The Economist | May 2, 2019
OVER THE past two decades people across the world have seen digital services transform the economy and their lives. Taxis, films, novels, noodles, doctors and dog-walkers can all be summoned with a tap of a screen. Giant firms in retailing, carmaking and the media have been humbled by new competitors. Yet one industry has withstood the tumult: banking. In rich countries it is perfectly normal to queue in branches, correspond with your bank by post and deposit cheques stamped with the logo of firms founded in the 19th century.
Yet, as our special report this week explains, technology is at last shaking up banking. In Asia payment apps are a way of life for over 1bn users. In the West mobile banking is reaching critical mass—49% of Americans bank on their phones—and tech giants are muscling in. Apple unveiled a credit card with Goldman Sachs on March 25th. Facebook is proposing a payments service to let users buy tickets and settle bills (see article).
The implications are profound because banks are not ordinary firms. It is one thing for Blockbuster Video to be wiped out by a technological shift, but quite another if the victim is Bank of America. It is not just that banks have over $100trn of assets globally. Using the difficult trick of “maturity transformation” (turning deposits that you can demand back at any time into long-term loans) they enable savers to defer consumption and investment and borrowers to bring them forward. Banks are so vital that the economy reels when they stumble, as the crisis of 2008-09 showed.
Bankers and politicians may thus be tempted to resist technological change. But that would be wrong because its benefits—a leaner, more user-friendly and more open financial system—easily outweigh the risks.
Banking is late to the smartphone age because entrepreneurs have been put off by regulations. And, since the financial crisis, Western banks have been preoccupied with repairing their balance-sheets and old-fashioned cost-cutting. Late is better than never, however. Several new business models are emerging. In Asia payment apps are bundled with e-commerce, chat and ride-hailing services offered by firms such as Alibaba and Tencent in China and Grab in South-East Asia. These networks link to banks but are vying to control the customer relationship. In America and Europe big banks are still more or less in control and are rushing to offer digital products—JPMorgan Chase can open a deposit account in five minutes. But threats loom. Mobile-only “neobanks” that do not bear the cost of branches are nibbling at customer bases. Payments firms like PayPal work with Western banks but are expected to capture a greater share of profits. Lucrative niches like foreign exchange and asset management are being harried by new entrants.
The pace of change will accelerate. Younger people no longer stay with the same bank as their parents—15% of British 18- to 23-year-olds use a neobank. Tech firms that people trust, such as Apple and Amazon, are natural candidates to grow big financial arms. The biggest four American banks are spending a total of over $25bn a year on perfecting better customer applications and learning to mine data more cleverly. Venture-capital firms invested $37bn in upstart financial firms last year.
The benefits of technological change are likely to be vast. Costs should tumble as branches are shut, creaking mainframe systems retired and bureaucracy culled. If the world’s listed banks chopped expenses by a third, the saving would be worth $80 a year for every person on Earth. In 2000 the Netherlands had more bank branches per head than America; it now has just a third as many. Rotten service will improve—it is easier to get money to a friend using a chat app than it is to ask your bank to transfer cash. The system will get better at its vital job of allocating capital. Richer data will allow banks to take risks that currently baffle underwriters. Fraud should be easier to spot. Lower costs and the democratising effect of social media will give more people better access to finance. And more firms with good ideas should be able to get loans faster, boosting growth.
Yet change also poses risks. Because the financial system is embedded in the economy, innovation tends to create turbulence. The credit card’s arrival in 1950 revolutionised shopping but also sparked America’s consumer-debt culture. Securitisation lubricated capital markets in the 1980s but fuelled the subprime crisis. In addition, it is unclear who will win today’s battle. One dystopian scenario is that power becomes more concentrated, as a few big banks learn to exploit data as ruthlessly as social-media firms do. Imagine a crossbreed of Facebook and Wells Fargo that predicts and manipulates how customers behave and is able to use proprietary economic data to squeeze rivals.
Another dystopia involves fragmentation and destabilisation. Banks could lose depositors to untested neobanks, creating a mismatch between their assets and liabilities that could lead to a credit crunch. If bank customers transact via tech or payment platforms, banks could end up with huge balance-sheets but without a direct connection to their clients. If they thus became unprofitable, they could be broken up, with the job of financing mortgages and absorbing short-term savings left entirely to capital markets, which are volatile.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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US News | By Ben Luthi | Apr 12, 2019
Apple Pay is secure and convenient, as long as you use it correctly.No payment method is entirely safe from fraud. But Apple Pay provides cardholders with several layers of security that can protect against some common forms of credit card theft.
