The Startups: Who’s shaking things up (Week ending February 7, 2016)

fintech startups shaking things up

[alert type=yellow ]Every week, Tradestreaming highlights startups in the news, making things happen. The following is just part of this week’s news roundup. You can get these updates delivered direct to your inbox by signing up for the Tradestreaming newsletters.[/alert]

Startups raising/Investors investing

TradeRocket inks deal with Hitachi Capital America to fund $2 billion for mid-market financial supply chain (PRNewswire)
Hitachi Capital intends to supply $2 billion this year for TradeRocket’s supply chain financing platform which allows buyers to attain up to $5m of funding.

Credibly secures $70 million credit facility led by SunTrust Bank (VentureBeat)
An online lending platform that delivers a broad range of short- and long-term capital to satisfy the SMB credit spectrum, Credibly has provided access to capital for more than 4,500 businesses.

Rocket Internet’s Spotcap raises €31.5m to lend to small businesses (TechCrunch)
Spotcap intends to use the funds to expand its operations globally and to finance its online business lending activities in Spain, the Netherlands, and Australia.

Simplex raises $7m for credit card Bitcoin buying service (CoinDesk)
Simplex CEO Nimrod Lehavi said that the company enables faster purchases of bitcoin via credit card, while at the same time reducing the consequences of fraud for businesses, such as exchanges or brokerages, that offer the service.

Revolut passes $200m in transactions; closes $4.8m seed round (Finextra)
Revolut, the MasterCard-connected Global Money App, today announces it has closed its seed round adding Index Ventures as an investor.

Dopay, payroll for the unbanked, raises $2.5 million in pre-Series A round (PEHub)
From the PR: dopay is committed to transforming the lives of the unbanked and their employers by breaking the cash cycle through a payroll and cash management platform for companies, and by offering a full mobile banking experience for consumers

The Startups: Who’s shaking things up

How a Snapchat roboadvisor could rock the industry (Wealth Management Today)
Social media messaging service Snapchat is rumored to be building a roboadvisor service of its own. Could this be a serious option for 100 million active users?

How Payoff is shifting the conversation about consumer debt to financial wellness (Tradestreaming)
Payoff seems to be genuinely interested in helping its clients find their way out of debt and start saving. Pretty weird for a company that extends credit.

Opportunities in the risk business abound as insurance ready for disruption (TechCrunch)
From TechCrunch: “At a time when nearly every product category has been reimagined by a higher quality digital successor — the insurance industry and customer have been left in the dust.”

Navigating the fintech investment landscape (Wharton Fintech)
Nikhil Srivastava interviews Atul Joshi, a Wharton alumnus and managing partner of the family office Raga Partners, about fintech investment.

Ten reasons why fintech startups fail (CB Insights)
Pascal Bouvier, venture partner with Santander InnoVentures, lays down the law and explains who will win and who won’t.

BlackRock’s FutureAdvisor collaborating with RBC Wealth Management (Finovate)
The U.S. branch of RBC Wealth Management is launching a pilot program called RBC Investor Gateway that offers clients a digital advice option powered by FutureAdvisor

Blockstream partners with PwC for blockchain push (American Banker)
PricewaterhouseCoopers has partnered with blockchain technology company Blockstream to bring distributed-ledger and smart-contract technology to its clients

The most interesting challenger bank you’ve never heard of (Huy Nguyen Trieu)
From zero to 200,000 accounts in less than 2 years, this startup bank is trying to do what Easyjet and Ryanair did to airlines…