Luxury assets lender Borro has raised 5.6 million British pounds ($6.93 million) in new equity capital; firm received Financial Conduct Authority authorization in 2016 and reported business growth of 30%; the funding will help support the firm's balance sheet lending; since 2011, firm has lent 230 million British pounds ($286 million). Source
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
Artificial intelligence startup Kasisto raised a $9.2 million Series A round that was led by Propel Venture Partners; the company intends to use the funds to expand into new markets, grow the engineering and sales teams and develop partnerships with systems integrators to enhance their platform; Kasisto is a fintech startup that lets companies engage and transact with their customers through natural, intelligent conversations via smart bots and virtual assistants. Source
Activehours, a startup focused on payment processing, has raised $22 million in a funding round led by Matrix Partners; workers can request portions of their paycheck through the app which helps workers avoid overdrafts and late fees; the firm does not charge fees and earns revenue through tips. Source
A venture capitalist blogpost from avc.com provides some interesting predictions for 2017; expects the US stock market to continue its bullish trend higher into the first half of 2017 with support from corporate and personal tax cuts from President Trump; thinks tech initial public offerings (IPOs) will increase in 2017; Google and Facebook will see some challenges as monopolies; software as a service companies will consolidate; artificial intelligence (AI) will continue emerging with corporate AI strategies a top priority for businesses; venture capitalists will invest in genomics and biometrics; crypto programming will be important for cybersecurity. Source
Motive Partners is launching a new venture capital fund this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos; Motive Partners plans to raise $150 million for the fund which will invest in fintech; LMRKTS will be one of the firm's first investments; LMRKTS is supported by ex-US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and is focused on technology for managing foreign exchange transaction costs. Source
FundersClub is an online venture capital firm investing in startups; it has invested in 217 companies in the past four years with 19 exits; the firm has announced a commitment to disclose quarterly public reports providing more transparency in a historically un-transparent industry; the firm's investments have been successful over the past four years with a comprehensive multiple for returns on realized exits of 1.1. Source
Funding Circle has announced a new equity investment of $100 million; the funding round was led by Accel and included existing investors Baillie Gifford, DST Global, Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Rocket Internet, Sands Capital Ventures, Temasek and Union Square Ventures; the funding brings the firm's total capital raised to $373 million and makes it the largest and best capitalized SME lending platform in the world. Source
Investment in Canadian fintech increased in 2016 while slowing in the US and UK; data from Thomson Reuters says investment in Canadian fintech reached $197.41 million, an increase of 74% from 2015; in comparison, fintech investment in the US was down 30% and fintech investment in the UK was down approximately 25%; the Canadian market is much smaller than the US and UK however its infrastructure and ecosystem are growing; political changes were also less of a factor for Canada in 2016 while the US election and UK Brexit vote created uncertainty for investors. Source
Data from Financial Technology Partners reports over 1,500 funding deals from over 1,700 investors in 2016; these deals accounted for $36 billion in fintech financing; data by fintech category can be seen in the chart below with banking and lending companies accounting for 29% of the year's total deals; payments, loyalty and ecommerce accounted for 22%; securities, capital markets and wealth management also reported substantial interest from investors with 19% of the deals funded. Source
