SONECT is a platform that can convert anyone or any shop into a virtual ATM; the startup beat out more than 100 companies and 8 finalist pitches; “Taking part in LendIt this year has given us fantastic exposure to London based VCs in the fintech capital of Europe as well as more insight into the UK market,” SONECT founder and CEO Sandipan Chakrabortty said to Bankless Times. Source.
Insurtech startup Lemonade announced “We’re opening up the Lemonade platform to the world!” says Shai Wininger, co-founder of Lemonade; the new open API will allow Lemonade to be seamlessly integrated with commerce websites, financial advisor apps, property management companies, payment software processors, IoT [internet of things] platforms and more as Banking Technology reports. Source.
This Week in Startups interviews the CEO of 21.co, Balaji Srinivasan; 21.co is one of the most well funded blockchain companies; Srinivasan is also a board member at Andreessen Horowitz. Source
TechBullion interviews Stani Kulechov, Founder of ETHLend; Ethlend is creating a global network for borrowers and lenders; discusses the benefits of using distributed ledger technology for loan transactions; the company currently has 20 people based around the world and delivered their Alpha-version in May 2017. Source
While giving a keynote speech at LendIt Europe 2017 Upgrade CEO Renaud Laplanche laid out his three biggest predictions for the near future; the growth of online lending will accelerate in the next 15 months, a meaningful secondary market will develop and rebundling will give birth to one major consumer product innovation in the next 15 months. Source.
Ken Sena runs a group within Wells Fargo Securities and recently introduced an artificially intelligent equity research analyst; the bot tracks stocks and put a sell rating on Facebook and Google, two of the top companies working on artificial intelligence; Sena provides his perspective on the new bot and where it might be falling short. Source
PeerIQ released their third quarter marketplace lending securitization report; total issuance for the quarter was $2.6 billion down from $3 billion in the last quarter; SoFi closed two consumer deals and one student deal; Lending Club and Prosper both issued one deal; College Avenue issued their first ever student loan securitization. Source
LendIt Europe 2017 keynote speaker Christoph Rieche, Iwoca CEO, announced the API with fellow fintech Tide is now live; the API allows third parties to access Iwoca’s credit and underwriting process which can decide on a loan within 10 minutes; Tide will provide Iwoca with data to help speed up credit decisions. Source.
The project will help to connect multiple digital wallets to process money transactions; they say this will allow different currencies to flow through wallets like HTTPS, SMTP and SIP information goes between web browsers according to Banking Technology; this would allow an individual making a payment through WeChat to send money to a friend who uses PayPal. Source.