platform will provide innovative business credit services that facilitate lending through a borrower's social network. Source
FNZ, global wealth management platform, today announced that it has agreed to acquire Appway, a client onboarding and servicing platform.
London-based FOL Wealth has launched a new robo advisor service for its wealth management clients; the solution offers clients automated service at an annual fee of 0.90% with a minimum investment of 1,000 British pounds ($1,216); it is intended to serve as a hybrid solution complementing the human advice of the firm's wealth advisors. Source
Folk2Folk has announced it will be using Microsoft Azure to support its loan management system; use of Microsoft Azure follows recent plans to significantly increase the firm's branch offices over the next two years; firm's business facilitates peer-to-peer lending through branch office locations. Source
The European Investment Fund (EIF) supports venture capitalists across Europe. Its publication, "The European venture capital landscape: an EIF perspective Volume III: Liquidity events and returns of EIF-backed VC investments," studies the investment performance of over 3,600 EIF-backed venture capital investments made from 1996 to 2015. Its primary goal is to identify the effects of the EIF's venture capital activity.
Results across venture capital investments are wide ranging with 4% of exits returning more than five times the investment and generating 50% of the total aggregated proceeds. Among these successful exits are 152 company IPOs of EIF-backed start-ups from 1996 to 2015 on 20 different stock exchanges around the world.
Investment from the European Investment Fund could be an important factor for the UK to manage as it exits from the European Union. Approximately 20% of the EIF's investment has been in the UK and over the past four years the EIF has invested EUR2.8 billion in the UK directly. If funding ceases many venture capital firms may consider moving their headquarters to provide for continued EIF investment in EU locations. Source
Europe provides some interesting examples for fintech bank chartering and licensing as companies SoFi and Varo lead the way in the United States; two top companies to watch include Tandem and Klarna; fintech company Tandem recently acquired a bank, Harrods Bank, which will provide it with GBP80 million ($103 million) of capital and a banking license if the transaction is approved; Klarna has also been a fintech banking leader in Europe; the Swedish payments company recently received a banking license and has reported deals with Permira, Visa and Brightfolk. Source