Blockchain payments company BitPay has raised more than $40mn in their most recent funding round; the new funds will help the company to support B2B payments and expand to new markets; "We brought on these new investors who can help BitPay scale globally to meet customer demand,” Stephen Pair, BitPay's CEO, said in a press release reported by American Banker. 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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The weekly WieyangX Fintech Review, as reported by Crowdfund Insider, covers recent fintech updates from China; the People’s Bank of China has made plans for a unified credit platform by end of 2017; Chinese fintech Rong360 had their subsidiary Jianpu Technology listed on the NYSE, becoming the sixth IPO recently; JD Finance, through their subsidiary Jing Dong Xu Hang Online Lending Information & Intermediary Service Ltd., is finally getting into the P2P Lending market. Source.
Coming up with a 20% down payment on a home can be quite a challenge, San Francisco based Unison is looking to offer help to these prospective buyers; a Unison deal typically involves the homebuyer putting down 10%, Unison putting down 10% and the remaining 80% would be borrowed; Unison charges a 2.5% fee and shares in 35% of future appreciation or depreciation; this allows for the homebuyers to keep payments lower and save on private mortgage insurance (PMI), which is required if the loan to value exceeds 80%; "We are partnering with the homeowners by investing alongside them in the house," Unison Co-CEO Jim Riccitelli told the San Francisco Chronicle; the Unison offering looks to replace local bay area assistance programs offered to lower income household and first time buyers. Source
China's central bank provided its insight on fintech development initiatives for the country in a recent press conference; the press conference included four of the central bank's government officials including Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China; the central bank reported that it encourages and supports fintech development in the country; it spoke about some of its initiatives including a digital currency and other new blockchain solutions; it also noted its work to strengthen regulation specifically in the areas of unlicensed businesses and third-party payment platforms. Source
CreditEase Wealth Management announced the first close of their second fund dedicated to investing in Israeli tech startups; the amount raised was $32.2 million; final target for the fund is $50 million; the focus of investments will include virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning, digital healthcare, internet of things technology, cloud and data storage, and advanced manufacturing. Source
A new study has been released by two researchers at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; it reports on the evolution of online lending and outlines factors for sustainability; suggestions include harmonizing state lending laws and increasing state usury caps; the entire report can be downloaded from this link. Source
Chris Tremont, head of Radius’ virtual bank, joined the Tearsheet podcast to...
eToro partnered with CoinDash to develop a set of social trading products built on blockchain technology; eToro CEO Yoni Assia tells Banking Technology, “With thousands of new coins in the market, it can be difficult for mainstream investors to navigate this new space. The CoinDash team is enabling users to better analyse their investments in cryptocurrencies, and to learn from others.”; the eToro marketplace has more than 4.5 million users in over 170 countries, they allow users to trade based on copying or following other individual’s portfolios and recently added access to cryptocurrencies. Source.
Digital wealth management startup Personal Capital has raised $50mn in a series...
- 6th Avenue Capital secures $60M from Merchant Cash Advance Funding
- CEO switch for online lender Patch of Land
- A new fund uses A.I. to invest in consumer and retail products with the best chance of success (CircleUp)
- Lendio Provides More Than $25,000 in Loans to Over 1,200 Small Business Owners Through Lendio Gives on Kiva
- Mintos Scraps Secondary Market Fees
- Amazon just bought three domain names related to cryptocurrency
- Alex Tapscott's Crypto VC Firm Going Public With $100M CAD Falsely Touted 4 Blockchain Stars As Advisors
- Foundation Capital Leads CoverWallet Series B Financing. Welcome and Congrats!
- One of the Most High-Profile Initial Coin Offerings Has Crashed 50%
- Another Chinese P2P lender! Senmiao Technology files for a $20 million IPO
- Small Business Borrower Sues Kabbage
- Citigroup Bets Millions on U.K. Mortgage Lender (LendInvest)