Inc. has released their list of the 5000 fastest growing private companies; this year over 250 companies made it in the financial services category; the list shares basic information about each company including revenue numbers; several online lenders made the list including Avant, OppLoans, Kabbage, loanDepot, Lighter Capital, FastPay, National Funding and ZestFinance. Source
Lend Academy talks with Greg Gibb, CEO and co-chairman of Lufax; Greg Gibb talks about the founding of the business as a P2P platform, its relationship with Ping An and how it has evolved to become a broader provider of wealth management product offerings; the podcast interview also discusses Lufax's future plans for international expansion and a potential IPO. Source
Bitcoin blockchain split on August 1, and rumors are that Bitmain CEO Wu Jihan is the man behind the split; Wu Jihan is an aggressive supporter for Bitcoin Unlimited, which believes that the size of these blocks should be increased; Wu Jihan's company, Bitmain, is the world's largest bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer; the company also runs the world's biggest mining pool, AntPool. Source
Lend Academy provides a follow-up to their article on investment platforms for non-accredited investors; gives ten investment platforms for accredited investors across real estate, small business and consumer; defines the parameters for an accredited investor. Source
Lend Academy provides a resource for new investors in Lending Club and Prosper; their article includes five basic principles for investing in the platforms; the five key elements for investing include: 1) diversify investments 2) expect defaults 3) keep cash balances low 4) automate investing and 5) avoid taxes by investing through an IRA. Source
The report is titled "Beyond Fintech: A Pragmatic Assessment of Disruptive Potential in Financial Services"; in a brief summary of the report, the Word Economic Forum says: "Our findings suggest that fintechs have materially changed the basis of competition in financial services, but have not yet materially changed the competitive landscape. They play a critical role in defining the pace and direction of innovation across the sector but have struggled to overcome the scale advantages of large financial institutions."; the report is 196 pages and covers the major verticals in financial services. Source
At Lang Di Fintech (LendIt's Chinese event), Peter Renton, the founder of Lend Academy, conducted an interview with ZhongAn Insurance CEO Jeffrey Chen; they talked about how the biggest insurtech company uses big data and artificial intelligence to measure risk, the scale of ZhongAn's business, regulatory issues and the future of the company; the article provides five key takeaways from the interview. Source
Last week the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a report on the initial coin offering (ICO) of the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (the DAO), which raised almost $150 million from investors using this new capital raising method (before returning the money); the report explained that the SEC views this ICO as a sale of securities and that the DAO was in violation of securities laws, though no enforcement action was taken. Source
LendIt China 2017 will include the Lang Di Fintech Conference and LendIt China Executive Tour; the Tour and Conference will take place from July 8-17; the China Executive Tour from July 8 to 15 will include networking activities and meetings in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai; following the Tour, LendIt will host its second annual Lang Di Fintech Conference event in Shanghai from July 15 to 17; Lend Academy provides more details on each of the two events in their article. Source
Lend Academy talks with Prosper's CEO David Kimball in their podcast; David Kimball was previously CFO and became CEO in December; he talks about some of the company's challenges in 2016; provides details on the platform's investors, origination volumes and financing controls; he also discusses the firm's $5 billion investment deal and how it is affecting the business. Source