Incumbents should now be scared of four biggest digital challenger banks
While the disruption of financial services has been going on for a number of years now, the capital banked by four of the most advanced digital challenger banks is hugely significant. Rewind only ten years ago, and if you asked someone on the street to open up their wallet (in a non-threatening way) there’s a pretty good chance it would be filled exclusively with cards from the major high street banks. Back then there was choice, but little to differentiate where you banked your savings, held a credit card or conducted business affairs. We accepted, like we do with energy suppliers, that our banking provider could pretty much dictate terms […]
London FinTech startup Oinky raises $1m
Tech City News can exclusively reveal that Oinky, a London-based savings app, has raised approximately $1m (£765,000) in Seed funding from a group of high net worth individuals and entrepreneurs from the finance and tech sectors. Originally backed by Seedcamp, the startup, which will use the money to expand its team (it recently hired Azimo’s former head of growth Francisco Lema), launch its product and build additional product features, has also received regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Founded in 2015, Oinky’s mission is simple yet ambitious. Co-founders Ivan Soto-Wright and Conrad Holmboe, who met at Redington, decided to set up the company in an attempt to address […]
China FinTech booms as mobile payments outpace US by 50x
New research has shown that Chinese mobile payments were around 50 times greater than those within the U.S. in 2016, thus illustrating that China’s FinTech market is a strong contender in the market. China Dominates the Mobile Payment Market Research from iResearch in China has found that Chinese third-party mobile payments more than tripled in 2016 to $5.5 trillion. WeChat Pay and Alipay, operated by Ant Financial, dominated the market. Recent research found that Alipay received the biggest investment in 2016 at $4.5 billion as FinTech funding increased in China. Whereas, in the U.S., mobile payments increased by 39 percent to $112 billion, according to Forrester Research. However, it’s thought […]
7 FinTech companies helping millennials dominate their finances this year
If you’re a millennial, you already know just how hard it is to get ahead. Student loan debt, much of which is shouldered by millennials, surged to $1.3 trillion dollars last year. That leaves the average college graduate ages 20 – 30 with a monthly payment of $351. And let’s not forget that, as of last year, a large percentage of millennials with a college degree were stuck working low-wage, dead end jobs. So, while many millennials are working hard to get out of debt, they struggle with low wages that make even keeping up with their bills that much harder Of course this news is depressing, but it’s important to note […]
US fintech SoFi targets mortgage lending in Australia
One of the best-funded financial technology companies in the US, SoFi, is preparing to launch in Australia to offer mortgages in direct competition with the banks. In recent days, the San Francisco-based SoFi has used LinkedIn to advertise for a manager of mortgage operations, based in Sydney, along with an operations manager and a marketing manager. The pending opening in Sydney would be SoFi’s first office outside the US, where it has funded more than $US7 billion in student loan refinancing, personal loans and mortgages since it was founded in 2011. Over the past two years, SoFi, which used to be called Social Finance, has raised $1 billion in new […]
UK robo-advisor Munnypot goes live
Munnypot, a new service offering clear, affordable online financial advice to all is live from today. Munnypot’s founders aim to help close Britain’s financial advice gap, which affects 16 million people1, by making high quality advice available to everyone. Munnypot is an online savings and investment service giving anyone straightforward automated financial advice in a language they can understand, at a fraction of the cost of most financial advisers. The service requires a minimum investment of £25 per month and/or a £250 single investment amount. It provides an intuitive WhatsApp style ‘chat-based’ user-interface that advises people on their savings and investment decisions. Conversational and jargon-free questions, coupled with state of […]
US clearing house moves to blockchain
Swaps processing platform for distributed ledger. US post-trade provider, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), will use blockchain technology to rebuild a platform that processes US$11 trillion worth of credit default swaps each year, the company said. IBM and technology startups Axoni and R3 CEV have been selected to work on the project which is set to kick-off this month, the DTCC said. Project management and integration services will fall to IBM, which will also contribute distributed ledger technology expertise. Axoni’s AxCore DLT protocol will form the basis of the platform. AxCore will be submitted to the Linux Foundation’s HyperLedger project and become open source once the DTCC implementation […]
Venture capitalist OurCrowd goes on start-up funds drive
Israeli-based venture capital crowd-funding outfit OurCrowd has launched a major funding drive, aiming to raise $100 million from Australian investors in 2017. OurCrowd MD Dan Bennett told The Australian the outfit receives about 150 applications from start-ups each month, including from Australia, and needs a hefty local investment to ensure the engagement level can continue. He is specifically targeting private investors like family offices, high net worth individuals and institutions to co-invest in the platform, which takes a minimum $10,000 each from a pool of accredited investors and places it in hi-tech, high-growth firms. “We’re giving them access to global venture capital deals alongside some of the best investors in […]
