Businesses across Europe have reported vastly different experiences in their efforts to secure the financial support promised by their respective...
German fintech Deposit Solutions has acquired Savedo; Savedo is also a startup in the fintech space and the two firms offer similar services; Deposit Solutions provides a deposit marketplace for savers allowing them to move funds among 15 European banks in order to achieve the highest rate of return; Savedo will help Deposit Solutions expand its offering by adding 13 new banking partners and integrating 18,000 new customers. Source
Raisin has reported over 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in investment through its platform; the company offers investors a range of savings account investments across the European Union and facilitates the account funding for the investors; the platform has gained investment of 300 million euros ($318 million) in the past three months and expects to reach the 3 billion euro ($3.2 billion) mark in the first half of 2017. Source
Germany's central bank is hosting a blockchain workshop as an increasing number of central banks are exploring the use of blockchain; the event is titled, "Blockchain Technology - Opportunities and Challenges"; discussions will be focused primarily for central bankers and regulators; topics will include the success of blockchain, business cases for the technology and the use of bitcoin; workshop participants include European central bankers, European Union Parliament members, financial institution executives, individuals from academia and representatives from blockchain-based companies. Source
Wirecard is a German payments provider that has helped to set up the current boom in fintech and banking apps in Britain; Wirecard is seen as the infrastructure behind many fintech startups that have raised hundreds of millions of pounds in the UK; companies use Wirecard to sublet their banking license and because they are able to issue cards from Visa and Mastercard. Source
Fidor Bank saw in 2016 that incumbent banks were beginning to buy up and partner with fintechs because they needed to stay competitive; other digital banks do not share this view as Starling Bank issued a report back in September saying that collaboration with main street type banks will help to erode what fintechs are attempting to disrupt; 2017 looks to be a pivotal year for partnerships as big banks, regional banks and community banks are all moving in the direction of utilizing different aspects of new innovation. Source
Funding Circle has replaced German Managing Director Matthias Knecht who joined Funding Circle with the acquisition of Zencap and then left the firm in June of 2016; Thorsten Seeger will take the role of managing director; the firm has also hired Belkacem Krimi as chief risk officer for continental Europe; Funding Circle will also be closing its lending business in Spain which it acquired with the purchase of Zencap. Source
Germany's Federal Ministry of Finance has published a report on the emerging fintech sector; the report finds 433 fintech companies with 346 of the companies actively in business; robo advice had the highest annual growth rate; of the 433 firms, 13 were crowdlending companies with nine of the platforms actively in business; other highlights include transaction volume by segment and industry growth rates. Source
Germany's central bank is testing the use of blockchain technology in securities settlement; the central bank has partnered with Deutsche Börse to build a prototype; the prototype system is expected to be able to transfer electronic securities and digital coins also performing functions for coupon payments and redemptions of securities. Source
Germany's GLS Bank has launched an equity crowdfunding platform through collaboration with CrowdDesk; GLS Bank will do the due diligence for the platform's investments and CrowdDesk will primarily focus on the technical infrastructure and business services; the deal sets a precedent for bank crowdfunding partnerships in the equity crowdfunding space and will provide company financing for up to 2.5 million euros ($2.67 million). Source