Fintech startup Squirrel is crowdfunding fresh investment on SyndicateRoom
A fintech startup whose app helps people better manage their money is seeking fresh funding via crowdfunding. Squirrel is seeking to raise £400,000 on equity crowdfunding platform SyndicateRoom, with £100,000 of that already promised by angel investor Jos Evans. The two-year-old startup offers users a bank account and budgeting features and already has more than 5,000 users and £2.9m managed through the app. It will use the new funds to expand its service, particularly focusing on the students and pensioners. “Engaging online investors in a fundraise has been a route that we’ve been considering for some time,” said founder and chief executive Mutaz Qubbaj. “However, it was crucial to reach […]
Funding Circle: A $100m vote of confidence in the UK’s Peer-to-Peer Lending industry
The news that Funding Circle has raised another $100m from a group of well-respected institutional investors is welcome news for the peer-to-peer lending sector, which has been showing signs of vulnerability of late. The funding round, led by Accel, and supported by investors including Baillie Gifford, DST Global, Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Rocket Internet, Sands Capital Ventures, Temasek and Union Square Ventures, cements Funding Circle’s position as the leading online peer-to-peer marketplace in Europe. To coincide with the announcement, Funding Circle also said yesterday that its total lending to small businesses globally has now reached £2.5bn – including £1.1bn of advances made last year alone. The latest equity investment takes […]
UK robo-advisor Munnypot goes live
Munnypot, a new service offering clear, affordable online financial advice to all is live from today. Munnypot’s founders aim to help close Britain’s financial advice gap, which affects 16 million people1, by making high quality advice available to everyone. Munnypot is an online savings and investment service giving anyone straightforward automated financial advice in a language they can understand, at a fraction of the cost of most financial advisers. The service requires a minimum investment of £25 per month and/or a £250 single investment amount. It provides an intuitive WhatsApp style ‘chat-based’ user-interface that advises people on their savings and investment decisions. Conversational and jargon-free questions, coupled with state of […]
LandlordInvest gains ISA manager status from HMRC
LandlordInvest has been approved by HMRC as an ISA manager, paving the way for the launch of its Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA), Peer-to-Peer Finance News has learnt. The peer-to-peer lender, which specialises in buy-to-let mortgages, gained full authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority in early December, following a 24-month application process. The platform will be making an official announcement regarding its HMRC approval later today. The IFISA is a tax-free wrapper around P2P investments heralded as a game-changer for the industry. It is hoped that the ISA brand will open the sector up to a wider range of retail investors, who might have not considered P2P before. At present, just […]
Octopus gets FCA authorisation
OCTOPUS Choice is the latest peer-to-peer lending platform to be granted full authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), just nine months after launch. The property lender has attracted almost £45m from lenders and funded 75 deals since it launched last April. Richard Wazacz, head of Octopus Choice, said authorisation now opens the door for the firm to launch its Innovative Finance ISA later this year. “The incredible demand we’ve witnessed in the nine months since launch underlines the level of interest for this sort of investment – and the authorisation that the FCA has now granted us will no doubt give renewed confidence to our fast-growing base of investors,” […]
RateSetter poaches new man for risk team from PayPal after chief risk officer’s departure
Peer-to-peer lending platform RateSetter has appointed a new head of risk analytics and retail credit, just weeks after the surprise departure of the platform’s chief risk officer. Michael Hoare is joining RateSetter from PayPal UK where he was chief credit risk officer. In the absence of a chief risk officer at RateSetter, Hoare and the risk team will report to RateSetter’s risk committee, chaired by former HSBC executive Jim Gunner. Hoare’s appointment follows news earlier this month that chief risk officer Cyrille Salle de Chou has left the peer-to-peer lender after just six months. He joined RateSetter from Lloyds in June but left to become chief risk officer of HSBC’s […]
Citi backs foreign exchange blockchain startup Cobalt DL
Citi has made an undisclosed investment in Cobalt DL, a London startup aiming to use the technology behind bitcoin to simplify foreign exchange trading. Cobalt DL, founded by two veteran bankers, aims to apply distributed ledger technology, also known as blockchain, to the foreign exchange trading market. Currently, when banks trade currencies with each other there are multiple different records of the transaction held by the buyer, seller, broker, clearer, and other third parties, all of which have to be reconciled. This slows the process down and adds to costs. The company aims to create a single, shared view of each transaction by using blockchain technology, which uses complex cryptography […]
Startup wealth manager Scalable Capital has attracted €100 million in just 10 months
Scalable Capital, a so-called “robo advisor” online wealth manager, has passed over €100 million (£83.8 million) in assets less than a year after launching. The startup, which launched in Germany 10 months ago and Britain 4 months ago, announced the milestone in a press release on Wednesday. Scalable’s total assets are growing at a rate of between €3 million (£2.4 million) and €5 million (£4.1 million) each week and the company claims this makes it one of the fastest growing digital investment managers in Europe. Business Insider reported in September that it was attracting around €4 million in deposits each week. Adam French, cofounder of Scalable Capital and CEO of […]
