Edward Jones has announced a multi-year partnership with St. Louis based venture fund SixThirty; SixThirty invests in eight to 10 fintech startups annually with each startup receiving an investment of up to $100,000 along with support from a business development program that includes mentoring and networking; Edward Jones will be involved in numerous aspects of the venture fund's investing and Frank LaQuinta, a general partner with Edward Jones, will join SixThirty's investment committee. Source
News Roundup
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Every day the Fintech Nexus news team scours the globe for the most important stories of the day to include in our daily newsletter.
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The financial markets were slightly surprised by the presidential outcome with Dow futures down approximately 250 points on Wednesday morning; uncertainty over some big changes specifically in financial services from Donald Trump will be a factor for markets and the industry going forward; in financial services Trump looks to deregulate the industry easing many of the controls implemented by Dodd-Frank; another factor for fintech will be Trump's position on net neutrality which could limit open source internet development; overall, speculators see increased volatility and uncertainty for the near-term. Source
AltFi reports that since the middle of March, Revolut has lost eight...
A new fintech fund in London has received a big endorsement and...
Online lender Elevate has released customer progression milestones showing improved credit scores and rate eligibility; 55,000 customers on the platform have improved their credit scores and 20,000 customers can now receive a lower borrowing rate; Elevate's unique RISE credit product facilitates credit scoring improvement by educating customers on their personal financial credit and offering subsequent loans at reduced rates of up to 50% for qualified borrowers. Source
Elevate Credit has appointed Tony Leopold as its new general manager for the firm's Rise product; Leopold brings over 20 years of experience in strategy, business development, finance and operations from roles at United Rentals and Bain and Company; Rise is Elevate's flagship product offering unsecured consumer loans of $500 to $5,000. Source
Elevate Credit reported its second quarter earnings results on Monday, July 31; revenue for the quarter was $150.5 million, increasing 18.7% from the comparable quarter; earnings per share were $0.08, increasing from a loss of -$0.59 in the second quarter of 2016; business highlights noted in the earnings release included over $200 million in total principal outstanding with more than 120,000 open accounts, the launch of Elevate Labs and the introduction of the RISE line of credit product in Kansas. Source
Online lender Elevate Credit (ELVT) began trading shares of company stock on Thursday; the firm's CEO Ken Rees talked with CNBC about subprime lending and the IPO; shares opened for the day at $6.50 with a 19% increase to close at $7.76 giving it a market cap of $270 million; the offering was below expectations which had the stock estimated at $12 to $14; the firm offers loans to subprime borrowers with an underwriting system that considers over 10,000 data points. Source
Company is offering 7.7 million shares at $12 - $14 per share and may raise up to $124 million; Elevate will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange with ticker ELVT; UBS is leading the IPO with participation from Credit Suisse and Jefferies; according to Elevate CEO Ken Rees: "When we began our IPO process over a year ago, we told you we would grow revenue and profits throughout 2016, while continuing to provide the most responsible credit products in our space. In fact, we improved the company in almost every way." Source
Sub-prime lender Elevate, while still awaiting the right time to go public, has expanded their product line by offering customers a line of credit for up to $3,500 called Elastic; Republic Bank is the issuer of the credit line and according to Elevate's CEO, Ken Rees, there are other institutions showing interest; Rees explains further, "Banks are terrible at lending outside of their branch footprint and they are not good at customer acquisition. We provide products and a set of underwriting tools that fits for non-prime customers." Source