News

Newsletter, 02 Juli – 08 Juli 2016

Spotcap raises millions yet again, to finance Dutch companies

They might not be swimming in it, but there certainly doesn’t seem to be a shortage for money at fintech scale-up Spotcap. For the second time this year they raised millions in an investment round. This week they announced they closed yet another funding round of €14 million. This money will be primarily used for the Dutch market. It is the fourth big funding round from the fintech scale-up in the past 22 months, bringing the total to €63.5 million, backed by Rocket Internet, Access Industries and Holtzbrinck Ventures.

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Insurtech Company Finanzchef24 Raises €4M in Venture Capital

Co-founded by Hendrik Rennert and Felix Schollmeier, Finanzchef24 is a digital insurance broker for entrepreneurs and companies in Germany. Its online portal gives small and medium enterprises as well as business owners to possibility to compare for free and buy insurance cover online generating offers for 900 distinct professions and businesses comparing business liability, professional indemnity, property or commercial legal insurance. In addition, customers can access to phone-based expert advice via in-house risk consultants, who provide specialized insurance covers such as cyber, directors & officers, machine and transport insurance.

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PSD2: German regulator rules restriction of e-payment services by banks violates competition law

With PSD2 looming, German regulator Bundeskartellamt has ruled that the country’s banking industry is violating competition law by putting up barriers that hinder competing online payments services.

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N26 Invest: Number26 plans investment product with Vaamo 

Der Girokonto-Anbieter Number26 plant nicht nur ein kostenpflichtiges Kontomodell, sondern startet in Kürze auch mit einem neuen Partner für Investmentprodukte. Man tut sich aus diesem Grund mit dem Finanzdienstleister Vaamo zusammen.

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Fintech – Besorgte Revoluzzer

… London ist Europas Fintech-Hauptstadt, und die britische Regierung hat das Ziel ausgegeben, die Metropole zur Nummer eins der Welt zu machen, noch vor dem Silicon Valley. Doch der Sieg des Brexit-Lagers im Referendum bedroht die hehren Pläne – und ist eine Chance für Frankfurt und Berlin… Doch dafür müsste die Bafin auf die Technologiefirmen zugehen.

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Swisscom Announces 10 Finalists of StartUp Challenge 2016; 4 of them are Fintechs

Swisscom has announced the ten startups selected to pitch on August 16, 2016 as part of its StartUp Challenge 2016. Each year, the Swisscom StartUp Challenge, a business accelerator program organized in cooperation with venturelab, rewards five startups that are trying to get their ideas off the ground.

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Swiss fintech company throws a lifeline to Rocket Internet-backed online payments firm Paymill

Paymill, a German startup with a Stripe-like product that enables online merchants to easily accept credit and debit cards, has been acquired by Swiss fintech solutions provider Klik & Pay (part of CYBERservices).

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Wirecard Enters Agreement to Acquire Citi Prepaid Card

Wirecard AG announces that it has reached a definitive agreement with Citi Holdings to acquire the Citi Prepaid Card Services, by way of a combined share and asset deal.

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BMW sets up financial innovation lab

BMW Financial Services is setting up an innovation lab and accelerator programme to find startups that can bring fresh perspectives to vehicle financing and insurance.

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UniCredit Appathon- Last Call for EUR50K

The UniCredit and the Open Bank Project 2016 Appathon closes on July 13th – a global competition for financial technology startups with €50K first prize! Do you have what it takes to work with one of the largest banking group in Europe? Apply today for a chance to win €50k plus a professional collaboration package with UniCredit. Travel and accommodation costs (up to €1K per team) will be covered by UniCredit. Closing date is July 13th 2016.

Apply to http://www.unicredit-appathon.com/

Three FinTech Startups among the Top 5 Funding Rounds of 2016 (via deutsche startups)

In aller Kürze lassen wir an dieser Stelle noch einmal die wichtigsten, interessantesten und größten Investitionen, also Finanzierungsrunden, des laufenden Jahres Revue passieren. Dabei geht es unter anderem um SoundCloud,eGym, Finanzcheck.de, Spotcap, SnapShot und Movinga.

