Barron’s reports that online small business lender Kabbage is shopping for buyers and could fetch more than $1bn; the potential...
A recent study by Harvard Business School looked into the contribution of marketplace lending on the overall lending market; while companies like Lending Club and Prosper have improved consumer access to affordable loans the study also discussed whether these types of platforms are too transparent; this transparency according to the study gives large investors who leverage the availability of data an advantage in buying loans resulting in an uneven playing field. Source
Steve McLaughlin has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to M&A in fintech, having advised on many deals in the space; he founded his firm FT Partners when he was 32 years old; according to data from KPMG, M&A was down in 2016 by 68% compared to 2015; McLaughlin shares his thoughts on what has contributed to the decline and where the industry is going from here; believes that the ability for companies to raise financing rounds has contributed to the lower amount of M&A deals; many companies in fintech are also fairly young when it comes to the earnings which makes M&A not as attractive to banks; McLaughlin also talks about the deals that have occurred in fintech and the sectors that are hot in 2017. Source
StreetShares provides loans for veteran-owned small businesses; following the California bizWin™ and VetBizWin™ initiatives, StreetShares has partnered with the Northern California Financial Development Corporation (Nor-Cal FDC) which will expand its business lending solutions with contract financing; Nor-Cal FDC is a licensed Financial Development Corporation and supports small business capital solutions for more than 3.6 million small businesses throughout California including a focus on companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley. Source
Real estate investing startup Cadre signed a partnership with Goldman Sachs to allow their private wealth clients access to the platform; Cadre has already been able to secure $250mn in commitments from Goldman’s clients and has said their is a steady stream still in the pipeline; private wealth clients will get a log in for Cadre and access to vetted deals in commercial real estate; in addition to the partnership Goldman Sachs also becomes and investor in the company. Source
The Venture Capital industry has seen some early signs of positive change when it comes to gender discrimination and diversity; though some still believe there is no issue and that they cannot do anything to effect change; brave women like Ellen Pao and Susan Fowler have helped others to share their stories and men in power have been forced to leave and policies at firms have changed; you are starting to see VC’s hire more women and require companies they fund to show diversity among their executive ranks; there is still a ways to go for VC’s and Silicon Valley overall, though change is happening. Source.
Personal Capital is a personal financial management tool that launched ten years ago; the company saw 23% annualized growth in...
Envestnet | Yodlee discusses their recent webinar Leveraging Alternative Data to Energize Your Lending Portfolio; speakers included Jason O’Shaughnessy, Senior Vice President, EMEA & Australia, Envestnet | Yodlee; Phil Grady, CEO of Castlight Financial; Roger Vincent, Head of Banking & Innovation, Equifax; and Venkat Srinivasan, Head of Lending for Monzo; Gary Wright, Director of Content, Finextra moderated the webinar; the on-demand webinar is available for those that missed the live event. Source
The U.S. personal loan market has surged in the last 5 years to reach more than $138bn; one of the...
P2Bi is an asset-based small business lender; yesterday they announced a new partnership with New Resource Bank; Krista Morgan, CEO and Co-Founder explains how it works: “Businesses that don’t qualify for traditional bank financing are evaluated by P2Bi for a partnership loan based on joint credit policy criteria. Qualified businesses are extended an asset-backed line of credit with capital provided by the bank in a senior secured position, and the P2Bi marketplace in the second position.” Source