Ellevest is an investment platform focused on women; the firm is led by Sallie Krawcheck and recently raised $34.6 mn in a Series A round; the round was led by Rethink Impact with participation from a wide variety of investors including PSP Growth, Salesforce Ventures, CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund, LH Holdings, SK Impact Fund, Morningstar, Khosla Ventures, Mellody Hobson, Ulu Ventures, Contour Venture Partners and Astia Angels. Source
Nathaniel Hoopes, head of the Marketplace Lending Association shares how the Madden v. Midland decision is having an adverse impact on borrowers in an American Banker opinion article. Source
TechCrunch has published the video from an interview with Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum; in the interview he talked about cryptocurrencies and blockchain, highlighting what makes a good use case for the technology. Source
Peter Renton from Lend Academy reflects on the news from SoFi last week which involved sexual harassment at the company; Renton shares his perspective on this problem, which is not specific to any one company or any one industry; there are many recent examples of women who are starting to speak out about inappropriate treatment and the negative behavior is starting to have real consequences. Source
JPMorgan Chase has been active in fintech partnerships with firms like Truecar, OnDeck and Roostify; they are now partnering with Bill.com in an effort to eliminate paper checks; JPMorgan spent $600 mn last year building fintech solutions and partnering with firms according to a letter CEO Jamie Dimon sent to shareholders in April. Source
On CNBC's Squawk Box Ray Dalio, the founder of the world's largest hedge fund spoke negatively about bitcoin stating "It's not an effective storehold of wealth because it has volatility to it, unlike gold. Bitcoin is a highly speculative market. Bitcoin is a bubble."; he went on to say that it could be a currency and work conceptually but the speculation going on hurts it. Source
The WSJ reports that the hack actually occurred in March instead of May; the breach wasn’t discovered until July 29th and it was announced to the public on September 7th. Source
The complaint was filed on Thursday with the story echoing similar stories that have been published in the last few weeks; the lawsuit is one of at least three filed against the company. Source
Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt, Sam Altman, who leads the Y Combinator stated, "We are interested in how companies like Y Combinator can use the blockchain to democratize access to investing We should try to figure that out.”; TechCrunch reports that sources say YC is further along in the process of making this a reality; Altman also provides his opinion on ICOs in the interview. Source
The CEO and co-founder of AutoGravity talks about how they are bringing the car buying and financing experience into the 21st century. Source