EquityZen, a secondary marketplace for trading pre-IPO shares, has taken in $3 million in funding this week, reports Finovate (Banking Technology’s sister company). This Series A round brings the company’s total funding to $6.5 million. Draper Associates led the round, with WorldQuant Ventures also participating. The EquityZen marketplace connects shareholders of private companies with its current pool of […]
Following on from yesterday’s fintech funding fun, here’s our latest round-up. Features Finstar Financial Group, Adjoint, Karmic and Trupay. Finstar Financial Group will invest $150 million into new start-ups over the next five years, Oleg Boyko, the chairman of Finstar, has confirmed. The money will also be used for research and development (R&D) within the […]
Here’s a twist on the usual cybersecurity stuff. Advisory firm Willis Towers Watson has launched a new diagnostic tool designed to assess people’s cyber readiness. The firm says its tool can be used to “recruit, lead and engage a more cyber-savvy workforce”. It reckons that roles in cybersecurity are “some of the most in-demand across […]
Artificial intelligence (AI) will be baked into nearly every new software product and service by 2020, but the rush to claim AI integration today is causing confusion, according to a new report from analyst firm Gartner. Light Reading (Banking Technology’s sister publication) reports that while virtually every company across industry verticals is busy today figuring out […]
UK-based innovation foundation Nesta has revealed the 20 fintech firms who will participate in its Open Up Challenge as it looks for services, apps and tools for SMEs – with a £5 million prize fund on offer. As reported in March, Nesta launched its challenge – open to entries from anywhere in the world that […]
It’s been a busy week for mobile wallet partnerships. Several companies announced deals to offer mobile wallets to their customers in the U.K., Australia and Europe. Challenger bank Starling says it’s the first in the U.K. to offer in-app provisioning.
You’ve come to the right section for cash injection. Today’s fintech funding round-up features Contego, Privitar, Form3 and Barclays. Maven Capital Partners, a UK private equity house, has led the £3.5 million investment in Contego Fraud Solutions to support its growth plans. Maven is putting in £1.8 million, NVM Private Equity is investing £1.5 million, […]
Blend, a start-up that helps lenders make mortgage lending decisions, has unveiled a native mobile app, reports Finovate (Banking Technology’s sister company). The San Francisco-based company’s launch of Blend Mobile aims to let loan officers manage borrower requests and applications on their mobile device in order to facilitate communication between the two parties. Founded in 2012, […]
Fintech zeitgeist! Every Monday, we might look back at last week; look ahead to this week; share a few thoughts (our own or others); or discuss anything that catches our eye. This week, David Siegel, CEO of Twenty Thirty, a Swiss-based blockchain company, offers up “Ten Simple Rules for Crypto-Investing”. 1. Put a small amount […]
In a round led by Vertex Ventures, the venture capital wing of Temasek Holdings, Turnkey Lender has picked up $2 million in funding, reports Finovate (Banking Technology’s sister company). The Singapore-based company specialises in loan management technology, delivered over the cloud, that automates all stages of the lending life cycle – from application processing to collections […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Aktia Bank finally live with Temenos T24 core banking system “Some system repairs will be carried out during the following weeks.” HSBC and Barclays pilot banking without borders Testing use of a citizen’s national digital identity. ANZ, Westpac […]
In a copycat move that will come as a blow to Orange, rival Altice plans to launch its own online bank by early 2019 in the countries in its network footprint, according to a report from Reuters that cites a source close to the matter. Light Reading (Banking Technology’s sister publication) reports that the launch of […]
LCH SwapAgent has selected Murex’s MX.3 capital markets platform for trade processing, valuation, margining and member reporting. LCH SwapAgent was launched last year by LCH, a central counterparty clearing house, as a new centralised service for the non-cleared derivatives market. In this latest deal with Murex, LCH SwapAgent “aims to improve efficiencies” in the bilateral […]
Allfunds Bank Group is all for APIs with the launch of a new platform targetting the wealth management industry. The platform offers a “fully digitised way” of accessing Allfunds services by providing access to third party applications using standardised APIs which it says comply with emerging regulatory norms such as MiFiD II. Like many other […]
And the money keeps rolling in for fintech. U.K. challenger bank Revolut announced a $66 million investment it will use to introduce new features and expand globally, starting with Asia and North America. Meanwhile, Santander InnoVentures, the bank’s fintech venture capital fund, has added U.K.-based Pixoneye and Curve and U.S.-based Gridspace to its portfolio.
Enterprise software firm R3 is working with Intel to beef up its data privacy and security for Corda, its distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform. R3, which used to call itself a blockchain consortium, says Corda only sends data to those who have a “need to know”. According to the company, this feature emerged from the […]
Data aggregation provider Finicity has signed an agreement with JP Morgan Chase to let the bank’s customers choose data to share with apps. The companies will use a direct API to allow Chase customers to share information with the apps and services that Finicity supports. According to the firms, this tokenised access will eliminate the […]
Broadridge Financial Solutions will acquire Spence Johnson, a provider of institutional data and intelligence, for its asset management market ambitions. With the purchase, Broadridge says its Global Market Intelligence, a platform for retail cross-border fund data and analytics, will be able to use Spence Johnson’s Money in Motion dataset that provides analytics on assets, flows […]
Santander is partnering with business commerce platform Tradeshift, for a digital capital solution, the first of which will be supply chain finance (SCF). As reported last year, Tradeshift got an investment from Santander InnoVentures. At that time, Mariano Belinky, managing partner at Santander InnoVentures, said the company “is at the forefront of tackling a very […]
Australia and New Zealand-based banking group, ANZ, and Westpac have teamed with IBM and shopping centre operator Scentre Group to use blockchain to digitise the bank guarantee process for commercial property leasing. The trial used distributed ledger technology (DLT) to eliminate the need for current paper-based bank guarantee documents, resulting in a “single source of […]
The Financial Services Agency of Japan (JFSA) is setting up a hub for fintech start-ups to test new services, according to Nikkei. The hub will help “identify legal complications and risks standing in the way of industry’s growth” and is seen as a precursor to a regulatory sandbox. Nikkei says the sandbox could be in […]
Set sail for fintech! The latest edition of our flagship magazine – Banking Technology – is out now, packed with news, analysis and insights, case studies, research and expert commentary.