If you want to try Apple Pay, knowing how it works is important as well as how your credit card information is safeguarded and what you can do to stay protected while using it.
Apple Pay is a mobile wallet for Apple devices such as iPhones and Apple Watches that allows you to make purchases in stores, in apps and online securely without handing over your credit card information every time.
In a store, the mobile wallet uses near-field communication technology – it allows two devices placed within a few centimeters of each other to exchange data – to transmit your card information. You just need to verify your identity with the Touch ID or Face ID feature, then tap your device to the store's card reader to process the payment.
To keep your information private, Apple Pay creates a unique token every time you use it, so merchants never get your actual card number. "Instead of being static data that is easily cloned if stolen," says Andrew Barratt, managing principal at Coalfire, a cybersecurity advisory firm, "it adds some dynamic elements to the data that are used when processing your card payment, making cloning for fraudulent use more difficult."
What's more, Apple doesn't store your card number on your device or its own servers.
Trusting technology can be scary, especially if you're accustomed to a certain process. But using Apple Pay can protect your credit card information in ways that using the card can't.
It requires extra verification. With a physical credit card, all a thief needs to successfully make a purchase is your card and a merchant who doesn't match cards with IDs. And the four credit card payment networks – Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover – no longer require signatures.
With Apple Pay, however, someone who steals your device will have a hard time using it to make purchases. The app requires that you verify your identity using your passcode or the Touch ID or Face ID feature, and the latter two can be tough to fake.
It doesn't share your card information. Every time you make a purchase with Apple Pay, whether in a store, in an app or online, the mobile wallet creates a unique code for processing the transaction instead of sharing your credit card number.
"The credit card number is never given to the merchant, and when used online, never travels across the internet between your device and the merchant site," says Thomas Reed, director of Mac and mobile at cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes. "If by some chance a criminal were to intercept this data, it's a one-time-use code, so it couldn't be abused in the same manner as a credit card number."
Your credit card's EMV chip uses the same technology, called tokenization. But not all merchants have chip readers, and EMV chips don't work when you make in-app and online purchases. As a result, Apple Pay can especially be helpful for mobile and online shopping, where storing your credit card information could make it vulnerable to data breaches.
Your information can't be skimmed. If you're shopping with a merchant who requires you to swipe your card instead of use the chip, the static information on the magnetic strip can easily be stolen if a thief has installed a card-skimming device on the card reader.
Because Apple Pay doesn't share static information or require a swipe, Barratt says, it's significantly safer than using a physical card in that way.
It doesn't store your card information on your device. Apple neither shares your card information with merchants nor keeps your card information on your device or its own servers.
"An attacker who gains access to your device or your iCloud account would not be able to get your credit card information," Reed says. The same goes if a hacker somehow manages to gain access to Apple's servers.
You can suspend the service. If you've activated the Find My iPhone feature or a similar feature on another Apple device, you can suspend the Apple Pay app by placing your device in "lost mode." This will keep you from having to cancel all of your credit cards, which is what you'd need to do if you think someone has stolen your wallet.
Serious security concerns have not emerged with the technology Apple Pay uses, but some potential pitfalls await if you're not careful with your device. Here are some tips for ensuring that your device and your credit cards stay safe.
Keep your device passcode secure. Even if you use the Face ID or Touch ID features, you're required to have a passcode on your Apple device as an alternate way to verify that it's yours.
See: Inside the power struggle between big banks and fintechs to modernize financial services
If you share your passcode with others or use one that's easy to crack – such as 0000 or 1234 – it could give them easy access to create their own biometric profile. Biometrics allow consumers to be ID'd and authenticated based on a set of recognizable and verifiable data specific to them, such as fingerprints.
If they can create their own profile, they'll be able to make purchases through your Apple Pay function.
Set up Face ID or Touch ID. While biometrics aren't required to use Apple Pay, they're not as easy to get past as a four-digit passcode.
