Prominent British entrepreneur Eric van der Kleij says Australian fintech companies are “world-class”
Leading British entrepreneur Eric van der Kleij says he is impressed with the “serious solutions” being built by founders in the local fintech sector, which he believes is on par with the rest of the world. “The quality of companies that we’ve met here are world-class,” he tells StartupSmart. Van der Kleij, who founded London’s largest fintech hub Level39, is in Australia this week for the UK government’s Australian Hunger Games-inspired event held in Sydney. Van der Kleij is a special adviser in fintech and blockchain for UK’s Department for International Trade, and is on a mission to help promising Australian startups with a “soft and accelerated landing into the […]
App-only bank Monzo’s crowdfunding is almost three times oversubscribed after less than 24 hours
App-only startup bank Monzo has attracted enough initial interest in its £2.5 million ($US3.1 million) crowdfunding campaign to fill it close to three times over, after less than 24 hours of pre-registration. Monzo opened pre-registrations for its crowdfunding at 10 a.m. GMT (5.00 a.m ET) on Tuesday, allowing users of its app to register interest in investing and pledge an amount to invest. Pledges hit Monzo’s £2.5 million target within 4 hours and, just after 8 a.m. GMT (3.00 a.m. ET) on Wednesday, the startup bank has £6.78 million pledged. CEO and cofounder Tom Blomfield says in an emailed statement: “The response to our crowdfunding campaign has been mind-blowing. Our […]
Peer-to-Peer Lender Prosper to sell $5 Billion in loans
Prosper Marketplace, America’s first peer-to-peer lending marketplace, announced on Monday that it had closed a deal to sell $5 billion of loans to a consortium of investors over the next two years. The consortium includes New Residential Investment Corp., Jefferies Group, and Third Point. “We’re very pleased to be working with this consortium of investors, and believe they will be great long-term partners as we continue to build a large-scale business,” David Kimball, CEO of Prosper Marketplace said. Founded in 2005, Prosper is an online platform that matches lenders and borrowers. The growth in peer-to-peer lending is part of a wider shift in the fintech industry as participants look to […]
FinTech investment swings from west to east, Accenture
Yet more research trumpeting Asia-Pacific’s rise to the top of the FinTech pile, this time from Accenture. It finds that global investment in FinTechs grew 10% in 2016, to $23.2 billion, driven primarily by a wave of blockbuster deals in China. Financing in Asia-Pacific in 2016 eclipsed that of North America for the first time, rising to $11.2 billion from $5.2 billion in 2015. North America attracted $9.2 billion and Europe $2.4 billion. The number of deals rose sharply in all major geographies, to nearly 1,800 from approximately 1,200 in 2015. However, the growth in total value of FinTech investments was due mainly to China and Hong Kong, where just […]
A fintech veteran spent 3 years and ‘a huge amount of money’ secretly building a new bank
Financial technology entrepreneur Nick Ogden on Tuesday unveiled the UK’s first new, purpose-built clearing bank in 250 years after 3 years secretly working on the multi-million-pound project. ClearBank is a “bank for banks,” Ogden told a crowd in central London at Tuesday’s launch event. It will not offer any services to consumers, instead offering payment processing and core banking services to fintech startups, credit unions, building societies, and other challenger banks. ClearBank has two key propositions. Firstly, it is what’s called a “clearing bank,” meaning it can process payments across all major schemes in the UK, including Swift, MasterCard, Visa, CHAPS, BACS, and Faster Payments. It is only the fifth […]
Wells Fargo robo-adviser to target young, first-time investors
Wells Fargo & Co’s wealth management business said on Tuesday it would launch its new robo-adviser Intuitive Investor later this year in a bid to develop a new revenue stream from existing Millennial customers who may be looking to open their first investment account in a crowded online market. Devon McConnell, Wells Fargo Advisors’ head of digital and direct investing, said the digital advice platform, which will initially be rolled out to employees in the first half of 2017, would be marketed to Wells Fargo customers who have savings and are comfortable taking big life steps online. “We know that there are many customers ready to take an early step […]
‘Software better than people’, says US robo-adviser
US automated investment pioneer Wealthfront has penned a public post arguing software can provide consumers with better financial advice than humans. In a blog post on the Wealthfront website, Wealthfront founder and CEO Andy Rachleff said human beings cannot compete with robots when it comes to many business services and social endeavours, including the provision of financial advice. “Software is far better at most jobs than people are. I realise that statement will make a lot of people uncomfortable, but it’s true,” Mr Rachleff wrote. “I believe this is especially true in the world of financial advice. Software does a better job than traditional financial advisers because it provides to […]
Ireland and Germany will battle for fintech crown post-Brexit: VC founder
Ireland and Germany are poised to step up to fill a void as leader of Europe’s fintech scene once the U.K. leaves the European Union (EU), according to the co-founder of a global venture capital firm backed by The Boston Consulting Group. While it’s difficult to tell exactly what it will be, Brexit, which will mean the U.K. will lose its easy access to Europe’s financial industry, is certainly going to have an impact on the fintech industry, says Raj Ganguly, co-founder and partner at B Capital Group. “It seems like London is going in the direction of a hard Brexit. And with the the passporting rules potentially going away, […]
