Dutch fintech to bring mobile payments to South America’s smallest country
Dutch fintech Move4Mobile has developed a mobile payments app for Hakrinbank, bringing online payments to Suriname, the smallest country in South America. The app, named Mopé, will enable anyone with a smartphone to make purchases and transfer money electronically in a country where the majority of transactions are performed using cash. Mopé provides a mobile wallet from which payment requests can be made using a QR code to receive funds in a number of currencies from elsewhere in the world. A former Dutch colony, one third of all Surinamese people live in the Netherlands, which would make Mopé a useful tool for sending funds to family back home. Large numbers […]
How is India’s Fintech space leading in the Asia Pacific
India has been accredited as the world’s second-largest fintech hub, first being the US. This itself is a testimony to the fact that we contribute largely to the fintech boom in the Asia Pacific. As per the report by the Data Labs (Inc42), fintech startups in India raised $3.4 Bn across 174 deals in the first quarter of 2019. The global fintech market is expected to reach $305.7 Bn by 2023, which means that we would be making a substantial contribution to the world economy. There are several factors that help in the surge of fintech startups in a country, the top-ranking reason being the untapped space in the regional […]
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. […]
Mako Fintech announces launch of US transfer agency business and formation of advisory board
Mako Fintech, a tech startup delivering next-generation software for securities transfer and administration, announced today that it has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate as a securities transfer agent in the United States. The transfer agency space has long been overdue for modernization. Legacy systems, low availability, high service costs and transaction delays have created a significant opportunity to move the industry forward through innovation. Mako is entering the transfer agency market with a streamlined, cloud-based SaaS service, offering centralized online voting, engaging investor communications and superior availability through smart automation. “Speaking with customers, we realized that there was a huge disconnect between the service clients […]
University of Malta offers a Master’s degree in blockchain
The University of Malta now offers a master’s degree in blockchain. The “Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology” course, which accepted its first cohort this month, is a multi-disciplinary degree offered by the University’s Centre for Distributed Technologies. It costs 13,400 euros a year, and lasts three semesters. The master’s degree, which is offered on a full-time or part-time basis, will, according to a prospectus, arm people from different industries with a multi-disciplinary approach to crypto. “Programmers will require knowledge of regulatory and legal frameworks within which smart contracts are being proposed, and similarly lawyers would be required to understand obligations laid out within smart contracts,” reads the prospectus. To read […]
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 […]
Israel’s OurCrowd to hit $1 bln in assets from crowdfunding in ’18
Israel’s equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd said on Wednesday it expects to surpass $1 billion in assets under management in funds raised through equity crowdfunding in 2018. Since its inception in 2013, OurCrowd has raised $650 million for 145 startup companies and 12 funds, it said at the outset of its annual investor summit. In 2017, its investor base grew to more than 25,000 from 112 countries. OurCrowd’s primary investor base is the United States, with 49 percent of funding, followed by Asia at 26 percent. The company also said its seed stage incubator will invest in 100 early stage companies in the next 10 years, focused on technologies such as […]
New alliance launched in Hong Kong to help support local FinTech startups
FinTech was identified as one of the key areas to generate momentum for Hong Kong’s economic development, under ‘Smart Economy’ in the city’s Smart City Blueprint released last December. FinTech initiatives will also have an impact in the ‘Smart Living’ area of the Blueprint. On January 24, a new alliance was launched in Hong Kong to help support local start-ups in the financial technology (FinTech) sector. The CSI Alliance has Cyberport, the Smart City Consortium (SCC) and IBM China/Hong Kong Ltd as its core members. It aims to foster collaboration between technology, academic and commercial stakeholders to address issues faced by FinTech start-ups and help accelerate their growth. Cyberport is […]