Don't allow others to add their biometrics. Permitting a significant other, family member or friend to add Face ID or Touch ID credentials to your phone may not seem like a big deal. But if the relationship turns sour, they'd have easy access to use your Apple Pay app if they can get hold of your device.
Avoid adding cards on an unsecure Wi-Fi network. Public Wi-Fi networks are convenient ways to get online at the coffee shop or the airport. But be wise about what you do when you're connected.
That's because hackers can effectively eavesdrop on the information you send from your device to a service or website. Fraudsters can even create a counterfeit mobile wallet registration system similar to Apple Pay's and lure you into sending them your card information unknowingly.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Bloomberg | Sarah Frier and Julie Verhage | Dec 20, 2018
Facebook Inc. is working on making a cryptocurrency that will let users transfer money on its WhatsApp messaging app, focusing first on the remittances market in India, according to people familiar with the matter.
The company is developing a stablecoin -- a type of digital currency pegged to the U.S. dollar -- to minimize volatility, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal plans. Facebook is far from releasing the coin, because it’s still working on the strategy, including a plan for custody assets, or regular currencies that would be held to protect the value of the stablecoin, the people said.
Facebook has long been expected to make a move in financial services, after hiring former PayPal president David Marcus to run its Messenger app in 2014. In May, Marcus became the head of the company’s blockchain initiatives, which haven’t been discussed publicly in detail. Facebook has been on a hiring spree, and now has about 40 people in its blockchain group, according to employee titles on LinkedIn.
"Like many other companies, Facebook is exploring ways to leverage the power of blockchain technology," a company spokesman said in a statement. "This new small team is exploring many different applications. We don’t have anything further to share."
WhatsApp, the company’s encrypted mobile-messaging app, is popular in India, with more than 200 million users. The country also leads the world in remittances -- people sent $69 billion home to India in 2017, the World Bank said this year.
The past year has seen a boom in crypto projects related to stablecoins. At one point, there were more than 120 ventures related to this theme, according to Stable.Report, a website that tracks stable tokens. The concept was created to create a digital coin that would be far easier to use on daily purchases because it would be more stable than currencies like Bitcoin.
The idea has proven tough to carry out in real life, with at least one high-profile project shuttered in recent weeks. A stablecoin known as Basis recently closed after eight months. The Hoboken, New Jersey-based company said there was no apparent way around being classified as a security as opposed to a currency, which could significantly reduce the number of potential buyers. The swift collapse came after Basis drew well-known backers like Andreessen Horowitz and Kevin Warsh, a former governor of the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Perhaps the most high-profile stablecoin to date, Tether, has also been surrounded by controversy. While Tether’s creators say each of its tokens is backed by one U.S. dollar, the company’s refusal to be audited has raised questions about whether that’s the case.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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NCFA Canada | Feb 15, 2019
About this episode: On this episode of the Fintech Friday's Podcast our host, Manseeb Khan sits down with Kate Guimbellot and Jason Sosnowski from the TravelCoin Foundation. They chat about bringing Free Wi-Fi to the world, blockchain in medicine and how their ICO is different from the rest. Enjoy!
Host: Manseeb Khan, NCFA, Fintech Fridays show host
Guests:
BIOGRAPHIES:
Kate Guimbellot has enjoyed 20+ years as a successful top executive by blending her business acumen, vision and passion to build inspired teams and deliver exceptional results. Having served as an Executive Administrator, Vice President and Chief Operations Officer in a variety of industries, she possesses the skills to inspire continued growth in fundraising, stakeholder engagement and brand awareness. As an organizer, speaker and lifelong philanthropist, Kate believes that our purpose in life is to leave behind a deposit, not a withdrawal. Building TravelCoin Foundation since the Spring of 2017 has led to the phenomenal success of TravelCoin, a revolutionary ICO offering that goes public at the end of 2019. The success of TCF has led to Kate being asked to join the Chamber of Digital Commerce Token Alliance, seen her featured on the international podcast Creating Wealth with Jason Hartman, been included in multiple industry articles, and served as a guest speaker at events around the world.
