During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.
Kabbage acquires Radius Intelligence, the marketing tech firm with a database of 20M small businesses from TechCrunch – Interesting acquisition announced by Kabbage this week. They are acquiring business data and analytics platform Radius who have data on 20 million US businesses.
Some Companies Offer a New Benefit: Payroll Advances and Loans from The Wall Street Journal – Employer based financing is really starting to gain momentum. I expect it will become a standard benefit for most companies within 3-5 years. Here the WSJ lays out the rationale along with examples of companies offering this today.
Can Apple Or Amazon Become Full Stack Banks? from Forbes – The latest from Ron Shevlin is an interesting perspective on the banking industry and whether or not Apple and Amazon can become “full stack banks”.
Conference of State Bank Supervisors Denied Again as DC Federal Court Shoots Down Attempt to Challenge OCC Fintech Charter from Crowdfund Insider – Defeat number two for the Conference of State Bank Supervisors as a judge dismissed their most recent lawsuit against the OCC over the fintech charter.
Our fintech partnership with Barclays: Status Update from LinkedIn – The CEO of MarketInvoice gives an update on their groundbreaking partnership with Barclays. They have funded £20m in invoices and are ramping up.
Chime now has 5 million customers and introduces overdraft alternative from Techcrunch – The US challenger banks keep growing. Chime has now reached 5 million customers in the US after crossing 3 million customers just six months ago. This makes the company one of the fastest growing digital banks in the world.
SMALL BUSINESS LENDING: ROB FROHWEIN AND KATHRYN PETRALIA OF KABBAGE from Barefoot Innovation Group – Great to see the podcast that Jo Ann Barefoot recorded at LendIt earlier this year with the co-founders of Kabbage is finally out. A must listen.
Stripe, the world’s most valuable private fintech company, is getting into lending from CNBC – This was always going to happen. Stripe is joining rivals Square and PayPal in launching a small business lending operation for its own customers.
U.S. Fintech Happy Money Secures $70 Million Through Series D Funding Round Led by CMFG Ventures from Crowdfund Insider – The big rounds keep coming, this one from established consumer lender Happy Money (formerly known as Payoff).
Caliber Home Loans Begins Lending on Provenance Blockchain Platform (press release) – Mike Cagney’s Figure signs up their first outside lender to user their blockchain platform.
In China, P2P Insiders Say Regulatory Shortcomings Have Choked Industry from the New York Times – The Chinese p2p lending industry is a mess and in this article it explains why.
