In our latest guest post Jorrit van Rijswijk of Dynamic Credit digs into all of the European SME support programs...
German-based marketplace lender Bitbond has partnered with African payments provider BitPesa to improve the lending experience for small and medium enterprise (SME) borrowers; Bitbond will enhance the blockchain lending services of its platform by incorporating cross-border payments through BitPesa; the BitPesa payments platform can make payments in 20 minutes and is now live in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania. Source
Bondora has reported that it will not be opening an office in London due to post-Brexit effects; instead it will open a new office in Germany; Bondora CEO, Partel Tomberg, says he is uncertain about European market access in London; Bondora CFO says German regulators including Bafin are increasingly opening up to supporting innovation in the financial sector. Source
European digital bank N26 has increased its customer base by 200,000 users in just 14 months as digital bank solutions become increasingly more popular in Europe; the company has also reported a new transactions milestone of 3 billion euros ($3.1 billion); the Berlin-based company is targeting tech savvy millennials and has introduced a number of competitive features to attract new customers including a lending product that allows for mobile loans up to 25,000 euros ($26,556); the business has raised over $55 million in capital and is planning to expand to Britain in 2017. Source
CB Insights reports on two of Europe's top markets for fintech investment, the UK and Germany; the UK is reporting significant early-stage investment in personal banking platforms and insurtech with insurtech also a top investment in Germany; year-to-date, European fintech companies have raised approximately $2.6 billion with early stage fintech financing in the UK at $202 million and Germany reporting financing of $83 million. Source
Auxmoney is an online lending platform based in Germany; the platform grew origination volumes by 75% in the year to €316 million across 40,000 loans; the company now has lent around €700 million across 100,000 loans to date; last year auxmoney announced a partnership with digital bank N26 to expand their borrower base; auxmoney was profitable for the first time in the second half of 2017 which sets them apart from many platforms. Source
Marketplace lender, Bitbond, has been an industry leader, providing the first global P2P lending platform for small businesses and now known as the world's first P2P lender allowing transactions with digital currency; Radoslav Albrecht, Bitbond's founder, sees digital currency, and specifically Bitcoin, as an opportunity to expand lending availability to borrowers and help returns for investors; Bitbond is able to offer digital currency transactions through its licensing from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority which took three years and required in-depth investigation of the company's operations including their know your customer and anti-money laundering procedures. Source
Digital-only bank N26 has launched a new credit product for its customers as digital-only banks struggle for profits due to high operating costs; the new credit product will offer credit lines of up to 25,000 British pounds ($26,810) for 5 years with varying interest rates; the product launch occurs as many digital banks seek expanded offerings to offset some of the high costs associated with deposit accounts. Source
Initially a German-only digital bank, N26 is now expanding to 17 countries across the continent including Spain, Italy, Greece, Ireland and Slovakia; according to Valentin Stalf, founder and CEO of N26, the company is looking at "disrupting retail banking further" with this expansion; the digital bank offers an eight minute signup process, real time money transfers and budgeting tools; in coming years they are looking to add new products like investments, savings, insurance products and artificial intelligence based features. Source
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. The EU announced last week that it would suspend the Growth and Stability Pact....