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Uber in talks to close up to $2 billion in leveraged loans
Rumors from the Wall Street Journal that Uber was in the process of finalizing terms for a $1-2 Billion leveraged loan began spreading just after noon PST. This comes just two weeks after the company closed a $3.5 billion equity round from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. If the deal goes through, it would mean the company has added $5.5 Billion to it coffers in the amount of time… Read More
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Crunch Network
India’s fintech revolution is primed to put banks out of business
While global stock markets reset and U.S. tech unicorns readjust to new expectations and valuations, India’s tech renaissance is just beginning to flourish. Infosys founder Nandan Nilekani calls it India’s “WhatsApp Moment,” echoing how a simple software solution from Silicon Valley turned the Asian telecommunications industry upside down. Read More
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Crunch Network
P2P mobile payment app Tapp raises $9 million to tap into the cash economy in Southeast Asia
Mobile phones have emerged as the dominant alternative payment method to cash for buying and selling goods and services in emerging markets. And with a service akin to alternative payment providers like M-Pesa and Pagatech in Africa and a slew of alternative payment platforms in Southeast Asia, Tapp’s technology is one that the region understands well. Read More
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Messaging app Line files for IPO on NYSE on July 14, Tokyo July 15, trading as LN, to raise $1B
Two years after the first reports of an IPO emerged, Japan’s Line Corporation — the company behind the popular messaging app Line, and possibly the first of the big messaging apps to go public — today announced that it has filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange in the U.S. and the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan, trading as LN. The company today said in a news… Read More
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Crunch Network
Why transparency would have saved us from the 2008 financial collapse
From my desk at Bear Stearns, where I’d traded mortgage-backed securities for years, I watched as the financial and housing markets crashed in 2008. A few months later, there was no Bear, and my new desk was at J.P. Morgan. It’s easy to think the crisis was a result of “Wall Street got drunk,” as George W. Bush admitted. But I saw a different cause: the financial… Read More
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Crunch Network
The fintech world beyond Silicon Valley and Europe: Emerging market contenders
According to a recent study by Accenture, investments in fintech hit $5.3 billion in the first quarter of this year (having grown 75 percent in 2015, exceeding $22 billion). These are staggering figures for a still nascent industry, which can have a monumental impact on all sectors, from lending and investments to savings and payments. Read More
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E-Trade plays its cards in evolving automated investment space
E-Trade recently rolled out its new Adaptive Portfolio aimed at young professionals just beginning to face the financial struggles of adulthood. Adaptive Portfolio combines previously offered active and passive management with risk classifications that automatically rebalance to accommodate market changes. Users will also have the option to connect with financial consultants. Read More
Latest Crunch Report
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Lending Robot makes Lending Club investing easy as setting screen brightness
Thanks to Lending Robot, even those who took their finance lessons from Margot Robbie and Anthony Bourdain in “The Big Short” can invest in loans via primary and secondary markets. Users will be able to authorize the platform to trade on their behalf simply by sliding a bar to indicate risk preferences. Lending Robot integrates with peer-to-peer lending platform Lending Club to… Read More
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Crunch Network
Equity crowdfunding is now legal, but don’t expect anything to change just yet
Equity crowdfunding is now legal in the United States. Four years in the making, Title III of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS) finally entered into force on May 16. Prior to this, the masses had access to only what amounts to donations-on-steroids provided by Kickstarter and company, with SEC-accredited investors calling Droit du seigneur ownership arrangements. Read More
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Crunch Network
Why the recent hype about insurance tech will be just the beginning
For those who follow technological innovation, it can often seem like certain areas of investor enthusiasm come out of nowhere — suddenly and with huge momentum. The wave analogy is often used, and not incorrectly — fevered investment propels increasing interest and drives new opportunistic entrepreneurs into a specific industry area, building until it inevitably crashes as… Read More
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Crunch Network
Fintech is playing the long game
Our team has been actively investing in fintech for the past two years. In addition to reading pitches from hundreds of companies and meeting with dozens, half of our team has worked in the finance sector in previous careers. SparkLabs Global decided to create an easy to read overview for others to get up to speed on how innovation and technology will disrupt the financial sector. Read More
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Are buyouts the new IPOs?
Buyouts may replace IPOs as the exit of choice for tech companies in the coming months. This comes as the number of startups unable to exit into a frozen market continues to grow. With only two tech IPOs so far in 2016, and poor market returns for the majority of those already public, companies are turning elsewhere to cash in on their efforts. Just this week, analytics firm QLik was… Read More
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Samsung Pay debuts in Spain, its first European market
Samsung Pay has launched in Spain, its first European country. This gives the mobile payment service a head start over competitors Apple Pay and Android Pay, since the two haven’t landed in Europe yet. Read More
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Digit adds $22.5 million Series B to its savings account
Fast moving fintech startup Digit closed a $22.5 million Series B today just a year after closing an $11.3 million Series A. Ribbit Capital led the round with support from all prior investors including General Catalyst. This new round brings their total fundraising to $36 million. The San Francisco based startup, founded in February 2015, operates in the savings space and has been doubling… Read More
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FinAccel takes on Southeast Asia’s lending industry with easy online credit service
Credit card penetration is one of those problems that isn’t really a ‘problem’ in the West. In the U.S. alone, 232 million adults are said to own at least one credit card, with 18 percent of consumers in the country owning two or three cards. Read More
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Robinhood lets China trade US stocks free through Baidu’s finance app
Zero-fee stock trading startup Robinhood is barging into China, even though it lacks explicit regulatory approval. Robinhood will enter this legal grey area through an integration into Chinese search giant Baidu’s Stockmaster finance app. It will allow Chinese citizens to buy and sell US stocks with no fee and no account minimum from their phones when few affordable mobile stock… Read More
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Romulus Capital closes $75 million fund to back early-stage tech startups
Romulus Capital has raised its third—and largest—fund to back early-stage startups, many sourced in labs at MIT, the alma mater of the firm’s founding General Partner, Krishna K. Gupta. The firm closed its newest fund, Romulus Capital III LP, at $75 million, and intends to lead seed or series A deals in 15 to 20 companies from it. Krishna K. Gupta launched Romulus Capital… Read More
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