The credit giant is adding advanced analytics to further assist lenders in managing their risk profiles while adding expanded credit models for small business loans and credit-card lines.
LiftForward has obtained a $100 million credit facility through funding from Monroe Capital; LiftForward is a New York City-based marketplace lender for manufacturers, distributors and retailers; the firm offers credit of up to $1 million per transaction; in addition to credit products the firm also offers its customers a platform to sell their products as a hardware as a service subscription. Source
Panel explores a diverse set of small business lenders based in Canada; topics covered include the differences of regulation, underwriting, and views on traditional banks between Canada and the rest of the world; Canada has five large banks which control a majority of the market which makes it hard to build a brand as an alternative lender; panelists answer how they can overcome this challenge and scale their business; they also share their thoughts on the current market opportunity and what the future holds for fintech companies in Canada. Source
Calypso, a fintech firm that develops software for capital markets, has struck a deal with blockchain consortium R3 to develop applications on its Corda platform; Corda is a distributed ledger platform for managing financial contracts which will be released later this week; Calypso will first build a trade confirmation app to function on Corda; according to Calypso CEO Pascal Xatart, "Our current matching solution is only the beginning." Source
Marketplace lender, PeerStreet, has raised $15 million in a funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz; PeerStreet offers secured real estate loans through its lending platform; the minimum investment is $1,000; investors on the platform include high net worth individuals, family offices and institutions; Andreessen Horowitz's Rampell noted the competitive advantages of PeerStreet compared to competitors included their fast growth and distribution model; he stated, "Most companies that are lending to consumers spend all the money in customer acquisition and it is very hard to get a profit." Source
Finn.AI provides personal banking and financial management services powered by artificial intelligence; it links with banks to offer customers advice and communicates information through a range of channels including Amazon Alexa, Facebook Messenger and WeChat; Jake Tyler provides details on the company and reports on its advantages through bank partnerships. Source
Canadian securities regulators released what they call a staff notice on "cryptocurrency offerings"; Coindesk reports on the notice, "With the offerings that we have reviewed to date, we have in many instances found that the coins/tokens in question constitute securities for the purposes of securities laws, including because they are investment contracts."; this has now become a trend in the market as the US SEC released a report and Chinese regulators released a statement about how they view this emerging capital raising method; the statement also covers companies looking to set up funds and encourages a regulatory sandbox to be created. Source
Marketplace lending loan servicer First Associates has announced the opening of a new operations center; the operations center is located in Baja California, Mexico with capacity for 1,000 seats; in comments regarding the announcement, First Associates CEO David Johnson said: "We couldn’t be more excited about our new Baja facility. We are able to deliver the same outstanding quality and service as our San Diego operations center, offer an economically advantageous option to our clients and provide significant opportunities in a developing business community that is an important part of the greater San Diego/Tijuana metro area." Source
In their recent annual results Funding Circle announced they will be opening up in Canada later this year; today the...
Deloitte is the newest name to come under cyber attack where hackers accessed data on an email platform; the accounting firm said the cyber breach had affected “only very few clients” and that “no disruption had occurred to client businesses"; they notified government authorities of the hack when it occurred and have put a team together to figure out what happened. Source.