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 […]
CoinShares announces two new flagship funds
CoinShares Group, the group behind the first bitcoin and ether exchange traded notes (Issued by XBT Provider AB) and the team behind the world’s first regulated bitcoin strategy (GABI), is announcing two new flagship crypto investment funds. The two funds: CoinShares ‘Active’ Fund – a multi-coin, alpha-generating, active strategy; and CoinShares ‘Large Cap’ Fund – a passive, large-cap, basket fund; represent a natural evolution of market approaches based on the current trajectory of the crypto-asset economy. This announcement follows the group’s October launch of the first Ether Tracking, Exchange Traded Products on Nasdaq Stockholm. These ETPs now comprise more than $350M of assets less than 4 months post launch. “As […]
Fintech: Why It Matters So Much to Your Investment
Fintech is a term that combines two words; Financial and Technology. It means emerging financial services that are fast expanding to include inventions in financial literacy, retail banking, education, investing, and cryptocurrencies. While fintech was initially only applied to conventional technologies that were applied to back-end established clients and financial institutions, the term now refers to how to people operate their enterprises ranging from double-entry accounting to currency invention. Notably, financial technology has grown explosively as mobile internet revolution advances. Facts about Fintech and their applications today In their latest report, Accenture established that international investment in fintech blast through the roof in just a couple of years. From $ […]
Vantiv seals $10 billion Worldpay acquisition
Vantiv Inc. agreed to acquire U.K. payments processor Worldpay Group PLC for about GBP8 billion ($10.4 billion) in cash and stock, one of the biggest deals in the fast consolidating sector. The tie-up, according to a joint statement Wednesday, will create a trans-Atlantic payments processing giant with a combined market value of more than $20 billion. The companies disclosed their negotiations last month as the Ohio-based Vantiv appeared at the time to ward off a potential rival bid from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. The combined entity will be called Worldpay. Payments businesses are under pressure to join forces in part to cut costs as greater regulatory scrutiny and rising […]
Two of Britain’s fastest growing fintechs are going after a huge pot of money: pensions
Fast-growing online investment startups Moneyfarm and Scalable Capital are both planning to launch pension products later this year, hoping that accessing the huge UK retirement market could super-charge their growth. Moneyfarm announced plans to launch a pension product later this year when it announced its full year results on Friday. Those results show that the startup, which launched in Italy in 2012 and the UK last year, currently has £260 million in assets under management. It offers personal investment and ISA products. Paolo Galvani, Moneyfarm’s cofounder and chairman, told Business Insider: “We will launch a UK pension product in the fourth quarter and next year Italy. For the next few […]
Fintech Kantox raises £4.6 million from investors as it targets profitability
Foreign exchange fintech company Kantox has raised £4.6 million from its existing investors as it aims for profitability. Filings with Companies House show Kantox raised the sum at the end of July. CEO and founder Philippe Gelis confirmed the fundraise with Business Insider over email, saying the company raised the money from existing investors Partech Ventures, IDinvest Partners, and Mundi Ventures. Gelis told Business Insider: “We indeed raised some more money with our existing investors. We are progressing well and focusing on building sophisticated software solutions for our clients. “We have great traction so we did not want to look for new investors (something which is always very time consuming) […]
Fintech funding on the rebound as Irish start-ups play part
Global fintech investment more than doubled from the first to the second quarter on the back of a sharp rise in European funding deals. Ireland played its part, recording fintech investments of more than $230 million (€194 million) in the three-month period, led by Plynk which raised €25 million in a Series A round from Swiss Privée in June. Total global funding to fintech firms rose to $8.4 billion (€7.1 billion) from $3.6 billion (€3 billion) with European fintech investment jumping to over $2 billion (€1.7 billion). This is well below the peak investment high of $5.8 billion (€4.9 billion) seen in the fourth quarter of 2015, but up on […]
Search for 2017 Fintech 100 innovators kicks off
Nominations are now open for the 2017 KPMG & H2 Ventures Fintech 100, the annual list designed to recognize leading fintech innovators. Visit www.fintechinnovators.com by Thursday, 31 August 2017 and nominate your company, or any fintech you think should be considered for the Fintech 100. The Fintech100, available at www.fintechinnovators.com, is compiled by fintech investment firm, H2 Ventures in collaboration with KPMG’s Global Fintech practice. The annual Fintech 100 includes both the leading 50 established fintechs, and the most intriguing 50 “emerging stars.” How to nominate and the judging process: Nominations for the Fintech 100 can be made at www.fintechinnovators.com website by Thursday, 31 August 2017. […]
