MoneyLion provides customers with a range of services for managing their finances and also includes credit products; the platform incorporates a unique rewards program that can help customers receive loan discounts and rewards from endorsements and on-time payments; company is a featured applicant in the 2017 Benzinga Global Fintech Awards competition; led by co-founders Dee Choubey, Chee Mun Foong and Pratyush Tiwari, the company raised $650 million in debt financing in September 2016 and $22.5 million in a Series A equity funding round in December 2016. 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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B3i was developed to explore and promote blockchain innovation in the insurance and reinsurance market; the consortium began in October 2016 and has now added three new members bringing its total membership to 15; the consortium's newest members include Hannover, Generali Group and SCOR; B3i is currently developing a shared platform for exchanging contracts which could likely develop into a commercial insurance services company by 2018. Source
During the week I share the latest marketplace lending news on Twitter...
Ant Financial is planning to raise $3 billion primarily through a debt offering to finance its acquisition of MoneyGram; it is also planning for future acquisitions; the company has been valued at $75 billion and is still planning a near-term initial public offering. Source
Capital One is continuing to build on its Capital One Cafe venture by opening new cafés targeting millennials throughout the United States; the bank will be opening new locations in San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami, Austin and Richmond over the next two months; the cafés offer a range of services to the public including free WiFi and coffee; the bank is also using the cafés to market to millennials with digital portals offering online financial advice and space for financial coaching sessions; locations are also staffed with Capital One representatives to offer banking and customer service support. Source
SoFi is becoming one of the US's largest and most comprehensive marketplace lenders. Since launching in 2011 they have originated over $15 billion in loans. They market themselves as a new kind of finance company and recently acquired Zenbanx, expanding their products to deposit accounts. SoFi also offers student loan refinancing, mortgage loans, personal loans, wealth management and life insurance.
In Lend Academy's recent podcast with SoFi, CEO Mike Cagney provides some insight on how the company might be valued on a per customer basis. Mike Cagney says larger banks are valued at approximately $10,000 to $100,000 per customer. SoFi currently expects to have 500,000 customers by the end of 2017 and 2 million customers in the next two to three years; at a value of $50,000 per SoFi customer, this would imply a $100 billion valuation. Source
According to a report from GlobalCapital, Jefferies and Lending Club are partnering on a new securitization for Arcadia Funds; the portfolio is expected to include approximately $300 million of prime consumer loans from Lending Club. Source
Chancellor Hammond and the newly established fintech delivery panel will meet in February to discuss the fintech industry; the group's purpose is to drive fintech specific policy recommendations for the UK; 24 industry experts will attend the February meeting including representatives from Funding Circle, Seedrs and MarketInvoice; on April 12 the UK government will also hold the International FinTech Conference in London to connect domestic and international investors with the UK's fintech market. Source
loanDepot has originated $100 billion in loans through a unique business model that facilitates loans through both an online platform and branch offices located throughout the US; Lend Academy provides more details on their business and recent milestone in their article; in 2016 loanDepot originated $38 billion in loans and since 2010 it has been growing loan volume at an average annual rate of 70%; the company acquires half a million potential borrowers per month and offers mortgage loans, mortgage refinancing, personal loans and home equity loans; Anthony Hsieh, loanDepot's CEO, cites their non-bank status and agile technology as leading factors for their rapid growth in loans and customer acquisition; mortgage lending is one area of the credit market with significant opportunity for market share gains from advanced technological solutions and loanDepot has successfully capitalized on the market opportunity. Source
Boris Batin and Alexander Dunaev have grown a successful lending startup after partnering together and launching ID Finance in 2012; the company is an online balance sheet lender that has been expanding throughout Russia, Europe and South America; the partners claim a digital lending business model that can launch and obtain profitability in nine months; part of their success is attributed to identifying challenging markets with growth potential that traditional banks have not entered. Source