Dow Jones has released its European Venture Capital Report for the fourth quarter; shows venture capital investment in Europe increasing from the third quarter of 2016 and also from the comparable quarter in 2015; European companies raised approximately 2.93 billion euros ($3.11 billion) from 539 deals in the 4th quarter, a 35% increase from the previous quarter; the number of deals also increased by 9% from the third quarter; the UK was a market leader for investment with 122 deals totaling 754 million euros ($799.35 million). Source
News Roundup
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As of January 2017 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fully authorized ten peer-to-peer lenders, according to AltFi, while the remainder of the industry operates with interim approvals; AltFi speculates on some of the characteristics of the authorized and interim lenders; of the authorized firms, Folk2Folk is the largest with originations of approximately 100 million British pounds ($120.44 million); the UK's largest platforms including Zopa, RateSetter and Funding Circle still have not been approved; loans from these lenders are primarily unsecured; characteristics identified by AltFi as issues for the FCA include: pre-funding, collective investment, auto-investing and institutional investment. Source
The UK's Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF) is actively involved in industry research and is currently doing three alternative finance surveys; much of the research is in conjunction with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), providing insight for its crowdfunding consultation period; CCAF is surveying crowdfunding investors and crowdfunding borrowers; CCAF has also announced it will now be doing a survey on blockchain and cryptocurrencies; as part of the FCA's regulatory study, CCAF is working with 25 crowdfunding and P2P lending platforms in the UK to gain greater insight into the crowdfunding ecosystem. Source
Qonto is a french startup building a modern business banking solution, aiming to become "The banking alternative for entrepreneurs and startups" according to its website; the company raised $1.7 million from Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures and Alven Capital; Valar Ventures has also invested in digital bank N26 and TransferWise; Qonto wants to provide a wide variety of services including allowing receipt uploads to make filing taxes easier; they plan to integrate with other fintech products to transfer money and manage payments; launch is currently slated for April. Source
Technology developer Misys has created P2P lending software for banks allowing them to add another layer to their lending capabilities; the firm is marketing the software to banks as an alternative for traditional lending; the software can integrate with traditional banking technology and allows borrowers to be matched with individual or institutional lenders willing to fund their loans; could affect new structuring of banking partnerships; large partnerships to date have included Spanish banking group Banco Santander with US marketplace lender Kabbage and JPMorgan with OnDeck. Source
Peter Renton of Lend Academy and Andrew Dix from Crowdfund Insider will be doing a question and answer forum discussion on Wednesday, January 18 at 2:00 PM EST; the webinar will be hosted by LendIt, Crowdfund Insider and Orchard Platform; participants can submit questions for the speakers at registration or during the webinar; LendIt will also be hosting a number of webinars leading up to LendIt USA 2017; register today for Marketplace Lending 101 and submit your questions. Source
Landbay has received its individual savings account approval from HM Revenue and Customs; follows the firm's full Financial Conduct Authority authorization in December; plans to launch its innovative finance individual savings account (IFISA) in February; the IFISA will allow tax-efficient investing in the firm’s residential property loans. Source
In a November report released by Celent and FINavigator the chart below shows mobile app adoption by financial institutions; Credit Unions have historically had greater app adoption but since 2013 banks have closed the gap in half; overall, 86% of financial institutions with over $100 million in assets have a mobile app, while adoption for institutions below $100 million is 29%. Source
Australian robo advisor SuperEd is seeking AUS$6 million (USD$4.53 million) to expand its services; the founders expect to use the funds to provide white label robo advisory services for Australian superannuation funds; the robo advisor is also developing tools for analyzing retirement income from the funds. Source
CAN Capital Inc. has hired an advisor to help the business after halting loan originations and releasing senior executives; Realization Services Inc. has been hired to help the firm negotiate with creditors and strategy investment banking advisor Jefferies; CAN Capital has been lending to small businesses since 1998 with $6.5 billion in loans and cash advances; near the end of 2016 the firm reported data irregularities and issues with loan performance and collections. Source