Robinhood has announced details of its latest funding round which raised $110 million for the firm giving it fintech unicorn status with a valuation of $1.3 billion; investors in the Series C funding round included DST Global, NEA, Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Thrive Capital and Greenoaks Capital; the firm also announced that it now has over two million users; the firm says: "Our two million users have transacted over $50 billion and saved nearly half a billion dollars in commission fees. Robinhood Gold, our margin and extended hours service, is also experiencing significant growth, with signups surging 17% month over month."; the firm plans to use funds from the Series C funding round for expansion of the platform's products and services. Source
Mobile app Dave is trying to help consumers manage their expenses and avoid overdraft fees; its technology provides users with their lowest seven day forecasted balance based on previous spending habits; it also allows customers to borrow up to $250 to cover expenses; the app has received investment from Mark Cuban. Source
LendIt China 2017 will include the Lang Di Fintech Conference and LendIt China Executive Tour; the Tour and Conference will take place from July 8-17; the China Executive Tour from July 8 to 15 will include networking activities and meetings in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai; following the Tour, LendIt will host its second annual Lang Di Fintech Conference event in Shanghai from July 15 to 17; Lend Academy provides more details on each of the two events in their article. Source
The fund, which was set up as storage for excess cash from online spending, has now reached $165.6 billion in assets under management; this now exceeds the amount of JP Morgan's largest money market fund which is $150 billion; since the fund is so big it allows Ant Financial, Alibaba affiliate, to negotiate better rates with banks for capital; while many believe the likes of Google and Facebook could enter the market they have yet to do so. Source
Opposition to the OCC's fintech charter continues with a new lawsuit filed by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors which says the OCC does not have the legal authority to issue the fintech charter that it has proposed; the lawsuit says the OCC will need "specific congressional approval" for the charter and that nondepository companies are not considered to be engaged in the business of banking; preemption of state consumer protection laws has evoked strong opposition to the OCC's fintech charter and the lawsuit by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors is the first court action taken by an opposing party; the OCC's financial inclusion provisions, lack of clarity on state mandated requirements such as interest rate caps, default rate limitations and underwriting standards, and lack of detail on business factors including capital requirements and other balance sheet measures have caused decreasing support for the charter overall. Source
Personal finance management app Pariti has partnered with Lendable to offer its customers loans; Lendable is the second lending partnership for the app following Zopa; Lendable also offers consumer loans with funds from high net worth and institutional investors. Source
The Luxembourg House of Financial Technology recently opened a new innovation hub; the innovation hub will provide support for Europe fintech businesses and could potentially lure more fintech businesses away from London; in comments regarding the new innovation hub, Nasir Zubairi, CEO of the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology, said: "Over the coming months we will be delivering a number of exciting projects with the community; education programs, hackathons, developer sandboxes as well as the Fintech Awards. We will work with the community to build up a soft-landing platform to make it as easy possible for fintech firms to set up in Luxembourg and we will promote all of Luxembourg's strengths internationally to put Luxembourg first in the considerations of fintech firms looking for an EU hub." Source
FinTex Chicago is launching Currency on June 1; Currency is a new initiative from the nonprofit group that will provide a new resource for startups; Currency will be located at WeWork on 20 W. Kinzie Street and will potentially rent some of its 32-desk space; Currency is expected to be a gathering place for fintech startups, academics, regulators and established firms in Chicago, according to Jason Henrichs, co-founder of FinTex Chicago; Currency and its partners also plan to share online resources and offer programming on the fintech regulatory environment. Source
Lend Academy provides a follow-up to their article on investment platforms for non-accredited investors; gives ten investment platforms for accredited investors across real estate, small business and consumer; defines the parameters for an accredited investor. Source
26 executives associated with Ezubao were on trial this week in China; the fraud case included Anhui Yucheng and Yucheng Global, operators of the online platform, along with other company executives and platform employees; Ezubao has reportedly taken in over 50 billion yuan ($7.3 billion) in fraudulent investments through two platforms Ezubao and Sesame Financial; a final result in the case has not yet been announced. Source