Jason Sosnowski is a full-stack developer with experience across a range of technologies. He leverages his deep knowledge of leading-edge technologies to bring robust, scalable, lasting solutions to complex and evolving business solutions. His expertise includes blockchain (Bitcore, Ethreum, Hyperledger), serverless (AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions), machine learning (TensorFlow), artificial intelligence (TensorFlow), and cloud services like AWS, Azure, Alibaba Cloud and Google Cloud Platform. Jason’s solutions are grounded in best practices for security and compliance and he works with a variety of languages that include Javascript, Python, Ruby and Node on the server side as well as React, Vue, and WordPress for front end.
Intro: Welcome fintech Friday's a weekly podcast brought to you by the National Crowdfunding and Fintech Association of Canada and partners.Covering all things fintech block chain be AI and alternative finance.
Manseeb Khan : Jason and Kate thank you so much for joining me today.
Kate Guimbellot: Absolutely. Thanks for having us
Jason Sosnowski: Our pleasure.
Manseeb Khan : Awesome. So, I'm going to make this a free ball question so for the fans could just give us a rundown of essentially who you guys are and what the travel coin foundation is?
Kate Guimbellot: Yeah absolutely. So, you know the Travel Coin Foundation, we're a not for profit we're based out of London, England but because we're a global foundation our team members are all over the place. Jason is in Toronto where I know you are. I'm actually in Kansas in the U.S. So, we travel the world and this whole foundation came out of the belief system knowledge system that. You know why we are here. Why is any one of us here. And for us it's about leaving a deposit not taking a withdrawal so that when we pass, we will have left something behind we will have made a difference and we do that because we believe that travel is the one of the biggest things that can solve the division that we see in the world. If you travel at all in particular if you travel out of your own country. You very quickly realize how much more alike we are than different. And so, with that mindset the question was Well what keeps people from traveling. You know some of those things that you get fluctuating exchange rates, or you land in an airport and there's no Wi-Fi or you have loyalty points at the Radisson, fifty thousand points at Radisson but it doesn't help you a bit if you're trying to put something on Delta or. You know. All of those sorts of things and that's really what the foundation was born out of is a desire to help solve the issues that travelers face so that we can allow travel to be an easier experience to get people out of their comfort zones and around the world. And it comes from Jason and I are partnered with Lisa who is our chief operations officer and all three of us have spent decades on our own both personally and professionally traveling the world. So, all three of us love it. Jason's been to I've been to every all but six countries that I can ever find. Jason how many of you been to?
Jason Sosnowski: I am now one hundred and thirty-one.
Kate Guimbellot: Yeah. So that's really what it comes out of.
Manseeb Khan : Wow. I've only been to L.A. That's it. I don't travel much.
Kate Guimbellot: We're going we're going to open the world to you. So yeah really what it's about is when we travel around even now, I go to a country that I haven't been to in a decade or I go somewhere that I've never been before. And you know people who don't travel think Oh my God I don't know what I would do I don't speak the language I don't understand the culture. It doesn't matter. You get there and you realize that everyone just wants to be happy. They want to have a good job they want to have fun with their friends their family. They want to raise their children and they want to leave the world better. And that's what that's what the foundation's focuses is to help make that happen.
Manseeb Khan : I love the idea that you guys are kind of like I'll stick with the Radisson and Delta example. I mean you're having all these like airlines and like hotels like team up and like have their own little groups of like be it benefits like hey look if you travel us you get this this and this the fact that you guys are kind of like combining everything and kind of like hey like this is what might give us a bit more of a conjoined experience was it the point of traveling is to like have more or less like a sense of purpose. See the world and understand the world a little better get a little bit more worldly get a little bit more culture and see like how you started off the show hey you know we're all the exact same. You know like if it's like for like me and Jason here in Toronto you're in Kansas with the exact same people were very similar, similar experiences, similar pains what may have you and the fact that just bringing that together and making that much more accessible for everybody that's in and of itself is pretty freaking incredible.
Kate Guimbellot: Yeah, we're very one we're very proud of what we're doing we're very excited about it and it has taken a level of bravery I've got to be honest from the beginning. We've had a lot of naysayers and we've been around over a year but that first six months was pretty painful. Wouldn't you say Jason?
Jason Sosnowski: it was challenging for sure.
