Funding Circle hits £2bn milestone
Funding Circle became the second UK peer-to-peer lender to hit the £2bn milestone yesterday, as research showed that the sector had a strong start to the year. Funding Circle’s UK division has now lent £2bn to small businesses, the platform said on its Twitter account on Monday. The platform, which also has operations in the US, Germany and the Netherlands, has experienced stratospheric growth over the past year, lending out £820m in the UK in 2016. Globally, its investors lent more than £1.1bn in 2016, with approximately £400m lent in the fourth quarter alone, a record amount for any small-and medium-sized enterprise (SME) direct lending platform. The platform announced in […]
Robo-Advisors are a Big Hit in U.S. – but not so much in Europe
Financial advisors need to be aware: robo-advisor services are popular in America, but not pervasive in Europe. Asia, though, is seeing faster growth. A new study shows that robo-advisor services are predominantly used in the U.S. and that only 1% of survey respondents in major European countries like the U.K. and Germany say they are using robo-advisor strategies in their investment portfolios. “Adoption of robo-advice in the United States accelerated dramatically with the entrance of the major retail investment brands,” says Investment Trends in its “2016 Robo-Advice Report.” While 950,000 online share investors already embrace robo-advice, this figure has nearly doubled in the last 12 months alone (47% of the […]
European fintech deals hit 5-year high in 2016
Europe’s advantage in financial technology has been highlighted by figures showing fintech deals hit a five-year high on the continent in 2016, defying the global trend of a slight decline. The number of deals in European fintech rose 11 per cent to 179 in 2016, compared to a 1 per cent global drop, according to the data analytics company CBInsights. Germany and the UK dominated, staking claim to nine out of the 10 biggest European fintech deals. The deals grew 124 per cent compared with 2011’s total, in contrast to an 8 per cent drop-off in deal activity in the US to 422 deals — identical to 2014 levels, the […]
Australian FinTech launches International FinTech platform
The team behind the highly successful AustralianFinTech.com.au, this week launch their International platform, ukfintech.internationalfintech.com, aimed at connecting the FinTech industry on a global scale. Founder and CEO, Cameron Dart, says International FinTech has been born on the back of the highly successful Australian FinTech platform and growing demand from the global community to have a dedicated online presence for their sector. “International FinTech mirrors the Australian FinTech platform, including a dedicated industry newsfeed and a comprehensive directory of FinTech companies globally. “The site also aims to educate users of new financial technologies such as peer to peer lending and cryptocurrency, all presented in simple terms with no financial jargon” says […]
Fintech MarketInvoice aims for £900 million lending in 2017, launches Pro product
Fintech company MarketInvoice is planning to more than double the size of its business in 2017 as it launches new products in a bid to become the destination for small business short-term finance. MarketInvoice announced on Thursday that it hopes to reach £2 billion in total lending by the end of 2017, which would represent £900 million in lending in 2017 and 133% growth on its 2016 volumes. Founder and CEO Anil Stocker told Business Insider: “It took us five years to do our first billion; we’re trying to do our second in a year. It’s very exciting.” Peer-to-peer platform MarketInvoice started out in 2010 as a platform to let […]
Lending Works becomes first major P2P platform to launch new ISA
Lending Works, the first peer-to-peer lending platform to have insurance protecting lenders against certain borrower default risks, today becomes the first major UK platform to launch an Individual Savings Account (ISA). The new peer-to-peer lending ISA – which is better known as the Innovative Finance ISA or IFISA – is a new category of ISA set up exclusively for P2P lending. The IFISA can only be offered by platforms who have attained both full authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and subsequently ISA Manager approval from HMRC. Lending Works received confirmation of both permissions in late 2016, and the company has now become the first member of the industry-body […]
11 Fintech Companies in UK’s Trade Delegation to Australia & NZ
The Department for International Trade (DIT), the UK’s sole government department that negotiates to strike or extend trade agreements between the UK and non-EU states will send a Fintech delegation of 11 UK companies to Australasia. Aimed at promoting Fintech opportunities in the Fintech spaces in Australia and New Zealand, the trade mission will see a delegation of “eleven successful UK fintech companies” visit the countries in March. The 11 UK companies that form the delegation include credit rating specialist Aire; Fintech data analytics firm Clarus; asset allocation consultant ClearMacro; compliance solutions firm FundApps; investor relations firm Ingage; financial lenders Iwoca and Neyber; blockchain-based data platform ObjectTech; identity verification platform […]
Amazon Launchpad now operating in the US, Canada, India, Germany, France, the UK & Japan
Amazon is not only one of the world’s largest retailers and marketplace, it is also a market for emerging products having raised capital online and from early stage investors. Amazon Launchpad has expanded its platform from just the US to now operating in Canada, India, Germany, France, the UK and Japan. The list of partners is impressive engaging both venture capitalists and crowdfunding platforms. The roster includes: 500 Startups Accel Partners Andreessen Horowitz betaworks Balderton Capital CircleUp Crowdcube Crowdfunder (US) Crowdfunder (UK) Index Ventures Indiegogo Kickstarter Lending Club MicroVentures OurCrowd SeedInvest Seedmatch Seedrs StartEngine ulule and more… Amazon explains that their Launchpad has been designed to meet the needs of […]
