Rocket Internet has reached the investment cap of $1 billion on its Rocket Internet Capital Partners fund; fund will invest in early stage and growth startups including fintech and marketplace lending companies; received the majority of its investment from institutions. Source
News Roundup
This page contains an archive of the Global Newsletter summaries and the weekly fintech news roundups.
Every day the Fintech Nexus news team scours the globe for the most important stories of the day to include in our daily newsletter.
Then every Saturday we bring you our weekly news roundup of the top 10 fintech stories of the week with commentary from Peter Renton.
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A replay is now available for LendIt's Marketplace Lending 101 forum which was held on Wednesday, January 18; Peter Renton from LendIt and Andrew Dix from Crowdfund Insider answered questions from participants about the marketplace lending industry and discussed how to effectively invest in marketplace loans; many of the topics discussed will be covered further at LendIt USA in March.
Prime Meridian Capital Management is a Bronze Sponsor at LendIt USA 2017; in this featured blog post they give a review of marketplace lending in 2016; a challenging year for the industry, lending volumes and confidence retreated for one of the first times in the industry's history due to rising rates and an executive scandal; the release of Lending Club's CEO and Founder Renaud Laplanche added increased incentive for improving operations and increasing transparency which led to recovery in the second half of the year; a number of platforms, including Lending Club, secured new sources of funding and introduced new product expansion; the top three P2P platforms ended the year with combined originations of $2 billion per month and momentum for continued growth appears to be positive for the industry in 2017. Sponsored Blog Post
The trend of partnering with banks is an increasing one for online lenders, there are many different forms of partnerships for many different reasons and the panel at LendIt USA 2016 gives a good overview of why these partnerships keep happening. Online lenders have structured their partnerships in so many different ways including: white labeling their technology to the bank, setting up an origination engine and loan servicing, using the partnership to improve efficiency for the customer and using banks to buy up loans with their excess capital. Panelists break down how their partnerships with banks came about and how long the process took for the partnership to complete. In most cases the banks and online lenders were in discussions for almost a year. The complexities to these partnerships were brought to light during the panel. It gives a good understanding of how detailed and thorough each party needs to be to ensure compliance and regulatory needs are met. Additionally the panel discussed how online lenders have matured over the last few years and are now in a better position to choose a bank partner. Online lenders are no longer viewed through a certain lens. They are viewed as collaborators and competitors who serve a customer that is very similar to the banks but serve them in a more efficient manner. 2017 looks to be the year of the bank partnership as there is now a track record of partnerships to rely upon for banks and online lenders alike. Check out the full video interview here:
Linked Finance, an Irish P2P SME lender, has received new funding from Eiffel Investment Group; under the deal Eiffel Investment Group has agreed to provide up to 20% of funding for new loans on Linked Finance's platform; Eiffel has been around the space since 2011 and manages 200 million euros ($213.43 million) for institutional investors across other platforms including Lendix and Funding Circle; Linked Finance has originated 700 loans since launching in 2013 and plans to lend 350 million euros ($373.50 million) by 2020. Source
Assetz Capital has originated over 200 million British pounds ($247.02 million) in loans since its inception with 108 million British pounds ($133.39 million) originated in 2016; firm is primarily focused on secured lending for small businesses and property developers; monthly originations have been reaching 26 million British pounds ($32.11 million) and in the fourth quarter total lending for the platform was 45 million British pounds ($55.58 million). Source
One of the last actions of the Obama administration this week was to release a policy framework for fintech. This was a follow up from the White House Fintech Summit in June 2016 where many of the leading fintech companies gathered in Washington for a day of presentations and roundtable discussions. The paper provides a framework with ten principles that policymakers and regulators can use to think about and engage with the fintech ecosystem. Given today is the inauguration day for a new administration we won't know if these principles will be carried through but we do hope the Trump White House will make fintech innovation a priority. Source
Funding Circle has replaced German Managing Director Matthias Knecht who joined Funding Circle with the acquisition of Zencap and then left the firm in June of 2016; Thorsten Seeger will take the role of managing director; the firm has also hired Belkacem Krimi as chief risk officer for continental Europe; Funding Circle will also be closing its lending business in Spain which it acquired with the purchase of Zencap. Source
LendIt has announced the finalists for its first annual industry awards; the award winners will be announced at the LendIt USA 2017 Awards Ceremony on March 7 at 6:30 PM EST; the industry awards include finalists in 17 categories with an additional award for the best LendIt USA 2017 exhibitor. Source
Anthony Scaramucci has agreed to sell SkyBridge Capital to China's HNA Capital and RON Transatlantic; speculators believe the deal could help the Chinese businesses gain favor with the US government as Scaramucci takes a new role as presidential advisor; SkyBridge will continue to be led by its current management teams; its SALT Conference will become a new entity owned by SkyBridge executives. Source