Insurtech firm Trov has announced a $45 million investment from a Series D fundraising round; the platform plans to use the funds to expand its products, further develop its technology and enter new global markets; investors in the recent fundraising round included Munich Re/HSB Ventures, Oak HC/FT, Suncorp Group, Guidewire, Anthemis and Japan's Sompo Holdings; the single item insurer is already active in Australia, the UK and the US with its next expansion planned for Japan. Source
Random Forest Capital has developed a software solution that helps institutional investors identify investment opportunities from consumer, residential and commercial credit platforms; the firm has obtained $1.75 million from a fundraising round that it plans to use for building its software and machine learning algorithms and also for hiring new employees. Source
PwC has released a global report on fintech; says financial institutions across the world could lose 24% of their revenues to financial technology companies over the next three to five years; among other statistics, the report also finds that 82% of respondents plan to increase partnerships with fintech firms over the next three to five years to manage new innovation and market competition. Source
Fundrise plans to offer a new fund that invests in the development of homes for sale in Los Angeles, California; investors in the fund will be investing in a diversified portfolio of real estate properties in development and for sale with the option to buy homes in the portfolio; investors will receive distributions from the fund's operating cash flow which will primarily be generated from the sale of homes in the fund; distributions may also be made from other sources of cash flow including structured equity or debt. Source
CB Insights details wealthtech exits from 2012 reporting a total of 29 exits with 28 mergers or acquisitions and one IPO from Yodlee; during the sample timeframe, TradeKing was active in the wealthtech market acquiring Zecco, GAIN Capital Securities, TraderOS and MB Trading before being acquired by Ally Financial; also active in wealthtech deals has been Envestnet who has acquired Yodlee, Wheelhouse Analytics, Finance Logix and Upside. Source
European venture capital firm 83North has announced the closing of a $250 million investment in its fourth fintech fund; the firm focuses on startup investments in Europe and Israel and says that its fourth fund will continue to invest in those regions; the firm's latest investment brings its total capital under management to $800 million; the firm says it sees a greater opportunity for startup investment throughout Europe following Brexit. Source
Fintech innovation has been emerging in Latin America; LendIt USA 2017 featured a panel of Latin American market leaders moderated by Andres Fontao of Finnovista; panelists discussed what is happening in the Latin American fintech market and why there is an opportunity for fintech firms and specifically online lenders to be successful. Source
From the deal, Finicity will gain data sharing access to Wells Fargo's customer data for its clients which include personal financial management providers and online lenders; the deal is one of many currently underway for Wells Fargo and Finicity as well as numerous other market participants; overall, market consensus from American Banker shows less tension between banks and third party providers with companies such as Intuit reporting an increased interest from all parties involved in improving the experience for customers; American Banker also notes that as data sharing becomes more prevalent there's likely to be an evolution of technology that helps facilitate the connectivity. Source
In partnership with The New York Times, CB Insights reports on the top 100 venture capitalists; top on the list is Bill Gurley from Benchmark; notable increases from 2016 include Founders Fund's Brian Singerman who moved to fifth and Lightspeed Venture Partners' Ravi Mhatre who is ranked sixth. Source
soCash has raised $600,000 in an angel funding round; firm offers a digital cash management solution for banks that plugs into its mobile app and directs cash for pickup at a nearby location; plans to use the new funding to build out its sales team and says the service can provide considerable cost savings for banks by helping to eliminate ATMs. Source