Kate Guimbellot: Yeah because you have to stand in your own truth you know and when you say to someone Look our foundation is going to raise funds and we're going to help bring Wi-Fi free Wi-Fi to the entire globe because we believe that Wi-Fi is a right not a luxury. And people kind of go Oh yeah right. OK. So, like no we are doing it. I mean we're having conversations right now with a company in Africa that gets Wi-Fi to place in Africa that have been up till now unreachable. And we're also working with some of the biggest names out there who are working on the satellite systems that will do that that will canvas the earth with Wi-Fi signal. So, we've had big dreams that we know we're going to continue to focus on and things like that loyalty point system you know in the US and Canada. I know the average is 21 to 23 loyalty point programs people belong to any one individual. And we just feel that there has to be a way to give people an exchange area where they can go in and put in those fifty thousand Radisson points to be able to turn them into Delta points. So big things are that we plan on solving that can that list continues to grow. And it's just really nice to kind of get to this point and be able to say you know look we're achieving what we set out to do because that first six months we didn't have a lot of people standing beside us in belief right.
Manseeb Khan : So I mean before I jump in to a little bit because you guys do have a ICO I think Jason might be a little bit better to go and a little bit of nitty gritty to that would mean you talked on the phone like you mentioned how like you haven't done podcasts like six months and how much you've grown I like how you guys the route you guys took is so much more unconventional than the rest. Could you just like talk on that a little bit more and just give the audience and me because like I'm obviously very intrigued of like how you've too much deviated from everybody else and kind of like built allow building this amazing company.
Kate Guimbellot: Yeah absolutely. I'll give you the highlight and then yeah Jason is just absolutely brilliant when most brilliant minds I've ever known. And he can he can tell you kind of the revolutionary tech side of it but in essence you know ICO is I know you're surely aware of is you know raised the most amount of money and the least amount of time. Right that's the whole point. And so those ICOs tend to come in and go out within hours or days or weeks that no more than a couple months. But from the very beginning we decided that we were going to utilize that ICO and bring it to real people not a handful of millionaires or you know. A. Slightly larger group of people who do this all the time. We want a global community of real people like you and me who can put in up to five hundred dollars, a five-hundred-dollar cap on becoming a subscriber that you can get up to five hundred dollars invested, and it's become part of that ICO. And so, we know we need a time and what we did is we built our ICO out over a 26-trench schedule and each tranche which happens about every four weeks or when that tranche runs out a coin, we release the next tranche of coin and we are bringing. It up from a deeply discounted value that started at a penny. And at the end of twenty-six tranches when it goes public it will have reached a dollar. So. This has not been about getting as much money in the door as we can. This is about enlisting people in our belief of what we want to achieve and doing it globally. And we would love to reach up to a million global community people around the world by the end of that 26 tranche and that global community is. Is the success of travel coin. It's why we sit here now. In tranche 19 headed to tranche 20. So just six months away from the end of this ICO process and we have. Tens of thousands of people around the world who each hold a travel coin because they see the vision, they want to be a part of it. And it's been built so beautifully. So that's what I was referring to in the very beginning people just kind of shook their heads and said that's not how you do it. That's not how it works. And we were like Yeah, we know but. You know one of the issues in the world with digital currency and the countries that are pushing back against it is this fear of people losing everything they own. You know in a pump and dump or something like that and we wanted to do this with complete integrity and transparency and safety. No one's going to lose their hats at five hundred dollars per person. So that's really been the revolutionary approach and it's been really great after a year being able to say to people see it's working, and Jason saw you chime in because you built the system. I mean you're the brains behind it.
Jason Sosnowski: Yeah absolutely. When we started people were calling us crazy. They were saying how can you do this this is what an ICO is about. You know this isn't how it's supposed to happen, and we just like to reiterate what you said there Kate we just decided we're going to do things differently and be open and show everyone how they can be a part of it and that's that was the other point that you made. Kate that was really important to us where it's not about a few millionaires or a few whales getting in and doing a pump and dump or something like that and snapping up all of the assets or funding a specific project because they were big investors or something like that. It was about actually bringing others into the tank as well as into the community that we were building so and making it accessible. We've done that both by the ICO and through our corporate or corporate partners as well.
