UK pumps £10 million into the Kenyan Fintech scene as it aims to increase financial inclusion for low-income and underserved consumers through technology
The Lord Mayor of the City of London Peter Estlin, on Thursday announced £10 million (Sh1.154 billion) of UK Aid support towards the Catalyst Fund during a visit to Nairobi. His visit comes ahead of the first UK-Africa Investment Summit next year, which will bring together businesses, governments and international institutions to encourage investment in a range of sectors, including fintech. The Catalyst Fund supports business development and investor opportunities for early stage fintech companies in emerging markets. With support from the UK Department for International Development, the Catalyst Fund will help connect a further 30 local fintech companies with international investors and mentors, including Kenyan fintech companies. “Today’s announcement […]
Where are US fintech’s next billion-dollar startups?
As fintech investments soar to new heights, investors are looking at the bottom and top levels of the services stack to find the next billion-dollar startups. That’s the word from seasoned investors like Andreessen Horowitz’s managing director, Angela Strange, who has invested in a number of successful financial services technology companies. For Strange and Chris Britt, co-founder and chief executive of financial services startup Chime Bank, the best opportunities are in customer-facing financial services and specific infrastructure opportunities that can support those businesses. For many large companies, financial services are already entering a twilight period. Markets like consumer and student lending, banking and financial management and business lending are becoming […]
Scotland attracts £37m investment in fintech over the past decade
Fintech in Scotland has attracted nearly £37m in investment over the last 10 years with an emerging ‘ecosystem’ which brings together start-ups, large firms, universities and the public sector, said the Scottish Government. Scotland is now a key location for many international firms, such as J.P. Morgan, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, NCR, Ingenico and Avaloq. J.P. Morgan’s European Technology Centre in Glasgow is a key strategic technology hub with 1,300 employees.Deloitte’s 2017 Global FinTech Hubs Federation report highlighted Edinburgh’s high concentration of key elements, and outside London and the South East, Scotland has the most complete financial and business services industry cluster in the UK. Economy Secretary Keith Brown has been […]
Robo-adviser Wealthsimple raises $51 million to expand service
Wealthsimple, a Toronto-based online wealth management startup, has raised $51 million in funding from Power Financial Corp (PWF.TO), as it seeks to compete in the increasingly crowded digital investment advice market. Wealthsimple, which is among the group of digital investment managers known as robo-advisers, will use the round of funding to add features to its service and expand to offer other financial products, it said.The company last year became the first foreign robo-adviser startup to enter the U.S. market and later in 2017 opened in the UK. It currently manages $1.45 billion for more than 65,000 clients in the three markets it operates in. Wealthsimple and other robo-advisers are seeking […]
Fintech Raisin crosses the channel to offer services to UK Savers
Savings marketplace Raisin has launched in the UK. The Berlin based Fintech has been expanding across the European continent but today they have crossed the British Channel to offer their services to UK savers. Raisin provides an interesting service that leverages technology to help savers to save more. Users of their site can shop around for higher interest rates on their money – regardless of their geographic location. Working alongside its first partner bank BACB, Raisin.co.uk offers savers the convenience of a single registration process to apply for multiple savings products. Raisin reports that it is currently on-boarding additional UK banks to the platform and will build a marketplace with […]
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 […]
Ant Financial plans equity fundraising at potential US$100 billion valuation
A fundraising would bring Ant a step closer to a hotly anticipated initial public offering by establishing a more current valuation. China’s Ant Financial Services Group is planning to raise up to US$5 billion in fresh equity that could value the online payments giant at more than US$100 billion, people familiar with the move said.A fundraising would bring Ant, in which e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding is taking a one-third stake, a step closer to a hotly anticipated initial public offering by establishing a more current valuation. Ant’s last fundraising in 2016 valued the owner of Alipay, China’s top online payment platform, at about US$60 billion. The new round should […]
Singapore notches record US$229m fintech funding in ’17: KPMG
BUOYED by US$122.75 million of funding in the fourth quarter, Singapore achieved a record high of US$229.1 million of fintech funding in 2017, according to KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech report. The record was attained despite a dip in the number of deals done throughout the year – from 37 in 2016 to 29 in 2017. Additionally, the smaller deal base in the past year meant that each was worth an average of US$7.9 million in 2017, bettering the US$5.9 million average in 2016. The high in fintech funding was mainly attributed to two of Asia’s 10 biggest deals – with a combined value of over US$130 million – taking place […]
