The Wall Street Journal reports a new fundraising round led by DST Global will value the company at more than $5bn; the last valuation was about $1.3bn in 2017; popularity in the app has since jumped when it expanded to include cryptocurrencies bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin; since launching they have reached more than 4 million users and the new valuation will put them in the top 15 of highest valued private tech companies in the U.S. Source.
Goldman Sachs has launched an in house incubator that will allow employees to work on innovative ideas; GS Accelerate is currently accepting applications to move Goldman into new business areas, manage risk and try to fix inefficiencies; the move is part of a wider strategy for Goldman who now shows 46 percent of staff being in technology; “When it comes to entrepreneurship, there are always more failures than successes,” a memo reported by TearSheet stated. “But if we’re creative, imaginative and learn from what did and didn’t work, GS Accelerate can become a powerful engine to bring important ideas to life.” Source.
The Senate passed a banking bill meant to roll back some of the financial regulations imposed after the crisis, but its fate is uncertain in the House; Republicans in the House want a further rollback of regulations; the bill is intended to help smaller banks avoid burdensome federal oversight and raises the definition of systemically important to $250bn from $50bn; the bill also makes adjustments to parts of the Volcker Rule and eases mortgage rules for smaller lenders. Source.
UK based Funding Circle recently signaled they were looking to go public this year and now investors are wondering is this the start of a UK fintech IPO trend; rumors have swirled around Zopa, LendInvest, Monzo and others, but thus far not many have gone forward with a listing; there is concerns over the ability of the businesses to make a profit and have lessons been learned from U.S. fintech IPOs; while there has been a few small listing thus far time will tell whether or not the big fintech firms will make the leap. Source.
The Co-founder and Head of Business Development at SALT Lending introduces us to the world of asset-backed cryptocurrency lending. Source
A Medium post outlines some of the most interesting players in real estate tech, also known as PropTech across the globe; Opendoor, PeerStreet, RealtyShares are just a few of the names making the list which covered companies in many different niches. Source
The bonds have a minimum investment of £2,000 and offer investors a 5.37% return per year until 2023; the offer will close at or before 12 pm on March 29th; Christian Faes, co-founder of LendInvest stated, “We are delighted to be coming back to the market so soon after the successful issue of our first oversubscribed bond in August 2017.” Source
The patent shares how a platform could be built on the blockchain which could generate credit ratings based on a borrower’s behavior; the system would also leverage more data sources than current credit rating systems and provide more transparency to borrowers on how scores are calculated. Source
- How Citizens Bank is reaching millennials
- Bank Fintech Partnership More Than Just a Good Idea
- Developing The Application of Anti-fraud Technology to Enhance Financial Risk Management
- Merchant Advance Capital Closes $30 Million Debt Facility
- ETHLend creates the first Fully Gamified and Decentralized Credit Profile
Monzo has added the first batch of partnerships to their marketplace by striking deals with digital wealth investment accounts and online lenders; companies include Scalable Capital, Wealthify, Wealthsimple, WiseAlpha, Zopa, Bricklane.com and Octopus Choice; Monzo will not be making a commission from any of these agreements; the company has also opened up an interim third-party API to comply with open banking regulations. Source.