Revolut will now offer its customers investment at property platform Bricklane; investors can invest in Bricklane tax efficient individual savings accounts for a minimum of 100 British pounds ($122); Bricklane investors receive rental income and capital appreciation from the properties they invest in. Source
The company's speech recognition technology has reported a 5.5% error rate in speech recognition, breaking the previous speech recognition error rate of 5.9% set by Microsoft in October 2016; the current error rate for speech recognition falls just above the newly reported human error rate of 5.1%; the speech recognition error rate continues to be a focus area as speech recognition technology becomes more broadly utilized in consumer electronics and the internet of things. Source
Citigroup has reported the appointment of Yolande Piazza to head of the company's fintech unit after naming Piazza interim head in August; Piazza will permanently replace previous leader Heather Cox who left for a role at USAA; Piazza has extensive experience with Citigroup working at the company for approximately 30 years and previously serving as the fintech unit's chief operating officer; initiatives for the Citigroup fintech unit are primarily focused on mobile. Source
HNA Group has a diverse portfolio of investments in a wide range of industries spanning from hotels to electronics and airlines; the Chinese-based company has now reported significant investment in the financial services industry with recent deals focused on the SkyBridge hedge fund platform, New Zealand lender UDC Finance and a 3% stake in Deutsche Bank; the investments from HNA follow encouragement by Beijing in global investments; they also reflect China's growing middle class and the expected demand for broadened investment options among Chinese consumers. Source
According to ThreatMetrix, digital fraud has been costing insurance companies approximately $250 billion annually in recent years; data from ThreatMetrix also reports that fraudsters have compromised over five billion personal identities, 1 in 10 insurance accounts are fraudulent and 3% to 5% of all claims in the US are fraudulent which adds approximately $400 to the cost of a family's insurance per year; with these statistics, development in advanced fraud solutions is also becoming important for insurtech; machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are the main drivers behind many of the industry's fraud detection solutions and the AI capabilities are expected to gain even more traction as additional solutions evolve. Source
At LendIt USA, Antony Jenkins from 10x Future Technologies discussed the challenges for incumbent banks in implementing transformative technology; Jenkins says transformation for incumbent banks is very difficult primarily because of the cultural change; Jenkins' 10x Future Technologies is developing software and API technology for banking products including current accounts, credit cards, mortgages and loans. Source
Lend Academy provides insight and highlights from the event's keynote speakers in their article; day one featured Scott Sanborn from Lending Club as the event's leading keynote speaker and also included three keynote presentations on regulation in the industry from Congressman Patrick McHenry, Comptroller Thomas Curry and CFPB Director Richard Cordray; day two began with Alex Tapscott discussing blockchain and followed with a variety of insights from leading industry innovators; Lend Academy also reports on PitchIt and the LendIt Industry Awards additionally including key takeaways from the event overall; videos from the event will all be published within the next few days and can be found on the LendIt USA 2017 video page. Source
Singapore-based Dymon Asia Ventures has received investment of $20 million and plans to meet its target fundraising of $50 million over the next 12 months; firm plans to invest in 12 to 15 companies and has already begun investing in five companies which include: blockchain startup Otonomos, financing firm Capital Match, forex-focused 4XLabs, trading platform Spark Systems and marketing service WeConvene; the firm's investment focus will be on business to business companies targeting the growing Southeast Asia internet market; it says it will invest in seed stage funding through Series B funding with investments ranging from $300,000 to $3 million and reserves available for continued investment in follow-on rounds. Source
Viva Republica is the operator of Toss; firm has announced a $48 million funding round for the payment app from PayPal, Goodwater Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Altos Ventures and Partech Ventures; Toss has reported significant market share in Korea with over six million app downloads and payment transactions of over $3 billion; Viva Republica has also partnered with 18 of Korea's 19 major banks and now provides payment services to 98% of Korea's banking customers; for PayPal the investment builds out its payment services portfolio which includes mobile payment processor Venmo. Source
Credit bureaus in the US have become integrated with fintech companies in different ways; Forbes talks with Alex Lintner about Experian's business initiatives and the solutions the company is providing for the fintech industry; Alex says the company is focused on digital technology solutions for credit data that help improve the loan application for consumers; Lintner also notes the availability of full file reporting which can meet the growing demand for alternative credit underwriting and the company's development of APIs for startup businesses. Source