Grow Advisors (a Grow VC Group company) and the wider Grow VC group have been at the forefront of Fintech innovation since 2009.  Since then the landscape has seen new businesses enter the consumer and small business lending market, angel round equity investing, trade finance, payment and FX services and challenger banks.  These have been created to take on the established institutions and banks.  What has also emerged are technology applications that underpin these new entrants which could allow the established players to innovate and change, to protect themselves from the threats of the new entrants.

The Financial Times have reported on recent Boston ConsuIting Group research that has identified that investment banks are making only small investments into new technology companies which are focusing on innovative capital markets technology.

“Start-ups concentrating on capital markets activities — such as finding cheaper ways to trade shares — attracted just 4 per cent of the $96bn invested in financial technology, or fintech, since 2000, according to research from Boston Consulting Group”.

The Boston Consulting Group report reports bank backing is particularly important for innovative capital markets start ups and technology providers, since banks are best placed to “pick the winners” in a complex industry.  BCG said fintech solutions could lower costs in some areas by more than 50 per cent.

The findings on the lack of investment in capital markets fintech are striking given the need for “Enormous opportunity exists from the collaboration of established capital markets players such as investment banks with young fintech companies, but the potential is far from being realised,” BCG said.  “Banks and the entire capital markets ecosystem must take action now in order to gain the considerable benefits achievable.”

Banks and the entire capital markets ecosystem must take action now in order to gain the considerable benefits achievable suggests  Boston Consulting Group, Philippe Morel, one of the report’s authors.  He has said that the BCG could not estimate the total amount that banks could save by using fintech since it was hard to judge whether start-ups could live up to promises of reducing costs in some areas by 80 to 90 per cent.
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Grow Advisors regularly meet new technology providers who are developing services that are giving consumers and businesses opportunities to source debt in cost effective ways that bypass traditional lenders.  These lenders boast innovative ways to carry out credit checks and to underwrite loans that speeds decision making.  If these processes were replicated and implemented by traditional banks, the likelihood is that consumers and businesses would stick with the big banks.  Do the banks have the vision to support this innovation or will they fall into the trap of the old adage adapt or die?

Read the whole article on Grow Advisors blog.

Crowd Valley (a Grow VC Group) was invited to be part of the Middle East's largest technology conference, GITEX, in Dubai from 16-20 October 2016. Crowd Valley's CTO Paul Higgins attended alongside executives from Blockchain, PayPal, the US Department of Homeland Security and many other banks and funds looking to bring the latest innovations in fintech, cybersecurity and digital infrastructure to their financial services operations.

Building on a number of initiatives in the country such as the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), which allows money transfer between any two bank accounts in India, and forthcoming government-backed schemes for running AML and KYC checks online, the fintech sector in India is one that we expect to grow significantly over the next few years.

Both of the digital banks mentioned above have seen tremendous growth as a result of using technology to deliver a more personalized, convenient and secure service across their operations from the front-line all the way through to their back offices.

At Crowd Valley is at the forefront of helping such groups become digital service providers especially in their lending and investment operations. With the recent launch of our Integration Service Kit, banks around the world can now add their own API services to use in their online operations through the Crowd Valley API. In addition, third-party API services can now also be plugged in as additional services on top of the Crowd Valley infrastructure, so that banks can use new online services in their area to facilitate end-to-end online processes for their end customers.

Read the whole article and more about conference cases at Crowd Valley News.

​Singapore is building its future as a regional fintech hub. Monetary Authority of Singapore, MAS, has taken an active role in this work. Singapore has taken many actions, including a regulatory sandbox, to enable and accelerate more fintech business. An important part of this is Singapore Fintech Festival in mid November.

The 2-day FinTech Conference will cover deep technology applications including authentication, advanced sensors, digital and mobile payments, APIs, blockchain, Big Data and learning machines. The Tech Risk conference will cover technology risk issues with topics such as behavioral analytics and cyber security. As the first RegTech focused conference in Asia, look forward to vibrant discussions and debates at the RegTech forum, as renowned speakers deliver their views on opportunities and challenges for RegTech.

​Hackcelerator is global accelerator program to develop and scale market ready fintech solutions. Hackcelerator cooperates with the leading digital finance infrastructure providers that offer their services to fintech startups to innovate and develop new services. These partners include Amazon Web Services, Crowd Valley (a Grow VC Group company), DealIndex (a Grow VC Group company), IBM Bluemix, Singtel Managed Cloud, and Thomson Reuters.

What’s a festival without a grand closing party? Unwind and be treated to great food, excellent company and superb acts such as one of Singapore’s hottest bands, The Sam Willows. All pass holders will have access to this grand party. Get your passes now! More performers will be added to the lineup, stay tuned to our website to find out more.

Grow VC Group and its companies participate in the festival and support Singaporean activities to develop fintech. We see Singapore as a leading fintech hub in the world. And Singapore's regulator, MAS, has an important role to re-shape the future of the finance sector.
 