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Kreditech Announces Online Point-Of-Sales Financing Launch: Reports Beta Phase Integration with Naspers’ E-Payments Division

On Wednesday, consumer finance technology company Kreditech announced the launch of its new business line, Online Point of Sales (POS) Financing. The first client, PayU Global BV, is a payment services provider and the e-payments division of Naspers Ltd., deploys Kreditech’s B2B2C solution. In the beta phase, PayU is reportedly providing Kreditech’s installment products as a new alternative payment option.

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Dr. Axel Wieandt wird neues Beiratsmitglied bei der Forderungsbörse Debitos

Dr. Axel Wieandt verstärkt ab 1. Juli diesen Jahres als Beiratsmitglied die Forderungsbörse Debitos aus Frankfurt (www.debitos.de). „Ich freue mich sehr, dass wir mit Dr. Axel Wieandt einen renommierten Finanzexperten für unser Beraterteam gewinnen konnten. Unser junges FinTech-Unternehmen wird von seiner umfassenden nationalen und internationalen Erfahrung im Finanzsektor profitieren“, so Timur Peters, Geschäftsführer der Debitos GmbH. „Debitos ist ein effizienter Marktplatz für notleidende Kredite und Forderungen.

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CREALOGIX Adds Authentication Technology from South African FinDEVr Alum, Entersekt

…The technology creates an end-to-end, out-of-band channel between the users’ mobile device and the financial institution’s back-end systems to enable transmission of digital signature certificates and other communication between FIs and their customers.

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eccenca European Data Innovator Award 2016 goes to RapidMiner

For the fourth time, eccenca sponsors the European Data Innovator Award which is given to companies, organizations, or individuals with an outstanding success story in the data economy.

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Quantoz consultancy activities – project with HypoVereinsBank

Starting mid July, Quantoz will enter the TechFounders Accelerator Program in Munich. More than 500 Tech companies applied and Quantoz was one of the companies selected to participate in the program.

During the 20 week program, Quantoz will work closely with HypoVereinsBank on Quasar, the blockchain technology based infrastructure that enables instant (micro) payments between enterprises, (unbanked) consumers and internet connected devices (“Internet of Things”).

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Finleap verstärkt die Geschaftsleitung

Seit dem 1. Juli ist Dr. Carolin Gabor Teil der Geschäftsleitung der Berliner Fintech-Schmiede FinLeap. Als Managing Director ist sie für die strategische Weiterentwicklung und das erfolgreiche Wachstum der einzelnen Unternehmen zuständig.

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Mehr Mut zu Mobile-Payment

Unbares Bezahlen ist beliebt – das Volumen der Kartenzahlung hat sich seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre mehr als verachtfacht. Dennoch werden mehr als drei Viertel aller Einkäufe auch heute noch mit Bargeld beglichen, da vor allem Kleinbeträge in Deutschland gern bar bezahlt werden. Von den 18 bis 20 Milliarden Transaktionen im deutschen Einzelhandel liegt der größte Teil unter einem Betrag von 15 Euro.

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13 Fintech start-ups selected for the SFTA mentoring programme

The first Swiss FinTech start-ups participating in the mentoring program launched by Swiss Finance + Technology Association in 2016 were announced. They will meet their mentors during the matching event at Impact Hub Colab in Zurich. The Mentoring programme aims at developing a new wave of world class Swiss FinTech companies.

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10 Fehler, die Startups bei Crowdfinanzierung vermeiden sollten

Nicht immer läuft eine Crowdfunding- oder investing-Kampagne rund. Es gibt ein paar Fehler, die sich auf dem Weg zu einer erfolgreichen Schwarmfinanzierung vermeiden lassen.

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