Curve launches NFT auction in bid to raise cash for London theatres March 26, 2021 Fintech Curve has joined the NFT bandwagon and launched an auction in a bid to raise cash for London’s theatres that have been left devastated by the pandemic. Non-fungible tokens are cryptocurrency takens which certify the ownership of a unique digital file using blockchain. They have become a way for creatives to raise cash during [...]
Revolut submits application for US banking licence March 22, 2021 A year after launching in the US, Revolut has submitted its draft application for a US banking licence as it expands its business account across all 50 states. Revolut secured a Lithuanian banking licence bank in 2018 and announced it had applied for a UK licence earlier this year. Securing both a US and UK [...]
Just 43 tech firms have listed in London in the last 20 years March 22, 2021 Just 43 of the UK’s fastest-growing tech firms have floated on the London Stock Exchange in the last twenty years, according to new research. New research by accountancy firm BDO shows that of the UK’s 1,200 fastest growing tech startups fewer than four per cent have listed in London. Even with blockbuster IPOs lined up [...]
Payments group Wise mulls direct London listing March 19, 2021 Payments company Wise, formerly known as Transferwise, is reportedly looking to list in London without selling new shares to investors. Upheld as one of the UK’s most successful startups, having reached unicorn status in 2015, Wise has long been considered a candidate for an IPO. The fintech, which was most recently valued by private investors [...]
Exclusive: City’s venture capital guru on Brexit, fundraising and impact investing March 17, 2021 With Brexit just behind us, and the pandemic gradually being brought under control, it seemed like a good time to measure the temperature of London’s venture capital investment space. City A.M. sat down with David Hall, for his first major interview as chairman of the Venture Capital Trust Association, since succeeding Stuart Veale in January [...]
Is fintech fueling financial M&A’s rebound? March 17, 2021 | Sponsored According to our latest market brief, Fintech will be the wind in the sails of Financial M&A this year. The world was dealt a historic one-two punch in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic which infected and killed millions of people. As a result of government-ordered shutdowns and travel bans, the shuttering of economies worldwide led [...]
Stripe tops US startup rankings as valuation jumps to $95bn March 15, 2021 Digital payments firm Stripe has become the most valuable private company in Silicon Valley after fresh funding drove up its price tag to $95bn (£68bn). The financial services firm last night announced it had raised $600m in fresh capital from investors including Allianz, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Sequoia Capital, and Ireland’s National [...]
How millennial savings app Plum could lure a new generation of DIY investors March 12, 2021 The reason Victor Trokoudes started Plum may be a familiar story to some millennials. His dad started nagging him about putting money away after he realised he hadn’t been doing much about his savings despite working as a trader in the City. He started building Plum in 2016 with co-founder Alex Michael before its launch [...]
Tecent, Baidu and SoftBank fined in China for monopolistic behaviour in fintech crackdown March 12, 2021 China’s market regulator said today it has fined 12 companies $77,000 each for flouting anti-monopoly rules. Concerning ten deals in particular, companies including Tencent Holdings, Baidu Inc, Softbank and a ByteDance-backed firm, were fined for behaviour that caused market concentration, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said. The companies’ actions did not completely exclude [...]
Natwest winds down online lending platform Esme March 12, 2021 Natwest’s foray into the fintech world has come to an abrupt end with the closure of its standalone SME lending platform Esme Loans. Esme launched in 2017 offering loans between £5,000 and £150,000 for small business customers. The terms were usually between between one and five years and backed by personal guarantees. Now the platform [...]