Fintech funding round-up: 24 April 2017
The latest fintech funding round-up featuring Token, Ongo, National Bank of Canada (NBC) and a bunch of venture capitalist firms.
The latest fintech funding round-up featuring Token, Ongo, National Bank of Canada (NBC) and a bunch of venture capitalist firms.
Plastc, a US fintech start-up that created a card that could digitally hold 20 credit or debit cards, is filing for bankruptcy.
Hufsy, a Denmark-based fintech start-up focused on SMEs, is expanding into Germany. Its banking partner in Germany is SolarisBank.
Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), the nation’s central bank, is calling out to fintech start-ups for ideas to improve the financial services sector. The bank’s Financial Technology Enabler Group (FTEG) is now open to concepts through its “Fintech Hacks” initiative which aims to “identify pain points in the delivery and consumption of financial services, and solicit […]
Asian investment bank Nomura plans to tap into India’s lively fintech scene with the launch of its “Voyager – Nomura Fintech Partnership” – including a new JPY 10 billion ($91.7 million) fund to provide support to start-ups. Nomura is inviting entrepreneurs to participate in the programme to build solutions for capital markets and investment banking […]
Nasdaq has unveiled its venture investment programme, Nasdaq Ventures, as it seeks out new fintech firms to work with in the global capital markets. Adena Friedman, president and CEO, Nasdaq, says it plans to “accelerate the pace of innovation”. The minority stake investments made by Nasdaq Ventures are expected to range from less than $1 […]
Applications will soon open for Accenture’s fourth annual Asia-Pacific Fintech Innovation Lab, a 12-week programme to help start-ups speed up product and business development. According to the firm, investments in Asia-Pacific fintech companies are on the rise. During the first quarter of 2017, investments totalled $1.1 billion, representing 21% of the $5.1 billion invested into […]
Prepaid complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the US hit 2,500 in 2016, accounting for about 0.9% of the 291,400 complaints in agency’s latest Consumer Response Annual Report.
We’re travelling at the speed of light, that’s why we’re on a news site. The UK’s fintech scene is chock-full of sweet accelerators and incubators – powering the industry ever onwards. In their 76-page report, “Business incubators and accelerators: the national picture”, the UK Government and innovation foundation Nesta paint a pleasant portrait of energy […]
BNP Paribas Securities Services is partnering with AXA Investment Managers for the creation of a new digital fund distribution platform. Called BNP Paribas Fund Link, it aims to make the fund distribution process better by improving the flow of information between fund buyers and sellers via blockchain and smart contract technology. Jean Devambez, head of […]
Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is seeking applications for its FinTech Hive at DIFC accelerator programme. The 12-week programme is designed to help early and growth-stage firms accelerate product and business development by gaining exposure to financial institution executives. Successful applicants will be offered the opportunity to develop, test and modify their innovations in collaboration […]
UK challenger bank Starling has teamed up with Moneybox to give its customers access to a suite of saving and investing tools. Starling says it is the first digital challenger to join the list of banks supported by the Moneybox app for its “round ups” feature. The service will be available to Starling customers at […]
We all love food and drink, and mobile service WoraPay has got in-sync and integrated Masterpass, the digital payment service from Mastercard. WoraPay’s service allows customers to buy food and drink, and pay in advance with their mobile. This means customers can order their morning coffee or tea (or whisky if you have a crappy […]
There is no smoke without fire. The “big smoke”, as London is colloquially known, has been creating a fire of innovation in the financial technology space for years, but there are other UK fintech centres in the Southwest; Cardiff; Manchester/Leeds; and Edinburgh/Glasgow that create their own heat.
Standard Chartered has given a big boost to two Asian start-ups with two proof of concept (PoC) projects. Bambu, a Singapore-based robo-advisory for wealth management firm, and KYC Chain, a Hong Kong-based digital identity management firm using distributed ledger technology, were selected from SuperCharger FinTech Accelerator 2.0 – a 12-week accelerator programme in Hong Kong […]
US-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and First Data are calling on US start-ups to apply for their latest Commerce.Innovated accelerator programme. The four-month virtual programme provides participants with operational mentorship from the pair’s respective networks. Reetika Grewal, head of SVB’s payments strategy and solutions group, says its “small class size allows us to work closely […]
Visa has expanded its Everywhere Initiative innovation programme into Europe as it looks for the “next big thing” in payments. Entrants in Visa’s first-ever European Everywhere Initiative can win up to €50,000 to support a development programme with Visa, or through business partnership with Visa’s clients, and potentially have access to Visa APIs, mentors and […]
Mastercard has welcomed five new start-ups to its Start Path Global programme – its initiative to boost its share of the commerce market. The programme is open to all start-ups who focus on banking and payments and have raised a “significant seed” or Series A round of investment. Three out of the five firms joining […]
UK challenger bank Starling has unveiled its developer portal to enable third parties to access customer data and build on top of its platform using APIs. As Banking Technology previously reported, Starling launched its mobile app and is welcoming the first customers through its digital doors to join a beta testing programme. It also recently […]
Redwood Bank, a new UK-based SME challenger, has secured a banking licence following approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). As Banking Technology reported in October last year, Acorn Financial Partners (AFP) submitted a banking licence application. Now that it has authorisation, AFP is called Redwood Bank. Redwood says it […]
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 briefly reflects on last week’s visit to Morocco for HPS Worldwide’s PowerCARD Users Meeting 2017. At […]
Morocco-based payments firm HPS Worldwide is setting its sights on growth through the use of APIs and extensive collaboration with start-ups. At its PowerCARD Users Meeting 2017, held 5-7 April, in the lively city of Marrakesh – about 400 people from over 50 countries listened to presentations from the company and its partners. The message […]
OP Financial Group has partnered with Token, a Silicon Valley-based crypto-payment software provider. Token says the agreement will enable the Finnish bank “to innovate in the European open banking market and generate new revenue streams via future payment solutions”.
