Invoice finance platform BlueVine secured $130mn in debt financing; the financing comes from Silicon Valley Bank, SunTrust Bank, Bank Leumi and TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp.; BlueVine founder and CEO Eyal Lifshitz tells Bankless Times, “Business owners have diverse needs, and by augmenting our product offering, we are able to offer the solution that fits best.” Source.
Cybercrime is a growing problem with ID theft hitting a record high in 2016 affecting 15.4 million people; Credit card fraud resulted in $21.84 billion in losses across the world; synthetic identities are a top risk for the banking industry and banks need next-generation KYC tools to protect themselves. Source
The deal help to increase their efforts to bring credit scoring and ID verification to emerging markets; “We’re thrilled to join forces with Lenddo and create an undisputed, global category leader in alternative data for credit decisioning,” said Jared Miller, CEO of EFL to Bankless Times; they will work with banks, telcos, retailers, microfinance institutions and insurers to help bring credit to people with little or no credit history. Source.
Lending Club has a new deal for investors to earn United miles; last year the initial program awarded 1 mile for every $2 invested; now investors will earn 1 mile for every $1 investors; the program is open to new and existing investors and is valid until January 9, 2018. Source
The FT has seen regtech as one of the fastest growing areas of fintech with a surge of applications to their Future of Fintech awards; new regulations such as the EU’s Mifid II rules, increased compliance and KYC checks by financial institutions looking for more cost efficient ways to verify customers has helped to bring new startups into the market; fintech has moved well beyond lending and the diversification of the market continues to grow. Source.
According to data from FT Partners, the third quarter brought the highest financing deal count ever with 412 transactions; banking (including p2p lending) and payments had the most deals in the quarter; transactions of note include Softbank’s $250 million investment in Kabbage and raises by Toast Inc. and Raise Marketplace. Source
While announcing earnings for Q3 Wells Fargo and Bank of America both revealed how important digital channels are to their bottom line; BofA saw mobile banking users jump 11 percent, mobile usage grew at 19 percent and digital payments grew 9 percent in the past year; Wells Fargo saw digital usage grow 2 percent and digital sessions grow 6 percent; the digital trend shows how much banks businesses are changing. Source.
Person to person payments growth was about 67% and accounted for 13.6 million transactions; According to CEO Brian Moynihan the bank processed half a billion dollars in a single week; other banks including Wells Fargo are also reporting increases in person to person payments; Bank of America is also planning to release a mobile offering for auto and home loans along with its AI assistant; Bank of America spent $2.25 billion on tech initiatives in the first nine months of 2017. Source
The blockchain startup has now raised a total of $110mn after taking in $40mn in a series B round; Jefferson River Capital led the funding round, which also included new and previous investors; in addition to the fundraising they hired Clyde Rodriguez, a former Microsoft executive, as chief information officer and chief technology officer for engineering. Source.