London ‘defends title as Europe’s tech hub with record investment so far in 2017’
London appears to be defending its title as Europe’s tech hub – at least for now. According to figures published by London & Partners, the Mayor of London’s promotional agency, venture capital firms pumped more than £1.1bn into the city’s technology sector over the last six months. London’s tech sector attracted more venture capital investment over that period than any other European city since the Brexit vote, including Dublin, Paris and Amsterdam. More than four times the amount of investment was recorded than at the same stage during 2013 and more than during any other six-month time period in the last decade. Investment across the whole of the UK topped […]
Fintech startup Tide got a $14 million boost
Banking startup Tide raised $US14 million in one of the largest Series A funding rounds closed by a fintech company this year. Tide, a digital-only banking app aimed at small businesses, has also partnered with online lender iwoca, in a move to allow small companies access to loans of up to £100,000. The funding round was led by specialist fintech investor Anthemis, along with Passion Capital, LocalGlobe and Creandum, the company that backed Spotify. Tide plans to almost double its London team by the end of the year, and develop more features to make online banking for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) more efficient. Some of these features, says […]
MortgageGym receives £500K investment from Henry Ritchotte
MortgageGym, a UK-based regulated mortgage robo-adviser, received a personal investment of £500k from Henry Ritchotte. Ritchotte, former Chief Operating Officer and member of the management board of Deutsche Bank AG, was also appointed as an adviser. He has over 24 years’ experience in the investment banking and financial services industries. Since leaving Deutsche earlier this year, Ritchotte has been making early stage investments in financial services firms with a focus on disruptive regulatory- and technology-driven business models. He previously held the role of ‘Head of Digital Bank’ at Deutsche. Ritchotte previously worked as Deutsche’s Chief Digital Officer on projects to digitalise banking services. Other roles at Deutsche included Chief Operating […]
LandlordInvest raises seed funding from Alan Gabbay, Director of O&H Properties
LandlordInvest, one of the first fully FCA authorised peer-to-peer lending platforms for residential mortgages, raises seed funding from Alan Gabbay, Director of O&H Properties, a London based privately owned property investment firm with assets valued at approximately £1 billion. LandlordInvest was launched at end of 2016 by founders Filip Karadaghi, Nikolajs Smirnovs and Joe Vallender and became the first peer-to-peer lending platform to offer a residential property-backed Innovative Finance ISA (“IFISA”) to UK savers, targeting tax-free returns of up to 12% per annum. The company’s achievements were recently highlighted by the industry as LandlordInvest was shortlisted as the “Crowdfunding Platform of the Year” at the PropertyWire Awards, holding off competition […]
Investors are preparing to give fintech app Revolut £50 million even though it’s bleeding money
Fast-growing fintech app Revolut is close to sealing a £50 million funding round that will value the nascent company at £300 million, Sky News reports. London VC Index Ventures, already an investor in Revolut, is leading the round, Sky says. Silicon Valley investor Ribbit Capital is also said to be taking part in the round. CEO and founder Nikolay Storonsky told TechCrunch earlier this month that the company was close to “large equity round.” London-based Revolut offers a pre-paid international currency card, initially offering zero-fee, zero-commission foreign exchange. Cash is pre-loaded to the card through an app. The big round and chunky valuation are eye-catching for a number of reasons. […]
Bitcoin price crosses $3,000 milestone to set new all-time high
The price of bitcoin topped $3,000 for the first time in history today, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI). After spending much of the last week seeking direction in the $2,700 to $2,900-range, the average price of bitcoin across major international exchanges edged up over this threshold finally at roughly 17:00 UTC. The new record comes at a time when alternative digital assets are seeing robust inflows, with ethereum’s ether token setting a new all-time high of more than $300 today as well. Indeed, analysts spoke to the ongoing broadening of the cryptocurrency market as a tide that is benefitting bitcoin. “The inflows into ‘alts’ are greater than […]
Peer-to-peer lending giant Zopa confirms £32m fundraise
Zopa scoops £32m in a new investment round led by Indian conglomerate Wadhawan Group, as it looks ahead to bank-build. Zopa, the UK’s original peer-to-peer lending platform, has clinched £32m in its first investment round since early 2014, when it raised £15m from Arrowgrass Capital Partners. The money will be used to help build-out the firm’s technology and product range in preparation for the submission of its banking licence application later this year. The investment round has been led by India’s Wadhawan Global Capital Pvt Ltd and European venture capital fund Northzone. Northzone is also an investor in leading invoice finance platform MarketInvoice. Zopa co-founder Giles Andrews currently serves and […]
Almost 40% of Growth Street investors are millennials
Growth Street has revealed that 37.4% of its investors are under the age of 35. The figures go against the views of those who have claimed millennials do not think about saving and investment. Growth Street felt simple digital interfaces and investment products offered by alternative lenders were aimed at giving younger people greater investment flexibility than ever before. Greg Carter, CEO of Growth Street, explained that millennials had traditionally been underserved by conventional investment products. “In the past, investment products have targeted older individuals with higher disposable incomes, but Growth Street is turning this convention on its head. “We’re delighted to see that almost 40% of our investors are […]
