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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LendIt Co-Founder Peter Renton sits down with Mike Baliman of the London Fintech Podcast; Peter talks about the key themes across the US including the capital challenges of 2016, securitizations and the Lending Club incident; they also discuss the China market, its size and some of the misconceptions about the P2P lending industry there. Source
Data from Moody's and the Federal Reserve shows that marketplace lenders are significantly serving small businesses with revenue less than $1 million; demands are differing for marketplace loans from micro businesses versus established businesses with greater than $1 million; micro businesses are seeking longer-term loans while established businesses are utilizing marketplace lenders for lines of credit; source says trend toward marketplace lending and bank partnerships could help to lower rates for small businesses. Source
According to Lawrence Wintermeyer, head of Innovate Finance, 30 fintech startups had their funding cancelled or postponed by investors since the Brexit vote, forcing them to seek urgent funding elsewhere; in addition to local investors pulling their capital, startups have also said that funding from international investors has stalled due to the uncertainty surrounding the Brexit process; while the UK struggles, other European cities like Berlin have been actively recruiting firms to relocate. Source
Mckinsey has released a new report on fintech; report focuses on seven changes in fintech that could affect the industry; factors include expanding scope, increasing diversity, improving collaboration, impending consolidation, normalizing valuations, shifting regulations and emerging ecosystems. Source
Innovate Finance has reported global investment in fintech trending higher; details reported to Crowdfund Insider cite an increase of 27% in 2016 with investment for the year at $15.2 billion with 839 deals; UK fintech investment has slowed while investment in China has been increasing; Innovate Finance says China has reported the top three fintech investment deals globally with funding for Alipay, Lufax and JD Finance; in the US, insurtech firm, Oscar, has led investment fundraising with funding of $400 million. Source
According to a new research report by KPMG and CB Insights, the number of deals and total value of venture capital investment dropped in Q3 to $2.9 billion down from $9.4 billion in Q2; the report points out that the significant drop was due in large part to a $4.5 billion investment to Alipay owner Ant Financial in Q2; while Asia investment remains strong, UK investment was hurt due to Brexit uncertainty and the US market saw a decline due in large part to the presidential election; overall investment trends remain positive as the amount invested for 2016 is on track to surpass 2015. Source
DealStruck, an online lender for small and medium-sized businesses, has stopped originating loans; the industry environment and slowdown in investor capital has affected the company; the firm's CEO Ethan Senturia said, "Although we are not currently originating new loans, we are continuing to provide our clients with the high-level of service they have come to expect from us."; he also noted, "we’ll be looking for strategic options to allow us to continue delivering on our mission to provide unique, appropriate and affordable financing to small businesses nationwide." Source
Insurance and insurtech companies are seeking synergies in the industry as technology is evolving; at the Intelligent InsurTech Europe conference this week in London, industry participants discussed the many ways companies are partnering and developing new services; the industry conference revealed many large companies are investing in insurtech through incubators and direct investment; in-house innovation labs are also a prevalent trend occurring with large insurance companies; most large insurance companies are finding it important to partner and invest with insurtech companies in order to stay current with the industry’s evolving landscape. Source
OpenTap has begun to offer marketplace loans in India targeting low to middle income consumers; company seeks to meet the market demand for borrowers who are creditworthy yet don't qualify for traditional loans; estimates the target market for low to middle income consumers at 12,000; loans will be available for up to Rs 50,000 ($730); average loan size has been approximately Rs 25,000 ($365). Source
