Options Clearing Corporation has set a three year plan to put their business on a cloud based system; the reason for the move is concerns over cybersecurity; the company clears more than 460mn trades a month and has recently added cryptocurrency futures; cloud based servers are cheaper and more secure than in house IT systems. Source.
Lightning Labs announced it had raised $2.5 million and at the same time released a beta version of their technology; one of the criticisms of bitcoin is that it can handle a limited number of transactions per second; some believe that bitcoin should increase its block size to process more transactions; Lightning Labs is working on the Lightning Network to add another layer of transactions to sit on top of the blockchain network which would allow for more transactions to take place. Source
Small business lender Fundbox believes their new credit and payment product will help to solve the cash flow issue at small businesses; “We want to do for [small-business] B-to-B commerce what the entire credit card infrastructure has done for B-to-C commerce,” said Prashant Fuloria, chief operating officer of Fundbox, to American Banker; one of the biggest reasons for some of these issues is there is no credit scoring equivalent for small businesses; Fundbox Pay allows businesses to get paid immediately and gives those invoiced 60 days to pay at no charge, allowing businesses to handle the seasonal cash flow issues without too much pain. Source.
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The Co-founder and Head of Business Development at SALT Lending introduces us to the world of asset-backed cryptocurrency lending. Source
The Senate passed a banking bill meant to roll back some of the financial regulations imposed after the crisis, but its fate is uncertain in the House; Republicans in the House want a further rollback of regulations; the bill is intended to help smaller banks avoid burdensome federal oversight and raises the definition of systemically important to $250bn from $50bn; the bill also makes adjustments to parts of the Volcker Rule and eases mortgage rules for smaller lenders. Source.
Goldman Sachs has launched an in house incubator that will allow employees to work on innovative ideas; GS Accelerate is currently accepting applications to move Goldman into new business areas, manage risk and try to fix inefficiencies; the move is part of a wider strategy for Goldman who now shows 46 percent of staff being in technology; “When it comes to entrepreneurship, there are always more failures than successes,” a memo reported by TearSheet stated. “But if we’re creative, imaginative and learn from what did and didn’t work, GS Accelerate can become a powerful engine to bring important ideas to life.” Source.
The Wall Street Journal reports a new fundraising round led by DST Global will value the company at more than $5bn; the last valuation was about $1.3bn in 2017; popularity in the app has since jumped when it expanded to include cryptocurrencies bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin; since launching they have reached more than 4 million users and the new valuation will put them in the top 15 of highest valued private tech companies in the U.S. Source.
Experian just acquired credit reporting fintech ClearScore for $385mn; this follows the mortgage brokerage deal they did with London & Country Mortgages back in December; Experian is looking to expand their offerings and brand through the deals; this is part of a wider trend in fintech as more incumbent players have seen the value fintech startups have brought to market. Source
Josh Feinberg was making $267 a week working at a pawn shop and knew he had to make changes to provide for his family; using his experience in working for his dad he created a equipment financing company; by making more than 400 calls per day he was able to build a solid foundation for the growing company; in a three year period ending in 2016 the company experienced 1,361 percent growth and made it to number 323 on the Inc. 500 list. Source.