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Fintech

·Nov. 28, 2016

Europe’s Insurtech Market Heats Up

Two of Europe's largest incumbent insurance companies, Munich Re and Allianz SE, have begun investing in insurance startups; the deals show that insurance giants are beginning to see how technology is affecting their industry and they want to get in early; currently the focus has been on small investments into many companies; the startups focus on different areas of the market like insuring mobile phones or small electronics; similar to banks, it is worth keeping an eye on how insurance companies handle disruption and innovation. Source

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Fintech News Roundup

·Nov. 28, 2016

Growing Startups in the Insurtech Business

The insurtech industry is expected to grow significantly in 2017; insurtech startups are increasingly seeking to take advantage of a $4.5 trillion industry through new offerings and technological innovation; big data, Internet of Things, mobile technology, artificial intelligence, social networking and blockchain are some of the technologies driving startups in insurtech; Let's Talk Payments provides a list of 101 insurtech companies currently evolving in the insurtech business. Source

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Fintech News Roundup North America USA

·Nov. 28, 2016

Stripe Raises $150mn, Valuation Doubles to $9.2bn

Stripe, the most valuable fintech startup, has raised another $150 million and is now valued at $9.2 billion; the new round is being co-led by CapitalG, an investing arm of Alphabet Inc., and General Catalyst Partners; Sequoia Capital is also reported to be participating; Stripe is used by businesses to accept and track digital payments. Source

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Fintech News Roundup

·Nov. 29, 2016

Capgemini Releases Report on Fintech

Capgemini's "World Fintech Report" provides insight on fintech and its current collision with traditional financial service providers; report says that fintech is both overhyped and underestimated; Capgemini points out the success of fintech while noting the industry's small percentage of business versus traditional firms; provides details on how fintech firms are partnering with traditional firms and how fintech is evolving to become a more significant part of traditional firms; highlights the growth potential ahead for the fintech industry; notes how traditional firms are approaching fintech partnerships and investment; says 59.2% of traditional finance firms are developing their own in-house capabilities and 60% are establishing partnerships with innovative fintech firms. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Nov. 29, 2016

Atlassian Co-Founder Highlights Fintech Opportunity in Australia

Speaking at StartCon in Sydney, Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of Atlassian, shared his thoughts on the inefficient banking industry in Australia; some of the major problems are the lack of ability to access the data and the ease of being able to switch banks; Cannon-Brookes stated, "The lack of a banking API in Australia is crazy."; Australian banks make approximately AU$1,000 in profit per person, per year and their profits equate to 2.9% of GDP; this is due to the lack of competition and heavy regulations in the banking sector, according to Cannon-Brookes. Source

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Fintech News Roundup North America USA

·Nov. 29, 2016

Calypso to Develop Trade Confirmation App

Calypso, a fintech firm that develops software for capital markets, has struck a deal with blockchain consortium R3 to develop applications on its Corda platform; Corda is a distributed ledger platform for managing financial contracts which will be released later this week; Calypso will first build a trade confirmation app to function on Corda; according to Calypso CEO Pascal Xatart, "Our current matching solution is only the beginning." Source

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Europe Fintech News Roundup

·Nov. 29, 2016

Fintech Startup, Finimize, Raised 450k British Pounds

The London-based startup that focuses on millennials raised 450,000 British pounds in seed funding from Passion Capital, with participation from Jason Butler; the funds will be used to build out the team and continue product development on Finimize MyLife; the company's Finimize MyLife product is a free online financial advice platform for millennials that provides anyone with a detailed and personalized financial plan guided by research and algorithms. Source

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Europe Fintech News Roundup

·Nov. 29, 2016

Fintech Partnerships Helping Revenue at Traditional UK Financial Services Firms

A survey of 70 traditional UK financial services firms by Mayer Brown has quantified the benefits of fintech partnerships in the financial services industry; 100% of survey participants said they would purchase a product or work directly with a fintech company over the next three years and 49% of respondents said they were currently working with a fintech firm in a joint venture partnership; other highlights from the survey report found that 87% of respondents could reduce costs after a fintech partnership, 83% of respondents were able to refresh their brand and 54% of respondents increased revenue. Source

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Fintech News Roundup

·Nov. 29, 2016

Payment Companies See a Continued Boom

Off the recent news about Stripe's fundraising round, payment companies across the board are seeing growth and increased investor interest; Adyen BV, WePay, PayPal and Square are just a few of the other, well positioned names who are benefiting from the sector wide growth; Square's stock price rose on news of the Stripe fundraising; as online lenders have struggled, payment firms have only continued a pattern of growth, even more evident by the recent holiday sales numbers that showed 109 million people shopped online, more than the 99 million who went to the stores. Source

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Europe Fintech News Roundup

·Nov. 29, 2016

Germany’s Central Bank Testing Blockchain for Securities Settlement

Germany's central bank is testing the use of blockchain technology in securities settlement; the central bank has partnered with Deutsche Börse to build a prototype; the prototype system is expected to be able to transfer electronic securities and digital coins also performing functions for coupon payments and redemptions of securities. Source

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