Santander takes big stake in UK FinTech
Spanish bank Banco Santander is acquiring just over 50 percent of the U.K. payments platform Ebury for £350 million ($453 million), Ebury announced in a press release on Monday (Nov. 4). The Ebury payments platform gives small and medium-size companies the ability to trade internationally. The acquisition is scheduled to close in the first quarter of next year and is intended to help boost Santander’s global payments business. “Small and medium-sized businesses are a major engine of growth around the world, creating new jobs and contributing up to 60 percent of total employment and up to 40 percent of national GDP in emerging economies,” said Santander’s Executive Chairman Ana Botín. […]
Modulr invest £20m to supercharge Scottish FinTech
EDINBURGH-based FinTech Modulr has today announced it will invest the majority of £20m in the Scottish FinTech industry, to drive disruptive innovation and further boost Scotland’s growing prominence as a tech hub. The move is the latest step in Modulr’s ambition to radically transform SME banking, and its belief in Scottish tech talent to help achieve this vision. Having established its main development hub in Edinburgh, Modulr will use the funding to create an additional minimum of 53 highly skilled technology jobs in the capital. The FinTech will also nurture new technology talent in Scotland by committing to hire graduates from Scottish universities every year for the next five years. […]
Landbay says October was record month
Fast-growing Fintech Landbay says October was a great month for the real estate peer to peer lending platform. Without providing any details, Landbay tweeted out the news. Earlier this year, Landbay reported that a “leading financial institution” had committed to funding £1 billion in buy to let mortgages originated on the site. This may have something to do with its growth. Landbay offers investors the opportunity to invest in loans to buy-to-let landlords. All loans are secured by first‐ranking mortgages over tenanted residential properties across England and Wales. The P2P lender currently promotes up to a 3.45% return for investors. In a historically low interest rate environment, these returns are […]
Koyo FinTech raises $4.9M to assist underbanked UK borrowers
FinTech startup Koyo, which uses Open Banking to offer loans to underbanked UK borrowers, announced that it has raised $4.9 million in funding. The round, a mixture of debt and equity funding, was led by Forward Partners, with participation from Seedcamp, Christian Faes (founder and CEO of LendInvest) and Charles Delingpole (founder and CEO of ComplyAdvantage). Founded last year by Thomas Olszewski, the FinTech firm aims to secure loans for people with a limited credit history through the use of Open Banking data. “If someone is new to the country, or otherwise has a thin credit file, it can be difficult for that person to access credit,” said Olszewski. “For […]
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 […]
