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Blockgeeks Lab hosting $25,000 blockchain hackathon with ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin(BETAKIT)
Developers in Toronto will work in teams for over 38 hours to create a blockchain idea from scratch.
STACK RECOMMENDS: Time to fix banking’s plumbing(BANKING EXCHANGE)
“Dragging legacy systems with you will not help you innovate.”
– Miro Pavletic, CEO and co-founder of STACK
London’s first FinTech unicorn says Brexit means it would look elsewhere now(BLOOMBERG)
“While we’re happily headquartered here in London, if I were setting up TransferWise today I would not choose London,” said TransferWise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus.
Chip’s new chatbot app points the way to ‘plugin banking’(TECHCRUNCH)
In addition to helping you save small pots of money, the chatbot app Chip has added spending insights and a clever new feature to help you pay off your overdraft.
Big banks more popular than FinTechs with US SMEs – survey(FINEXTRA)
A survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that small banks proved most popular with small and medium enterprises at 80% satisfaction rate, followed by credit unions (78%), CDFs (77%) and big banks (61%). Trailing last with a satisfaction rate of just 46% were online lenders.
A payment business backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey made $1.4 million in revenue for each employee last year(BUSINESS INSIDER)
Revenue at Adyen, a tech-focused payments business that lets companies manage all their varioius payment streams on one platform, jumped from $365 million in 2015 to $727 million in 2016.
Kik’s Ted Livingston calls payments the missing piece to making bots successful(BETAKIT)
Kik has plans for an in-chat payment experience that serves to further its long-held ambitions of becoming a western equivalent of hugely popular Chinese chat platform WeChat.
Apac banks suspicious about FinTech consortiums(FINEXTRA)
A research paper has revealed a level of scepticism among Asia Pacific banks when it comes to joining forces with FinTech.
Alibaba’s Ant Financial to develop services in Indonesia as global expansion continues(TECHCRUNCH)
Ant Financial has partnered with Indonesia’s local media conglomerate Elang Mahkota Teknologi to establish a joint venture firm to develop a mobile payments service for BlackBerry’s BBM chat app.
FinTech startup First Circle secures $2.5 million investment from global investors for Southeast Asia expansion(CROWD FUND INSIDER)
Investors included Accion Venture Lab, Deep Blue VC, 500 Startups, IMJ, and Key Capital.
Android Pay gets inside bank apps(FINEXTRA)
Google has teamed up with several banks – including BofA – to let customers add cards to Android Pay from within their apps.
Mastercard gains regulatory approval to acquire VocaLink(PAYMENTS)
VocaLink’s Immediate Payments System will give MasterCard a presence in non-card payments, and with its global reach and network of banks, will drive a level of market penetration that VocaLink could never achieve alone.
Payfirma partners with CWB Financial Group to provide white-label payments platform(BETAKIT)
The white label PayHQ platform will provide CWB with a fully-integrated, omni-channel merchant services platform.
FinTech startup Neyber closes £7.5m Series B(FINEXTRA)
Neyber, which allows employers to offer access to ‘affordable’ loans, raised the round from Deutsche Bank COO, Henry Ritchotte, and Credit Suisse investment bank co-head, Gaël de Boissard.
Deloitte publishes report on global FinTech hubs: A tale of 44 cities(CROWD FUND INSIDER)
Within the report, Singapore is described as a “serious contender for the global number one spot in FinTech.”
The blockchain in banking report: The future of blockchain solutions and technologies(BUSINESS INSIDER)
According to a new BI Intelligence report, banks are starting to narrow their focus, and are increasingly honing in on tangible use cases for blockchain technology that solve real problems faced by their businesses.
BTL Group’s Guy Halford-Thompson explores blockchain uses beyond FinTech on #TheDisruptors(BETAKIT)
“I don’t think we can underestimate the size of opportunity here,” said Guy Halford-Thompson, CEO of BTL Group.
Top 5 booming industries for B2B in 2017(FORBES)
B2B and enterprise-focused FinTech investments are driving a significant amount of innovation and growth, presenting tremendous opportunities for early adopters.
LVH and 55 Capital raise $10 million to build investment solutions for financial advisors(TECHCRUNCH)
Point72 Ventures, the venture capital fund associated with billionaire Steven Cohen, is participating in the round. Others include Calibrate Management and Tectonic Ventures.