Kate Guimbellot: And that's been a big part of it. You know we very early on we connected with a company who became our first and is still our biggest and most supportive corporate sponsor someone who saw what we wanted to do. They were starting off themselves. There is a company called my travel biz. They're a global company. They're dedicated to travel. They are opening up the world through a travel product that they have, and they support us. They acquire travel coin and it gets awarded to their reps around the world and so that has helped to build that community as well. What it's done is one we've been able to take market share and get a name recognition literally around the world. So, we have subscribers in over 50 countries in the last year, but it's allowed us to go from that proof of concept and for a long time I talked about as being in proof of life you know as we existed through those first 12 months but now, we're able to talk about proof of success. So even before travel coin goes public the success and the adoption of it have allowed two really huge things for us and one it was a surprise. I'll get to that in a second, but the first thing is we've been able to develop out a merchant program because so imagine if you had been one of those people a year ago who got travel coin. Well great but now it's just sitting there you can't do anything with it. And that takes a lot of patience to wait twenty-six months before you can actually utilize something that you've invested in. And so, Jason built really a revolutionary secondary market where within our close community they were able to buy and sell trade basically their coin. So that was massive. So, it gave them a use if they wanted to trade some they could. The other thing that we that we've done though is we've built out a merchant program. So, I mentioned our corporate sponsor. We now have in excess of 30 companies that want to be involved in travel coin. And so as a merchant they subscribe which means they just sign up they get their electronic wallet and they're now selling their wares and their services in countries all over the world where if you're a travel coin holder you can go in and through our electronic wallet which Jason beautifully built he and his team you can not only get a discount on their product but they will accept a certain percentage of your payment in travel point. So, it's still a close community. It's not a public coin but that whole approach has been crazy. And that's something that is really only doable because of the way in which Jason built the system. And then secondary to that what it's allowed us to do is we've actually just recently launched our first public coin that did not go through an ICO process. It's called Travel coin plus and it's an open exchange right now. That was really that, I'm so jazzed about that I'm not going to steal Jason's thunder because he's got to tell you what makes this so different, but we could not have done travel coin plus had we not taken this slow and steady wins the race approach to travel coin. So, Jason you share what travel point plus looks like. That's I'm very proud of that.
Jason Sosnowski: You know everything you said is spot on travel coin plus is sort of the it's a different asset from travel coin and travel and plus is a publicly available sort of a traditional cryptocurrency where it's in the open market it's not through a. ICO it's available to anybody who wants to acquire it we're on 2 exchanges at the moment and we're working with a number of others to be on the additional exchanges. But travel coin plus is a sort of a hybrid between a public and a private digital asset in that travel coin. We've launched a private block chain that solves a lot of the problems that are faced by traditional public walk chains, but we provide public access to it. And that's really a step in a really different direction because a purist maybe in the cryptocurrency space would say well that's not really a crypto currency because it's controlled in a secure environment and it's not fully decentralized in the traditional, the way we might traditionally think about it from a technical perspective where it's fully decentralized but the way that we govern travel coin Foundation. First off, we only trade if we have travel point plus which we do we only trade our travel point plus in a very transparent manner. So, we have an announcement. And if we're going to be selling travel coin plus. But we have a what is called a proof of authority network as opposed to a proof of work network. And if you've ever done a cryptocurrency transaction when there is a lot of transactions on the network say last year when I don't if you've ever heard of crypto kitties.
Manseeb Khan : I know Crypto kitties very well.
Jason Sosnowski: Crypto kitties it virtually ground the ethereal network to a halt and that really exposed a massive issue with it's not just the Ethereum network but with all cryptocurrency with a lot of crypto currencies whereby especially powerful work ones where if that work happens and there's a lot of transactions and there's not a fast mechanism to verify those transactions. Then the cost goes up and you know at one point you know transactions were costing fifty dollars on bitcoin at one point. And the sort of antithesis of the value of crypto currency if you think about it where I can move tens of thousands of dollars or you know virtually unlimited amount to value cross-border. Person to person anywhere in the world. Normally I can do it for pennies but all of a sudden bitcoin was costing 55 60 65 70 dollars to run a transaction. And that was that sort of defeats the purpose. So, travel coin plus we saw all of these issues’ transactions are slow. The number of transactions that can be processed per second and the cost of transaction and we launch the travel coin plus network it's a fully. Ethereum compatible network it actually runs on pure vanilla Ethereum. And the beauty of it is that it's proof of authority not proof of work. So, we have 10 sealer nodes and only those nodes can approve transactions and travel coin Foundation. We have those kinds of nodes and they're operating all over the world. And so far, I think we're almost out a million blocks actually that we that we've mined. Wow. Actually, sorry let me rephrase that it's not it's not mined its minted because we don't actually mine. Sorry it's seven hundred and seventeen thousand nine hundred and eighty-eight blocks right now but we don't mine blocks in a proof of authority network we mint them. So, we actually just produce those blocks and the sealer nodes that have authority they can verify a transaction and it's a random amongst those ten each time. So, it's super cool.
