New peer-to-peer payment app Square Cash lets you transfer money to your friends using Apple Watch August 18, 2015 Next time you’re splitting a restaurant bill or paying your mate back for a shared Uber ride, there’s no need to reach for your wallet to pay anything. Or even reach for your phone, for that matter. You can now send your friends money directly from your wrist, as new peer-to-peer payment app Square Cash [...]
Zopa becomes the first UK peer-to-peer lender to crash through £1bn of loans August 18, 2015 What a difference a decade makes. Just over 10 years after it was first launched, UK platform Zopa has become the UK's first peer-to-peer lender to crash through the £1bn loans barrier. Read more: How marketplace lending is becoming part of industry furniture You only need to look at the rapid rise of alternative lenders [...]
Crowdfunding platform set up to help students August 14, 2015 A FINANCIAL technology start-up is attempting to revolutionise student finance by dramatically reducing the cost of student loans. EdAid, which, pending approval by the Financial Conduct Authority, will launch in September, and is offering prospective students an alternative to government loans through a digital crowdfunding platform. Under the programme, the loans will be repaid at [...]
How businesses are using crowdfunding in their CSR strategy: The evolving relationship between platforms and corporates August 13, 2015 Crowdfunding has democratised investing and made it more efficient. But the landscape has evolved significantly. Once dominated by platforms simply enabling people to make donations to causes, debt-based crowdfunding is now by far the largest subsector, and fashionable equity gets a lot of airtime. But despite less exposure these days, the original donation-based crowdfunding is [...]
Are old-school financial services running scared of peer-to-peer? Or do they just not understand it? August 11, 2015 I was heartened recently to read the chief executive of Bibby Financial Services – what I would call an old-school financial services company – warning of a ‘bubble’ in peer-to-peer lending. As the co-founder and chief executive of one of Europe’s largest peer-to-peer lenders, I knew this warning meant one of two things; either the [...]
Ignore the snobs: Why crowdfunding is bringing diversity back to business August 10, 2015 Venture investors on competitive deals are used to missing out to other funds. It’s part and parcel of the industry. But last month, tech-focused VCs missed out to the crowd, as the first successful exit of a crowdfunded company returned capital to investors in E-Car Club, which sold to Europcar. E-Car Club raised funding [...]
What crowdfunding means for mini-bonds August 6, 2015 Harriet Green looks at the developing relationship between platforms and the increasingly popular debt instrument With attractive rates to be had, mini-bonds are proving increasingly popular with investors. Since maverick men’s toiletries firm King of Shaves issued the so-called Shaving Bond via an online platform in 2009, a growing number of SMEs have used [...]
P2P lending trust raises fresh £400m as investors clamour for income July 31, 2015 P2P Global Investment has raised £400m from its latest C-share issue, as investors clamour for alternative sources of income. The trust is managed from London and lends through a number of online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms around the world, including Lending Club in the US, which is the world's largest P2P platform. In the UK it [...]
Neil Woodford’s Patient Capital Trust and Rothschild-backed Augmentum Capital lead £10m investment into crowdfunding platform Seedrs July 30, 2015 Star fund manager Neil Woodford and a venture capital fund backed by Lord Rothschild have led a funding round into online crowdfunding platform Seedrs, valuing the business at £30m. Woodford's Patent Capital Trust and Augmentum Capital said they will invest £7.5m into London-based Seedrs. The company will raise an additional £2.5m by targeting existing shareholders and other individual investors [...]
How crowdfunding will revolutionise R&D: What platforms offer the world’s most innovative businesses July 30, 2015 Iriss Medical recently closed a round on Seedrs, 197 per cent funded. The company makes an innovative medical device which performs automatic eye tests aimed at the early detection and prevention of lazy eye in children. It raised £491,387 for 4.92 per cent equity. Over the past decade, donation-based crowdfunding has played a reasonably [...]