The European Investment Fund (EIF) has pumped over $2 billion into venture capital funds and startups in the last four years; with the vote to leave the European Union, venture capitalists in the UK now fear that this important source of funding will disappear as the government looks to officially complete Brexit; the UK is not as fortunate as the US when it comes to endowments that allocate capital to funds, therefore the EIF has filled a much needed role; there currently is no plan to replace the EIF when the UK officially leaves, though lawmakers and lobbyists are looking to see if they can strike a deal to keep the flow of capital coming. Source
Baidu is active in artificial intelligence (AI) development and could provide an investment channel for investors seeking to gain from the innovative technology; the company is integrating AI into nearly all aspects of its business and in September launched artificial intelligence platform "Baidu Brain" which integrates AI in search, news feeds, maps, Nuomi and PostBar; the firm is also evolving AI for healthcare and actively developing autonomous driving solutions powered by AI; overall, its business model can easily integrate AI while it also provides products for AI entrance in other markets. Source
Nearshore Systems announced two online lending platform development partnerships at LendIt USA 2017; the software engineering firm was chosen by Dianrong to support the efforts of the firm's new blockchain-based solution; Nearshore was also selected by US-based Hijro to support the development of the firm's trade finance platform built on distributed ledger technology. Source
"Orebits Corp. has created a new asset class, enabled by Symbiont's distributed ledger technology, which will change the precious metals financing marketplace forever," says Scott Mehlman, CEO of Orebits Corp.; through support from Symbiont's blockchain technology, Orebits will offer clients digitized "smart certificates" called "orebits" that are tied to gold reserves setting up a new form of gold trading; additionally the exchange for the new gold orebits will operate based on a peer-to-peer structure; Symbiont reports that the innovation has created a completely new trading alternative for investors to gain exposure to gold and Orebits says the exchange will operate without margins, storage and insurance, creating a considerable advantage over other current methods for investing in gold. Source
The New York Interactive Advertising Exchange has partnered with Nasdaq to create NYIAX, a blockchain trading platform for digital advertising contracts; Nasdaq has supported the system with its trading and blockchain technology; through the system publishers and advertisers can buy, sell and re-trade digital advertising as guaranteed contracts; NYIAX says it also plans to expand trading to other advertising markets including TV, print and radio. Source
While bitcoin's price has been reaching new highs its trading volatility has also been high; market momentum has recently been slowed by a number of factors including exchange regulation and new fees in China and the denial of the Winklevoss bitcoin ETF; Business Insider charts the cryptocurrencies progress and reports a double top with a neckline at $1,100 noting that if the price falls below the chart's neckline, technical analysis would indicate it's likely to fall even further, giving it a new expected average of approximately $900; given recent market factors a significant decrease in China trading volume and the technical analysis, bitcoin's price appears to be headed lower. Source
Experian has partnered with Finicity to launch Digital Verification Solutions, a service that leverages Finicity's technology to connect with financial institutions for verifying income and assets; Experian is the first credit bureau to offer this type of solution; in addition to offering an enhanced service, the solution is also intended to help lenders broaden their credit underwriting for thin file borrowers; Finicity is also working with other lenders to help improve verification processes and shorten the end-to-end processing time for lending. Source
The United States Automobile Association (USAA) was created to provide financial services for Americans serving in the military; the Association has seen significant adoption of biometric authentication which it first introduced for members in 2015; the USAA is currently reporting two million of its five million mobile app users opting for mobile account sign in using fingerprint, facial or voice recognition; the Association is actively integrating new biometric solutions and working with new providers. Source
Innovate Finance has announced eight industry leaders for a new ambassador program; Innovate Finance is one of the UK's most active trade associations for fintech; it's led by CEO Lawrence Wintermeyer; some of the program's industry leading ambassadors include Anju Patwardhan from the CreditEase FinTech Fund and Mike Sigal from 500 Startups; the ambassadors will be actively involved in the organization's upcoming Global Summit on April 10 and 11 in London. Source
Southeast Asia reported 71 fintech deals in 2016, an increase of 29% from 2015; total deal value was down from $177 million at $158 million; angel and seed investments led for the year with 62% of total financings; in 2016, Singapore continued to be the region's most active fintech innovator with 52% of the year's total deals; the top three venture capital investors since 2012 are East Ventures, 500 Startups and Golden Gate Ventures. Source