ID Finance secures £1.5m within minutes on Crowdcube
ID Finance, the fintech company operating in Europe and Latin America, has raised over £1.5m crowdfunding target within minutes of its campaign going live on Crowdcube amid strong demand from investors. The data science, credit scoring and digital finance company has a crowdfunding target of £2m and is inviting interested parties to invest at https://www.crowdcube.com/idfinance. ID Finance’s proprietary risk management system uses machine learning and advanced data science techniques to provide competitive financial services to the underbanked and help customers build their credit profile. Anyone with a smartphone in Spain, Brazil and Mexico can apply online for a loan via its Moneyman and Plazo brands, regardless of their credit history. […]
Softbank pumps £510m into finance firm Greensill that could kill off payday lenders
Japanese conglomerate Softbank is set to inject another £510million into British online finance firm Greensill as part of plan to launch a new service that aims to wipe out controversial payday loans. City sources said Greensill, set up by former Morgan Stanley banker Lex Greensill, is in advanced talks to buy FreeUp, a technology company that should enable the firm to offer ordinary workers early payment of their wages. SoftBank’s Vision Fund, led by maverick entrepreneur Masayoshi Son, is pouring in more than half a billion pounds to support the expansion strategy. Sources said the deals could be announced as soon as this week. To read more, please click on […]
Utrecht-based Rabo Frontier Ventures invests in UK fintech and banking company Tide
Rabo Frontier Ventures, Utrecht-based strategic investment venture fund, has invested in the mobile business platform Tide in a Series B investment round. This investment round was led by SBI Group and Augment. Notably, the RFV deal was structured through an SPV that is managed by Anthemis Group, a major early-stage investor in Tide and one of the most active fintech investors. Jeroen van Doornik, Partner at RFV, said: This investment in Tide will generate valuable insights regarding innovation and development in SME banking and further allows us to work together with Anthemis and alongside existing investors such as LocalGlobe. The funding will help Tide substantially increase its share of the […]
How Crowdfunding is becoming regular investing
A decade ago, an entrepreneur wanting to raise cash pretty much had to have rich relatives or pals, or gain entry into the clubby world of venture capital. Sure, that entrepreneur could take it to the web, asking people to make their own relatively small investments, but that was considered less than respectable – the digital version, perhaps, of panhandling. My, how much has changed since 2009. Now crowdsourcing is not only the hip way to raise money, but is pretty much expected to be part of the overall fundraising process. And one person who has helped in that shift is Jeff Kelisky, CEO of Seedrs, a crowdsourcing platform where new businesses […]
UK pumps £10 million into the Kenyan Fintech scene as it aims to increase financial inclusion for low-income and underserved consumers through technology
The Lord Mayor of the City of London Peter Estlin, on Thursday announced £10 million (Sh1.154 billion) of UK Aid support towards the Catalyst Fund during a visit to Nairobi. His visit comes ahead of the first UK-Africa Investment Summit next year, which will bring together businesses, governments and international institutions to encourage investment in a range of sectors, including fintech. The Catalyst Fund supports business development and investor opportunities for early stage fintech companies in emerging markets. With support from the UK Department for International Development, the Catalyst Fund will help connect a further 30 local fintech companies with international investors and mentors, including Kenyan fintech companies. “Today’s announcement […]
Scotland attracts £37m investment in fintech over the past decade
Fintech in Scotland has attracted nearly £37m in investment over the last 10 years with an emerging ‘ecosystem’ which brings together start-ups, large firms, universities and the public sector, said the Scottish Government. Scotland is now a key location for many international firms, such as J.P. Morgan, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, NCR, Ingenico and Avaloq. J.P. Morgan’s European Technology Centre in Glasgow is a key strategic technology hub with 1,300 employees.Deloitte’s 2017 Global FinTech Hubs Federation report highlighted Edinburgh’s high concentration of key elements, and outside London and the South East, Scotland has the most complete financial and business services industry cluster in the UK. Economy Secretary Keith Brown has been […]
Fintech Raisin crosses the channel to offer services to UK Savers
Savings marketplace Raisin has launched in the UK. The Berlin based Fintech has been expanding across the European continent but today they have crossed the British Channel to offer their services to UK savers. Raisin provides an interesting service that leverages technology to help savers to save more. Users of their site can shop around for higher interest rates on their money – regardless of their geographic location. Working alongside its first partner bank BACB, Raisin.co.uk offers savers the convenience of a single registration process to apply for multiple savings products. Raisin reports that it is currently on-boarding additional UK banks to the platform and will build a marketplace with […]
UK start-ups attract record £8.27bn investment
UK start-ups raised more money in equity investment last year than ever before, new research shows, as foreign investment cash flooded into the country. Data from the research firm Beauhurst, which specialises in tracking growth businesses, shows UK start-ups picked up £8.27bn worth of funding during 2017, more than twice as much as in 2016. Last year was also a record year for megadeals, with no fewer than 29 companies attracting investments of more than £50m. These businesses were led by Improbable, which raised £389m from the Japanese technology investor SoftBank Capital, and Farfetch, which raised £313m from the Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com. Other large funding rounds included TransferWise’s raise […]
