Exclusive: Two City lawyers on a mission to make their fintech the ‘Amazon of Islamic finance’ July 19, 2021 Islamic Finance Guru (IFG), a UK-based Islamic finance platform, has closed an investment round led by Outward venture capital, as the market for Islamic fintech grows. The UK-based startup has raised £3m from Outward VC and B&Y Venture Partners. The news come just a week after the Boubyan Bank Group announced that the world’s first [...]
Assets under management swell $4.5bn at Ashmore July 14, 2021 Assets under management swell $4.5bn at Ashmore
Majority of UK tenants prepared to pay more for furnished homes July 14, 2021 A furnished rental home can improve your chances of finding a tenant and may increase the monthly level of rental income secured, according to new research by Manor Interiors. The firm have found that over a quarter of UK tenants would more likely view a rental property if it was already furnished. Another 26 per [...]
SoftBank gears up investments in second quarter, dishing out $13bn July 12, 2021 SoftBank’s Vision Fund II has pushed the pedal on its investments in recent weeks, dishing out $13bn in its second quarter, according to reports. The Japanese venture capital fund has injected cash into at least 50 companies, the Financial Times first reported, citing people brief on the data. Many of the companies eyed by SoftBank’s [...]
Plus500 reports ‘positive momentum’ despite customer growth slowdown July 12, 2021 Online trading platform Plus500 today reported positive momentum in its half year trading update, following a bumper 2020. The global fintech group, operating a trading platform for contracts for difference (CFDs), noted a “very strong period of customer acquisition” up to June this year. This followed an “unprecedented” performance in 2020, driven by the pandemic [...]
Bottom-up ESG: New platform wants to give retail investor army voting power for £1 July 9, 2021 Tulipshare is targeting the next generation of shareholders by tapping into their booming interest in retail investment and demand for a corporate ESG overhaul. The new UK-based activist investment platform wants to enable individuals to “vote with their money” for change from the inside at Amazon, Coca-Cola and Apple by investing as little as £1. [...]
UK credit score giant Clearscore heading for unicorn status after $200m Invus injection June 24, 2021 Clearscore, a free-to-use credit check company based in London, has reportedly accepted a $200m (£144m) investment from US-based fund Invus Opportunities. As reported by Sky News, the deal values the company at $700m (£503m), placing it on track for unicorn valuation. The company plans to use the funding to grow its staff numbers, product offerings [...]
Exclusive: CEO of deVere Group on why Bitcoin bashers have got it all wrong June 24, 2021 Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have experienced a major sell-off this week following China’s crackdown on the sector. Around $400bn in value has been wiped from the total digital currency market since Friday, when a major Bitcoin mining hub ordered miners to shut down operations. It followed reports saying that China’s central bank had a meeting [...]
Impact investing is increasingly a buzzword in the City as millennial investors take over June 24, 2021 Impact investing, the strategy to make financial profits but create a long-standing, positive impact on our world, in the process, is becoming increasingly ‘a thing’ in the City and other financial hubs around the world. Many investors are hyper-aware of what is happening around them, with factors such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) making a [...]
Are we now on the road to net-zero? June 18, 2021 | City Talk We spoke to climate change specialists Simon Webber and Isabella Hervey-Bathurst for their views on the IEA’s latest report. Climate change and the transition from fossil fuels to sustainable energy is arguably the most pressing issue facing the world today. Addressing the issue of how the world produces and consumes energy, and the measures that [...]