Prominent British entrepreneur Eric van der Kleij says Australian fintech companies are “world-class”
Leading British entrepreneur Eric van der Kleij says he is impressed with the “serious solutions” being built by founders in the local fintech sector, which he believes is on par with the rest of the world. “The quality of companies that we’ve met here are world-class,” he tells StartupSmart. Van der Kleij, who founded London’s largest fintech hub Level39, is in Australia this week for the UK government’s Australian Hunger Games-inspired event held in Sydney. Van der Kleij is a special adviser in fintech and blockchain for UK’s Department for International Trade, and is on a mission to help promising Australian startups with a “soft and accelerated landing into the […]
App-only bank Monzo’s crowdfunding is almost three times oversubscribed after less than 24 hours
App-only startup bank Monzo has attracted enough initial interest in its £2.5 million ($US3.1 million) crowdfunding campaign to fill it close to three times over, after less than 24 hours of pre-registration. Monzo opened pre-registrations for its crowdfunding at 10 a.m. GMT (5.00 a.m ET) on Tuesday, allowing users of its app to register interest in investing and pledge an amount to invest. Pledges hit Monzo’s £2.5 million target within 4 hours and, just after 8 a.m. GMT (3.00 a.m. ET) on Wednesday, the startup bank has £6.78 million pledged. CEO and cofounder Tom Blomfield says in an emailed statement: “The response to our crowdfunding campaign has been mind-blowing. Our […]
Peer-to-peer finance firm Folk2Folk launches new branch in Harrogate
Folk2Folk, the peer-to-peer business lending firm, has launched a new branch in Harrogate. The company’s new branch is aiming to introduce over £20m in finance to an estimated 100 businesses in its first year in the region. Folk2Folk’s move into North Yorkshire is part of its national expansion plan having already established a local demand for its finance services. Harrogate was chosen based on its strong rural business network and geographic importance to other local towns and areas. This new branch will be the fourth opening from Folk2Folk, which launched in 2013. The new Folk2Folk branch is situated in the centre of Harrogate, making it easy for business owners and […]
A fintech veteran spent 3 years and ‘a huge amount of money’ secretly building a new bank
ClearBank the UK’s first new, purpose-built clearing bank in 250 years after 3 years secretly working on the multi-million-pound project.
Nod takes home gold at UK’s first Startup Games in Australasia
UK Department for International Trade awards Australian fintech startup, Nod, winner of Australasia’s first Startup Games in Sydney yesterday. Australian fintech startup Nod has been declared the gold medal winner of the UK Department for International Trade’s (DIT) Startup Games, which was held at The Mint in Sydney yesterday. Nod will travel to London this June, courtesy of sponsor British Airways, to participate in London Tech week and find out how they can scale and grow in the UK. Nod pitched their way to the top against more than 50 other entrepreneurs by engaging with top investors and mentors who “invested” virtual funds in the companies they were most impressed […]
Zopa to move into secured lending
ZOPA is looking to expand into the secured auto finance space, where it sees an opportunity to grow its borrower base. The peer-to-peer lending platform, which usually specialises in unsecured consumer loans, said it sees strong potential in the secured car finance sector as there are healthy levels of demand but typically a poor customer experience. “People are getting poor deals in that area and end up paying significantly higher annual percentage rates (APRs) than they would if they arranged their financing before going into a dealership,” said Amy Miller, Zopa’s chief marketing officer. Consumers looking to borrow money to buy a car tend to sign up to dealer-arranged loans, […]
Everything you need to know about FinTech
The term “Fintech” is an extremely broad term, as the field has exploded as of recent times. And the following infographic was meant to cover the field in a broad sense, there are many topics within Fintech that could each be discussed in much greater detail than we are able to do with the limited time and space we have available, or that you would probably have time for. In short, Fintech stands for “Financial Technology” and it speaks to technology which deals specifically with financial services & financial products. You want to talk about digital cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin & Ether… Fintech. You want to talk about the blockchains that […]
P2P Bitcoin lender Bitbond raises $1.2 million in new funding
Peer-to-peer bitcoin loan market Bitbond has raised $1.2m in new funding. The web platform, which connects lenders and borrowers to facilitate the distribution of loans denominated in bitcoin, received the new funding largely from a group of angel investors, some of whom already have stakes in the startup. The round was led by Şekip Can Gökalp, founder of Mobilike, a Turkey-based mobile ad network formed in 2009, and that was acquired last year. Other investors include Janis Zech and Andreas Bodczek, who founded ad tech startup Fyber, and Alexander Graubner-Müller, co-founder and CEO of Germany-based online lender Kreditech. According to Bitbond representative Chris Grundy, most of the funding will be […]
