Online lender Welendus has announced a Seedrs campaign with targeted fundraising of 300,000 British pounds ($375,060); firm provides short term financing options at affordable rates; plans to launch in the first quarter of 2017. Source
Lemonade provides part two of its 2016 Transparency Chronicles with statistics on its first quarter in the market; notes some positives and negatives including confusion around marketing the firm as a peer-to-peer insurance provider; says they are an artificial intelligence and behavioral economics company or a tech company doing insurance; highlights from the first quarter include: average homeowners and renters premiums of $165.5; 123 homeowners policies; 63% of customers 25 to 34 years old; males accounting for the majority of customers at 76.5%; a claim managed in three seconds by artificial intelligence. Source
The registered investment advisory business reported 138 transactions in 2016 setting a record for industry merger and acquisition (M&A) activity; since 2009 the industry has reported a compound annual growth rate of 16% for M&A deals; increased regulatory oversight from the Department of Labor has been one factor; the market data provided by Echelon Partners also provides additional information on the industry landscape for the registered investment adviser market. Source
Landbay, UK Bond Network, Downing and Peer Funding will use Goji to offer investments in Innovative Finance ISAs (IFISA) in the UK; the offerings are anticipated to launch before the tax deadline; Jake Wombwell-Povey, Goji co-founder and chief executive officer, said: "We're signing up an increasing number of platforms who are keen to offer their investors a best of breed IFISA service. There is a great deal of complexity in bringing the IFISA to market and we are focused on ensuring that it is as easy as possible for investors to access this new opportunity to drive returns. Interest in this new and attractive investment vehicle is not surprising given the low yields available on traditional fixed income and savings and increasing inflation." Source
Prospect Capital is a publicly traded business development company investing in marketplace loans; Lend Academy talks with Chris Johnson who runs marketplace lending investments at Prospect Capital Management; Chris talks about the firm's investing strategy and its allocation to marketplace loans which includes Prosper, Avant, Lending Club and OnDeck; Chris also talks about Prospect Capital's involvement with securitization, their investment approach for 2016 and 2017, their new closed-end fund and his perspective on a marketplace lending secondary market. Source
Ppdai is reportedly looking to a US IPO and plans to raise $200 million; it would be the second lender to do so after Yirendai in 2015 who raised $75 million; the company was founded in 2007 and offers unsecured loans. Source
Venture capital firm QED Investors has partnered with Fifth Third Bank to advise the bank on its fintech strategy; QED Investors has worked with Fifth Third Bank on previous fintech acquisitions; Fifth Third Bank will work with QED Investors to identify new opportunities for fintech innovation and promote growth of US fintech companies. Source
China Merchants Bank is exploring biometric solutions for client identification; it has launched face recognition at ATMs as an option for identification; the bank has 1,000 ATMs in 106 cities and plans to offer face recognition at all of its Shanghai ATMs by the end of 2017. Source
This week's PeerIQ industry update mentions SoFi's securitization deal, solar lender Mosaic's signal to the market of their first ABS deal and a detailed explanation about trigger breaches; SoFi has announced plans to issue a $477 million unsecured consumer loan securitization; the market was very happy to hear news from Mosaic as this is the first solar deal since early 2016, though the size of the deal has yet to be determined; the trigger breaches seen in MPL ABS deals have hurt the securitization market and caused the cost of capital to rise among lenders; PeerIQ breaks down the current deals that have breached and what it means for the overall MPL ABS market. Source
Millennials are becoming more influential in the market for financial advice and investment management; currently a $71 trillion business, baby boomers have been the leading drivers over the past three decades; millennials however are gaining increased consideration since they now account for the greatest majority of the population in the US and UK; while they currently only hold a small percentage of the asset management market with $250 billion invested, venture capitalists are taking bets on their potential influence; the tech savvy generation has greater preference and confidence in tech powered solutions than the baby boomer generation with 85% of UK-based millennials surveyed by Legg Mason Global Asset Management reporting they were comfortable with robo advice while only 37% of investors aged 40 to 75 trusted online advice; leading robo advisors have initially attracted the attention of millennials however it's likely that more traditional asset managers will expand their offerings to capitalize on the growing opportunity. Source