A brief look back at week 41 at some of the news that’s not always picked up.
Proprietary fintech solution
We start across the Pond this week as we heard that Deer Isle Group has launched DIG Beacon. They describe this as a game-changing, proprietary fintech solution that gives companies interested in raising institutional capital direct access to a network of over 10,000 US-based institutional investors. These include venture and private equity funds as well as family offices, wealth advisors, endowments/foundations and pension funds.
DIG Beacon said that it solves the problem of private placement capital access for issuers in the complex $2.4 trillion private placement market where it has become increasingly difficult to reach suitable institutional investors as their numbers have doubled over the last ten years. It is estimated that $1.65 trillion was raised in private placements in 2017 and that private placements have surpassed the size of the public markets.
Dianna Raedle, CEO of Deer Isle Group, said: "We are very excited to be able to offer this new approach to capital seekers. We know that both capital seekers and capital providers will benefit from having access to an efficient and effective alternative methodology for private placement capital raising."
Verification-as-a-Service solutions
Next we go over to Munich and to IDnow, a provider of Identity Verification-as-a-Service solutions.
IDnow has over 250 clients such as N26, Commerzbank and UBS. They use IDnow for simple and fast customer onboarding. IDNow claim that no other provider in the market works together with so many of Germany's top fintechs.
IDnow uses highly developed AI and machine learning technology within its products.
"We are very proud that we are so popular among German Fintechs," said Andreas Bodczek, CEO of IDnow. "Long-term, intensive investment in our technology has paid off and we can present a first-class, stable technology for which our clients appreciate and recommend us.
"It is very exciting for us to simultaneously work with the most innovative companies in Germany and world-class banks and to be able to function as a one-stop shop for their various needs. We have invested heavily in our platform technology over the past few years and that pays off for us and our clients."
Alternative credit scoring fintech CredoLab partners with iovation to fight credit fraud
Now we visit our second home, Singapore, where we heard news that CredoLab, a Singapore-based developer of bank-grade digital credit scorecards based on anonymous smartphone metadata, has partnered with iovation, a TransUnion company specialising in device-based fraud detection and authentication solutions.
CredoLab is integrating iovation's technology into its own to reduce fraudulent loan and credit card applications while optimising digital customer onboarding for banks and non-bank lenders worldwide.
Peter Barcak, CEO and co-founder of CredoLab, said: "Credit scoring has moved beyond the traditional to include understanding and interpreting repayment behavior through a combination of traditional and smartphone data points. iovation provides next generation digital data analysis to help confidently identify good customers and fraudsters."
"As credit applications increasingly go online so does fraud. In fact, iovation documented a 575% increase in online synthetic identity fraud against our financial services customers from 2015 to 2018," said iovation Vice President of Global Partnerships, Ed Wu. "We're looking forward to helping CredoLab empower its customers to make sound credit decisions through the power of device intelligence."
SPJIMR launches the Centre for Financial Studies
In Mumbai, it was announced that Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's SPJIMR has set up a Centre for Financial Studies (CFS).
The centre aims to focus on research in finance and to help bridge the gap between industry and academia in a sector that is at the core of India's growth story.
The backdrop is that as India moves to achieve the vision of becoming a five trillion dollar economy, SPJIMR's CFS plans to offer a unique platform where academic experts, finance professionals and policy makers can work together to inform practice and public policy in the financial sector. The five areas that CFS has mandated itself to work on are accounting, governance and risk, financial inclusion, fintech and policy and regulation.
The CFS has been set up at a time when India is looking to a new phase of growth as policy makers push to increase investments, build infrastructure and become more business friendly.
SPJIMR Dean Dr Ranjan Banerjee said: "The financial sector is dynamic, competitive and complex. Rigorous practice-oriented research and executive education is a felt need from senior practitioners, and this Centre will influence practice by filling this gap."
Funding
The level of funding in the week was not going to break any records said the good people at BlackFin Tech, but even so, some €90m was raised. This did not include the successful Series A from Moorgate Benchmarks, but no value was given for the round.
French Tech led the pace with four startups raising money, with the UK and Italy not too far behind with two deals each.
The companies involved were Tide, Acinq, Casavo, Monisnap, ShareGroop, Enterpay, Matipay and Transaction Connect.