Fintech zeitgeist! Every Monday, we might look back at last week; look ahead to this week; share a few thoughts (our own or others); or discuss anything that catches our eye. This week, Banking Technology’s deputy editor Antony Peyton mulls briefly on the world of fintech events. Having attended what feels like every fintech event […]
A new microfinance entity in Myanmar, Ruby Hill Microfinance, has signed for the Abacus core banking system, provided by Fern Software.
For the finale of the final day of Money20/20 Europe, financial inclusion was discussed with resolute optimism for a bright future.
The interest from the fintech community in APIs burns brighter than a thousand suns, but where will this technology and the spirit of open banking take us?
Bank of America is rolling out Oracle’s cloud-based ERP system and financial applications for its international general ledger and broker-dealer systems.
What is the future of banking? Is it a giant menu from which customers (individuals and businesses) choose who is to provide what contingent upon well-informed choice and best value. Or is it a model where banks still rule from the centre, providing customers the simplicity of a range of products through a single provider. Putting aside whether or not this highly competitive state is possible, which is the future direction of banking?
One-fourth of Americans say they have too much debt, with 96 percent of them reporting they are financially stressed, according to a survey by the Center for Financial Services Innovation to gauge Americans’ financial well-being. While those statistics are bleak, they should signal an opportunity for banks, credit unions, fintechs and other companies to provide products, services and guidance to improve consumers’ financial stability, according to Jennifer Tescher, founder and CEO of CFSI.
It was only yesterday we did a fintech funding round-up. But as there’s a mad dash for cash, here’s another one. Features Digital Financial Services Lab, TrueLayer and Enterprise Ireland. Digital Financial Services Lab (DFS Lab) will invest $250,000 in four separate fintech start-ups that are building products to help low-income consumers in developing markets. […]
Swift is offering funding of up to €200,000 for the two winning fintech finalists of its industry challenge to develop new overlay services that use its global payments innovation (gpi) platform. The winners will work with banks on collaborative concepts that solve additional industry challenges in cross-border payments on top of gpi. As reported previously, […]
Eight fledgling fintech companies have won $250,000 each from the Center for Financial Services Innovation. Each FinLab winner in this third annual competition from the CFSI receives $250,000 in capital, along with resources to test, enhance and scale their products, in part via the expertise of JPMorgan Chase, a founding lab partner.
Microfinance entity Microcred has chosen BankBI’s business intelligence software applications as part of its move into retail banking. As reported last year, Microcred said it plans to become a fully-fledged retail bank and grow its presence from nine to 17 countries by 2020. It has opted to keep its long-standing technology provider, Temenos, and upgrade […]
American International Group (AIG), IBM and Standard Chartered have piloted the “first” multinational, smart contract based insurance policy using blockchain. The trio converted a controlled master policy written in the UK, and three local policies in the US, Singapore and Kenya, into a smart contract that provides a shared view of policy data and documentation […]
Misys and DH Corporation (D+H) have joined forces to create Finastra, the third largest financial services technology company in the world. As reported in March, D+H was acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $3.6 billion. The venture capital firm, which owns UK-based banking software vendor Misys, beat rival Advent International to acquire D+H. Finastra will […]
Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank continued its drive to take centre stage in the evolution of the tech industry with the acquisition of Boston Dynamics from Google/Alphabet. Telecoms.com (Banking Technology‘s sister publication) reports that Boston Dynamics has been a fairly high profile robotics pioneer in recent years, specialising in humanoid and quadrupedal machines apparently designed to […]
Fintech funding can be an intense blur of money, jargon and unerringly similar expansion plans. Here’s a round-up that gets to the heart of the matter. Features Plynk, IHS Markit, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Wahed. Ireland’s Plynk, a money messaging app, has revealed a Series A raise of €25 million. Led by […]
HSBC Commercial Banking has launched its Connections Hub, a digital platform to connect buyers and sellers around the world. Businesses in Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Singapore, the UK and the US can sign up to the multi-lingual hub for free. The service will be available to customers in France in the coming weeks […]
Fintech zeitgeist! Every Monday, we might look back at last week; look ahead to this week; share a few thoughts (our own or others); or discuss anything that catches our eye. This week, we sum up the predictions made by Google’s illustrious chief futurist, Ray Kurzweil, on what awaits us this century. 2019 Farewell cables. […]
HSBC is entering the robo-advice market with the launch of a new online service for wealth management advice The service will use data and algorithms and will make personal recommendations based on an individual’s circumstances. It is expected to be available by the end of the year. The bank says this will “open up wealth […]
