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 […]
Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter hits $4.5bn milestone
Kickstarter has announced it has registered over $4.5 billion that has been pledged to different projects on its platform. The result is very positive for creators and individuals that are trying to gather funds and move forward with their projects. The information was recently released by the financial news site LearnBonds.com. Crowdfunding websites have been expanding all over the world during the last twenty years. Kickstarter was launched in 2009 and it launched over 460,000 projects. This shows that each project received around $10,000 in funding on average. This data represents an increase of over 16% since October 2018 and it also shows that just 37.3% of the projects are […]
The ‘Underbanked’ Is The Next Trillion-Dollar Opportunity in Fintech
It’s expensive to participate in the mainstream financial system if you’re poor. Overdraft penalties and banking fees prevent billions of people from accessing the most basic financial tools like savings accounts and lines of credit. This has created the greatest market opportunity in fintech—low-cost, high-tech financial services for the underbanked, said Angela Strange, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, during a panel at the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Detroit on Monday. “This opportunity [to serve the underbanked] is massive. Depending on which numbers you believe there are anywhere from 2 to 3 billion people worldwide,” said Strange. Historically, traditional banking institutions have done a bad job serving these customers […]
Stockholm-based fintech startup Dreams raises €9 million to help millenials fulfill their financial ‘dreams’
Stockholm-based fintech startup Dreams has raised €9 million in a late seed round. The investor pool includes AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM), the Norwegian insurance company Storebrand, Finnish Ålandsbanken and a group of private investors. Dreams helps its users fulfill their financial goals through a user-friendly mobile app using behavioural science. Launched in 2016, Dreams’ key commercial offering is a digital product platform for financial services, with a focus on financial well-being. The platform is particularly focused on serving millennials. Dreams helps its users to fulfill their financial ‘dreams’ through its user-friendly mobile app. What differentiates Dreams from other fintech apps is its deep application of behavioural science in its methodology and […]
London FinTech TrueLayer partners with Visa
London API provider TrueLayer is collaborating with Visa, which now has a minority stake in the FinTech as part of a $35 million Series C funding round in June, outlets reported on Tuesday (Oct. 29). The funding round was led by Temasek and Tencent with participation from previous investors Northzone and Anthemis. The investment helped TrueLayer expand across Europe to Germany, France, Italy and Spain. It also launched payment initiation capabilities and partnering with companies including Revolut, Zopa, ClearScore, Plum, Emma, CreditLadder, Canopy, and ANNA Money. “We want to scale open banking to a level where it manifestly impacts every aspect of financial services for consumers,” he says. “[This] requires […]
Iraqi company and Lebanese fintech launch the first digital-only payment card ‘Neo’ in Iraq
Iraq-based International Network for Cards and Digital Payment Services (INC Iraq) and a Lebanese fintech startup NymCard that is digitizing how payments cards are issued, delivered, and used, in collaboration with Visa have launched the first digital-only (prepaid) payment card ‘Neo‘ in Iraq to serve the underbanked Iraqi population, the two companies announced in a joint-statement to MENAbytes. The virtual card that can be requested through Neo’s mobile app within seconds will enable users to make online purchases on both local and international websites. The entire KYC process is digital. Neo’s mobile application (available for both iOS and Android) comes with a mobile wallet that allows users to keep an […]
FinTech will lead India’s financial formalisation
The Indian FinTech market has scaled great heights in the past few years, both in terms of funding and adoption of emerging financial services solutions. India ranked 2nd globally in FinTech adoption with the percentage of users reaching 57.9%. Deloitte has already pegged FinTech as one of the fastest-growing sectors due to increasing number of preferred digital channels for financial investments and wealth management. In fact, the overall transaction value in the Indian FinTech sector is projected to reach $137.8 billion by 2023, as opposed to $66.1 billion in 2019. The weather has also run favourably for the sector on several fronts. First, customer experiences have undergone sweeping transformation by […]
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. […]
