The European Investment Fund (EIF) has pumped over $2 billion into venture capital funds and startups in the last four years; with the vote to leave the European Union, venture capitalists in the UK now fear that this important source of funding will disappear as the government looks to officially complete Brexit; the UK is not as fortunate as the US when it comes to endowments that allocate capital to funds, therefore the EIF has filled a much needed role; there currently is no plan to replace the EIF when the UK officially leaves, though lawmakers and lobbyists are looking to see if they can strike a deal to keep the flow of capital coming. Source
CB Insights reports on the venture capital industries top investors in unicorn exits; Sequoia Capital ranks first on the list of investors investing in unicorn startups with private market exits during 2009 to March 2017; Sequoia Capital has invested in 18 companies with unicorn exits including fintech company Square Capital. Source
Silver Lake Partners is leading the next financing round for SoFi that is expected to add $500 million in new capital for the growing alternative finance company; investors include Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. and several other Asian investors along with DCM Ventures and Third Point; with the completion of the fundraising, SoFi will be valued at approximately $4.3 billion; recent acquisitions and product introductions have helped the firm expand its offerings from student loan refinancings to personal loans, mortgages, wealth management, life insurance and digital banking. Source
Boutique investment bank GP Bullhound has published a report on the fintech market identifying 39 global fintech unicorns valued at $1 billion or more and showing global venture capital investment into fintech at $13.6 billion in 2016; in its report the firm also identities a watch a list of 17 companies it expects to exceed $1 billion based on their growth, business models and market opportunity; numerous marketplace lenders are represented on the list including LendInvest, Prodigy Finance, ID Finance, Ebury and Kreditech. Source
Most well-known for his music career, Jay Z has also been investing in startups since 2012; the rapper has now reported he will launch a venture capital firm with partner Jay Brown of Roc Nation; Sherpa Capital will also help to launch the fund which will focus on seed-stage companies. Source
Fintech Global provides the top ten deals for the quarter; financing from the top ten deals was $658 million and accounted for 84% of the sector's total financing; Chinese P2P lender Tuandaiwang was the quarter's financing leader obtaining $262.6 million and was the only Asian fintech company in the top ten; Europe reported the majority of top ten financings with five funding deals. Source
Core Innovation Capital has raised approximately $71.5 million for a second venture capital fund; the fundraising round included 17 investors; the company invests in fintech companies focused on mobile and efficient financial products; it has invested in Mirador, Nova, Banking Up, Trim, NerdWallet, CoverWallet, Oportun and Ripple. Source
Diagram has raised $25 million (USD$19.13 million) for a new fintech venture capital fund that will be led by Paul Desmarais III; Paul Desmarais is part of Quebec's Desmarais family which has built a $7 billion (USD$5.36 billion) fortune through investment in the insurance business; the new fund's initial fundraising effort has come from Portag3 Ventures LP and over 50 individual angel investors; the fund will invest in a variety of Canadian fintech companies. Source
Data from KPMG's Q4 2016 The Pulse of Fintech report showed US fintech funding decreasing to $12.8 billion in 2016, down from $27 billion in 2015; deal flow was also lower with 489 deals in 2016, a decrease from 615 deals in 2015; globally, funding was lower at $25 billion versus $47 billion in 2015. Source
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