The world is not short of money… for some. Our latest fintech funding round-up features Aeries Financial Technologies, CASHe, Perfios and Ayopop. There’s never a shortage of fintech news in India. Aeries Financial Technologies, which owns the app-only lending platform CASHe, has raised $3.8 million in Series A funding from an investor group led by […]
Ukrainian start-up Attic Lab has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Polybius Foundation to provide the blockchain backbone for a new digital bank. As Banking Technology reported in September last year, Attic Lab unveiled its open source blockchain platform and has been gaining some traction with banks in Europe. It will implement SmartMoney, a […]
The “world’s first, regulated mortgage robo-adviser” Mortgage Gym will be launched in the UK in the coming months – offering online applications in 15 minutes. The service is regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), is free and combines robo- and live-broker advice. Mortgage Gym says its network allows brokers to acquire customers independently, […]
The latest edition of our flagship magazine – Banking Technology – is out now, packed with news, analysis and insights, case studies, research and expert commentary.
ATB Financial has joined forces with KPMG in Canada and fintech matchmaking firm Matchi to run a “Customer Onboarding Innovation Challenge”. The challenge is free to enter and open to any firm that has developed and built a solution in one of the four categories: Know your customer (KYC) – ideally the solution will be […]
Lighter and brighter – catch up with fintech funding news in our brief round-up. Features Monzo, Quint and Lidya. Mobile-only challenger bank Monzo has raised another £2.5 million from more than 6,000 investors – the highest-ever number of any Crowdcube campaign. This follows its crowdfunding record of £1 million round last year, which closed in […]
Enjoy a word-lite delight with our brief fintech funding round-up. Features Clarity Money, The Glue and OOjiBO. US-based Clarity Money, a personal finance app, has announced a $11 million Series B funding round led by RRE Ventures and Citi Ventures. This financing comes three months after Clarity Money launched its product and eight months after […]
A greenfield bank in Iraq, International Islamic Bank (IIB), has signed for the ICS Banks core banking system from ICS Financial Systems (ICSFS).
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
Fintech funding news comes thick and fast, so here are four stories in one to save you time. Featuring Revolut, Jirnexu, Airpay and Quantexa. UK-based payments start-up Revolut has launched its 2017 funding round. The latest bout takes place almost a year after it raised £1 million with 10,000 investors registering, pledging in excess of […]
EdgeVerve Systems, a product subsidiary of Infosys, has launched Finacle FinTech Connect and the chance for firms to integrate their solutions into Finacle’s banking suite. Companies are invited to register for a partnership evaluation process and stand a chance to present at its event Infosys Confluence 2017 in May in San Francisco; along with joint […]
The Bank of England’s (BoE) fintech accelerator has teamed with Ripple for a cross-border payments proof of concept (PoC). As Banking Technology reported last year, the accelerator was set up to harness innovation for central banking. In this latest development, the PoC with Ripple is intended to demonstrate the synchronised movement of two different currencies […]
UK challenger bank Tandem is not to receive any further investment from retail chain House of Fraser. House of Fraser invested £6 million in December, as part of a planned £35 million injection.
TSB Bank in New Zealand is rolling out a new lending solution from Australia-based fintech start-up Cloudcase.
Yes Fintech, the accelerator programme of India’s Yes Bank, has unveiled its 12 finalists.
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Florida-based fintech firm Above & Beyond (A&B) have unveiled “Finconecta”, a ten-month programme which integrates fintechs and financial institutions (FI) in an interconnected ecosystem. The technology platform behind it is called “Forward”, which was built by A&B, and is described as an app store-styled marketplace that allows firms to expose […]
Poland-based mBank will set up the “first” fund in Central and Eastern Europe that will specialise in developing and selling new technologies. The Polish bank says it has an ambition to influence digital transformation in the banking sector and its mAccelerator project will provide €50 million in investment to start-ups. mBank CEO Cezary Stypułkowski says […]