Bloomberg reports on the possibility of ride-sharing companies getting into financial services; Grab is a leading ride-hailing company in Southeast Asia; app users can now start sending credits which are used to pay for rides to other users; by the end of 2017 credits will be able to be used at 1,000 restaurants and retailers, turning Grab into much more of an e-payment platform than just a taxi service; in Indonesia, the 200,000 drivers of Go-Jek can use e-wallets to store their earnings and also spend funds on a variety of services; article also shares innovation in Kenya with M-Pesa as well as China's Alibaba and WeChat. Source
The app is designed to help users pay down student loan debt; it links with customers' debit cards and rounds up purchases as spare change which is then used to make weekly payments to student loans; the bank will market the app to target millennials and add new customers. Source
Scott Zoldi, chief analytics officer at FICO, discusses innovation in credit data, credit scoring and fraud protection; FICO has been using artificial intelligence for decades and the firm has over 130 patents; Scott has experience in theoretical physics and joined FICO in 1999 to focus on the use and development of data with a specific interest in machine learning; Scott talks about the company's standard credit scoring services and also the innovative solutions FICO has developed including the FICO XD score for financial inclusion and their fraud solution product, Falcon. Source
Two cases involving sexual harassment charges have been filed against SoFi; CEO Mike Cagney wrote an open letter regarding the cases, stressing that he is taking the complaints seriously; Cagney and SoFi's legal team are in the process of investigating and responding to the filings. Source
Its platform focused on funding from fans for internet celebrities on YouTube, Twitch and other live streaming platforms; in August it raised 119.5 ether which is about $47,000; the SEC notified Protostarr of its investigation however a final status has not been reported; the firm says forming a legal department to manage the ICO investigation and potential need for registration is not within its short-term plans and it will refund its ICO investors. Source
Habito has raised its Series B funding round, led by Atomico; existing investors Ribbit Capital, Mosaic Ventures and Revolutionary (Ad)Ventures also participated; total funding is now EUR27 million ($35.14 million) for the London based company; the company brings the mortgage process online, describing itself as a digital mortgage broker; one of their biggest competitors is Trussle; funds will be used to integrate with major retail banks and high street lenders; Habito also plans to expand offerings to other parts of the mortgage process including home and life insurance. Source
Chinese authorities on Monday ordered a ban on initial coin offerings (ICOs); a PBoC statement ordered that ICO activities should be halted starting from Monday, and ICO platforms should not engage in exchange services between fiat currencies, virtual coins and tokens; two of China's leading ICO platforms, ICOAGE and ICOINFO, had already halted services before the official statement came out. Source
Sequoia Capital and IDG Capital are investing in Bitmain, the world's largest bitcoin mining company; Bitmain is seeking $50 million in funding to expand its artificial intelligence capabilities, after previously focusing on developing chips for mining; Bitmain claimed in August that the company is at a $1 billion valuation, and is planning an IPO. Source
The market for initial coin offerings (ICOs) has seen quite the rise in 2017 as investors have been pouring billions into blockchain based startups; these large fundraisings have been done without any real regulatory oversight until recently; in July the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a report stating that the offering by the company DAO was a securities offering; Chinese regulators issued statements over the past few months stating their intention to look at the market and this past weekend they deemed ICOs illegal in China; while companies have been able to secure vast amounts of capital there has also been increased cases of theft and fraud; the coming regulatory wave is sure to change how market participants act. Source
Andy Taylor previously co-founded marketplace lending platform SocietyOne; his new venture Douugh is a personal financial app; it uses a virtual assistant called Sophie to help users manage their finances; much like other apps, users input their financial accounts; users can interact with Sophie, asking questions like "How much did I spend on food this week?"; the app will also provide context around whether the amount spent is higher than usual and also aid users in setting up spending targets; the company is in beta for the rest of the year and will officially launch in February of next year; they hope to eventually make Sophie accessible via Alexa and Siri. Source