More information on Singapore Fintech Festival web site.

San Francisco and Brussels, Belgium – October 17 - The European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds and Early Market Stage Players - EBAN - and leading global digital finance platform provider Crowd Valley Inc.(a Grow VC Group company) announce their collaboration to provide an efficient and robust framework for bringing crowdfunding and online syndication technology to EBAN’s member angel networks, funds and investor groups.
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Through their joint efforts in the financial technology market, EBAN, together with its initiatives in the Middle East (MBAN) and Africa (ABAN), and Crowd Valley will provide sophisticated and globally unrivaled tools for angel networks looking to leverage the fintech market. With the help of EBAN’s deep expertise in 59 countries and with 170+ members, and Crowd Valley’s Digital Back Office platform and API, angel networks can introduce more efficient deal making tools, including lower costs of origination, diligence and acquisition of capital as well as gaining benefits from new distribution. EBAN Members will have the opportunity to deploy their crowdfunding strategy on the API, with access to free tools including full starter applications, process flows, documentation, SDKs and access to full, long term support for digital strategies.

”The Crowd Valley platform is quite extraordinary and could play a major role in enabling business angels to take advantage of crowdfunding and online syndication opportunities. 
We at EBAN truly believe that such platforms can greatly enhance the activities of business angels and we are excited to be bringing this initiative to our members.” says Candace Johnson, the President of EBAN.

”The transformation in finance to efficient models and tools is well underway in the private market and we look forward to bringing sophisticated and secure tools to angel networks across the world to be able to leverage the mega-trends of private transactions going online,” says Markus Lampinen, the CEO of Crowd Valley Inc. “We are excited about the potential of giving angel networks the tools to further impact with the innovative companies and entrepreneurs they support, and the partners they work with.”

Existing members will have first access to the new tools provided by Crowd Valley and EBAN. Inquire using the contact information below to find out how this collaboration can benefit your angel or investor network in its digitalization strategy.


About EBAN:

EBAN (European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed funds and other early stage market players) is the unique European federation of national and regional business angel networks throughout Europe and the primary source of information and research studies on the business angel market for European policy makers.
EBAN represents the interests of more than 170 angel networks and early stage investors in Europe and beyond. Established in 1999 by a group of pioneer angel networks in Europe with the collaboration of the European Commission and EURADA, EBAN represents a sector estimated to invest 6.1 billion Euros a year and playing a vital role in Europe’s future, notably in the funding of SMEs. EBAN fuels Europe’s growth through the creation of wealth and jobs. EBAN is also proud to have helped incubate ABAN, the African Business Angels Network and MBAN, the MENA Business Angel Network.

Contact information:

+32 (0) 2 626 2060
[email protected]

Rue de la Science 14b,
1040 Brussels,
Belgium


About Crowd Valley Inc.:
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Crowd Valley is a global leader in private securities technology. Crowd Valley provides the full digital platform needed for digital finance marketplaces through a single online interface layer (API). This platform has process modules and workflow templates that enhance customers’ digital finance experience and engagement. Crowd Valley works with asset classes such as real estate, debt / equity, private middle market equity, and renewables such as solar. It has clients and partners worldwide, from California, to the United Kingdom to Japan and Australia.

Contact information:

+1 415-580-0087
[email protected]

1 Market Plaza, 36 Floor,
San Francisco, CA 94105
USA

We are looking for a partner to work together roughly part time to build this business and present this to prospective customers. The role includes opportunity to become a core team team member to build the business. We are looking for an Asset Manager with technical expertise. 

• Co-build this business 
• Develop client prospects/material 
• Present to customers and finalize deals 
• Remuneration : Profit sharing (10-20% of the deals value) (potentially equity in the future)

Skills:

• Asset manager in a real estate investment fund
• Experience using analytical tools for real estate investments (funds/institutional) 
• Clear communications skills
• Excellent analytical skills

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Company Description:
RE Bearing (a Grow VC Group  company) has an exclusive sub licensing agreement to a software that analyses real estate investment. It integrates economic trends, historic data (35 years) to optimize the investment portfolio (future value, revenues, risks, new investments, etc).

The software has been in use for the past 15 years, and used by multi-billion institutional clients. RE Bearing now aims at making this technology accessible to all investors ($5M to $600M).

Apply: Send email.

Customers types: Private investors, real estate developers, family offices, consulting firms and investments funds. 

The Emirates may have been less responsive than others to take action on the disruption happening with financial technology, but in the last year, along with the growing enthusiasm showed by the local environment of finance pioneers and investors, we have seen a good number of new initiatives that should catalyze the local digital finance market to scale.

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), has released a consultation paper at the start of September, in order to get feedback and comments on the presented Regulation Laboratory (RegLab). This legislative framework, which is expected to take effect by end of 2016 and is something similar to the fintech sandboxes previously adopted by other countries including Singapore, the UK and Australia.