Kate Guimbellot: And it's green which is very important to us. The green technology side of it being a foundation in particular the idea of utilizing the amount of power it takes to power nodes when people are mining them. It's one of the reasons one of the other main reasons we went the way that we did with cloud minting.
Manseeb Khan : Cloud minting could you talk a little bit more about that because like this is this is a very interesting concept because you guys are going from minting for mining or you guys are sort of like proof its authority. I think like this is something like a concept that I think many people may want to look into it if not adapt so can you talk a little bit more on Cloud Minting.
Kate Guimbellot: Yeah, I mean I'll give you sort of the marketing angle because I get the opportunity to travel around the world and tell people who don't understand any of its kind of what it is and then Jason can give you the teeth to it. But in essence you know for those you who haven't experienced it you know if you want to mind bitcoin for instance you've got to have the nodes you've got to. It takes an enormous amount of energy, I think. What is it in the US Jason's like six thousand dollars to mine one Bitcoin I think and in other countries it's up to twenty-seven thousand dollars’ worth of energy consumption to do that work in addition to the equipment and the fans because of the heat and all of that? So, we the people who come to us to become mentors don't have any about it's all through the cloud, so they don't have to have the equipment. They simply buy into it and then the coin every 10 seconds a percentage of coin is minted for them. Jason you want to fill in the blanks with the cool tech stuff?
Jason Sosnowski: That's about it. We've got our sealer nodes and we've got lots of other nodes and those sealer nodes they funnel transactions that are sealer nodes seal them. The beauty of the system is that you don't need specialized equipment you don't need. You don't need a server farm, a room full of servers and specialized computers that asic miners that are `running 24/7 competing for the authority to produce a transaction. You're on our network and your producing transactions those sealers will seal those transactions for you, and they'll be added to our permanent block chain. The idea that you don't need all of that stuff also makes it more accessible to everyone around the world. You know a normal person without a huge amount of technical knowledge can join our network and benefits of having a cryptocurrency and participate in using that new technology.
Kate Guimbellot: The important thing for us is you know see a need fill the need and then find partners. I've always said I want I don't want to be the smartest person in the room right. I want to have smart people around me all the time because they pull out the best and all of us. We feel the same way with our company. So even with that let's take travel coin plus. Right. Because I talked about travel coin. We have a merchant program and all of that travel coin plus we wanted to not only have to have it as a digital currency that goes out there goes on the open markets. But we wanted to give people a purpose for it. Like let me give you something that could really change your life. With this travel coin plus. So, we've actually partnered with a company called Crowd share club. And so, if you if you become a mentor of travel coin plus you get your node. You can take those travel coins and you can put them towards property ownership real estate which as you know is the number one best investment that you can make. But no one has the money to go to. Well for instance they have a project in Dubai. You can't go to Dubai and spend five hundred thousand dollars on this property you're selling. I mean I know I certainly can't. But what crowd share club is done, and they have now partnered with us to achieve. Are there crowd funding real estate projects? So now if you are someone who has travel coin plus we can give you a real-world application right now that will benefit you over the coming years over the coming decades and help build your portfolio where you can own a percentage of this. Amazing. It's called the world's Dubai. I don't know if you know about it, but they've reclaimed sea. You know they put land out there. They've made all these islands and they're getting ready to get things open for 2020. When they're celebrating their big celebration in Dubai. So, and there are other properties that they offer around the world. So that's you know our point is not just to give somebody a resource like a digital currency or whatever. We want actionable items. We want to help shift people's lives. Ordinary people who would have never been able to do that. Some guy who's working his tail off in Pakistan could never dream to be able to be a part owner in a in a hotel room in a suite in Dubai. But that's what as the foundation. That's what we want to do. And that's why the companies with whom we've connected ourselves as sponsors and as partners are all also revolutionary. I mean my travel biz and crowds share club and you can go onto our Web site and see all these opportunities and that's what we're going to continue to do is not just provide someone anyone can give you a digital currency. God knows there's plenty of them out there. we are doing this to allow people to change their lives in ways that they could never have conceived.