It’s not only Abu Dhabi that is making progress with their financial technology ecosystem in the area. Dubai as well is turning up the rivalry with their neighbors to become the fintech hub of UAE and Middle East. The Crown Prince, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, announced that Dubai will become the first government in the world to execute all its transactions on Blockchain by 2020.

Read the whole article on Crowd Valley News.

​Thomson Reuter’s Practical Law division published an article that provides a comprehensive review of the 60 crowdfunding offerings that were filed within the first two months of Regulation Crowdfunding becoming effective on May 16, 2016. This publication contains highlights and a more detailed analysis of a nascent, but promising sector.

Companies that have launched crowdfunding offerings differ greatly in terms of size, industry, creation date and origins. And yet, some market trends seem to be emerging, for example:

• More than 40% of those companies chose to file in the State of Delaware, way above California (2nd on the list) that registered 5 issuers, compared to 25 in Delaware. Striking as it is, this figure is actually lower than the proportion of publicly-traded companies registered in Delaware (more than 50% of the country’s total) due to the State’s business-friendly environment. 
• With 30% (or 18 issuers) of the total, Consumer Products was the industry the most   heavily represented in the offerings filed, followed by the Internet & Mobile Apps, and the Services sectors with both 10 issuers. Together they account for more than 60% of all offerings.
• Globally, less than half of the securities issued had a voting rights. This could be explained by companies’ reluctance to manage hundreds or even thousands of ‘small’ equity owners.

More data and insight is included in the original publication but two elements seem to be particularly relevant for actors looking to build a crowdfunding platform:

1. Companies seem to be rather cost-sensitive when selecting a funding portal: despite the variety of platforms available to issuers, the one charging the lowest fee to issuers was behind almost half of the offerings. This fact could imply that robust platforms, with the most resources, were able to develop an aggressive pricing strategy, which translated in a strong deal flow.
2. Regulatory requirements seem to impact the offerings’ target amounts: two thirds were seeking to raise less than $100,000, and none attempted to raise more than $500,000. This is due to the different thresholds that were set by the legislator. Above $100,000, issuers’ financial statements must be reviewed by independent accountants, and thoroughly audited beyond $500,000.

At Crowd Valley, our goal is to provide our customers with an infrastructure that makes their marketplaces operations as efficient, secure and sustainable as possible. And we look forward to assist established institutions and niche specialists in the creation of crowdfunding marketplace services.
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Read more at Crowd Valley News.

US/UK/EU
More established markets like the US, UK and Europe have followed a similar evolution. Due to more transparent regulations, it has allowed players to enter the market and try new models.

Asia
The most active involvement in digital finance (outside of mainland China) may be South East Asia. Malaysia in particular has been actively drafting their P2P framework, taking a similar stance in their regulation to the FCA. Hong Kong recently created a regulatory FinTech “Sandbox”, which may spark activity in what could be a very exciting market, while Singapore’s involvement has sputtered.

Latin America
Like Southeast Asia, the emerging markets of Latin America are solely focused on providing debt capital to the general population and businesses. Interest rates offered by banks, regulated and non regulated institutions are 3-6X higher when comparing to developed markets. On top of high interest rates, the lack of willingness to lend capital, makes Mexico, Central and South America ripe for FinTech innovation.
Pioneers looking to capitalize on collaboration within the fintech space, please get in touch with us at Crowd Valley to leverage our industry leading Digital Back Office and API operational in dozens of countries and territories around the world.

Read the whole article and more regulation details at Crowd Valley News.

Grow Advisors (a Grow VC Group company) publishes its daily insight into the world of alternative finance and fintech. Here are some highlights:

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4 market entry options for traditional banks to compete in online lending sector (& an invitation to join the conversation!)

Much has been written about the threat that new online lending platforms pose to the revenue and profit streams of traditional banks. In extreme cases, certain commentators have predicted the demise of weaker traditional banks at the hands of these disruptive online lenders.

The emergence and proliferation of FinTech platforms has been a wake-up call for the industry that has been trialing a range of responses, from those downplaying the threat to others looking to grasp the opportunity to transform into an innovative customer-centric lender.

For this edition, we will provide an overview of the four models and set up the discussion for subsequent editions.


Fintech – An Irish banking perspective

The number of challenger banks using new digital technology grows everyday.

It’s interesting to see that The Irish Times reported that the Bank of Ireland is planning to invest €500 million over the coming years to modernise its group IT infrastructure. Since the financial crisis of 2008 banks across Europe have been faced with the challenge of restoring balance sheets to meet the European Central Bank’s standards.  This has involved not only working with customers to deleverage loans but by carrying out stringent cost cutting exercises, which often include branch closures and reductions in staffing levels.

According to a 2013 a report in the Irish Independent:

‘Bank of Ireland came last in the study of 21 banks and Ulster Bank came second last. Bank of Ireland had a consumer satisfaction rating of just 41%, a full 50% lower than the leading bank. It performed particularly poorly in relation to customer service, regular communication, clarity of statements and branch availability’

Read more at Grow Advisors Blog.