Manseeb Khan : Crowd sharing in the real estate space that's a topic that we've definitely covered on the show. I mean just the fact that people can be part owners or partial owners of property investments. I mean look we have like R2 investments a couple episodes back we're like they're helping people get in getting to commercial real estate which is even tougher right. Like owning a house is great but I try owning an office building or an entire plaza. Oh, and let and you're my age. Like I'm just a kid out of college I could never build a lot of wealth right.
Kate Guimbellot: Well I mean like just this property in Dubai for instance because everything that crowd share putting out there are really good solid. They already have yields right there we have rental yield numbers so they're able to say this is an established property not buying a slack of land that you're going to build on the one in Dubai is a guaranteed average 8 percent return for a guaranteed 12 years and it's unheard of. I only Dubai could do that. But that's exactly to your point. Someone your age right now could for a pretty low amount become a part owner in a project like that and then just go let it sit just let it work for you over the next 10 to 20 years. It's an amazing opportunity.
Manseeb Khan : Yeah. Let us know for sure. I mean I'm just going to switch gears here so if you go on the actual travel coin Web site there is a timeline of all the amazing projects that you've completed and a list of future projects that you have to look forward to. So, I mean you guys on some pretty big ones ahead of you, so I guess what some of the challenges are when it comes to you know like opening up free Wi-Fi and you know like opening up real estate opportunities for everyone.
Kate Guimbellot: Well you know I always like to say that you know how you eat an elephant right. One bite at a time. So yeah, we have some big elephants on there. I mean that loyalty point swap system I talked about that's massive. That's and that's not something we're going to achieve in the next year but it's something we just keep chipping away at. the Dow you know to have a voting opportunity for all of our subscribers is very important to us. Jason's made amazing strides on that with his team because we want travel coin holders to have a voice about where we go in the future and what we focus on next. So, what we're doing. You know we slow and steady wins the race we are funding already funding for free Wi-Fi. We have built out that secondary market. The Dow is almost done. We've taken the smallest baby steps in that loyalty point system. We've also introduced something called future travel program with that core partner. I mentioned my travel biz where we're going to begin to identify things like the Hyperloop. You know there are several countries in the world that are looking at how we change travel in the future and make it easier for people. We're going to continue to look for those sorts of programs that we can fund. So, it's yes there are things we're building ourselves internally. Like that loyalty points system and the Dow and things like that but our focus for the long term are our five-year 10-year 20-year plan which we've Already drafted out even before we began includes really finding those people that we can support right. We're not going to create a satellite system to bring free Wi-Fi to the world, but we can find the best of the best out there who are doing it and we can become a strategic partner for them and help achieve that thus feeding back into our main goal of making travel easier. So yeah we have a lot on that timeline and we have a lot that we have put on that timeline because I think I said so someone recently if I told you a year ago that one of the dreams of the foundation is to find companies that are going to revolutionize auto travel with flying cars people would have thought I was nuts. They will still think you're nuts. They do. But today it's a little less nut because I get a lot of articles about a lot of companies. Yeah but that's how far forward we're focused. You know we are going to help change travel we're going to open the world up to itself.
Manseeb Khan : I love that. So, I'm going to throw a question out to you guys. So aside from the incredible work that you guys are doing at the travel coin foundation what are you guys most excited about being in the cryptocurrency space or being in other areas.
Kate Guimbellot: Well I'm sure Jason's going to have some really cool stuff. I'll just say quickly the one of the things I look at week to week I love tapping into where block chain is being embraced where you see new digital currency being embraced. I'm really excited about the growth potential in my team for that and as evidenced by this week I got really jazzed because JP Morgan is the first US based bank that is actually going to launch a cryptocurrency to deal with a need within their system. I think that as we see legislation start to move especially in the U.S. and China where there so anti it, I'm getting really excited about the strides that the block chain and crypto are making in 2019 and just overall for the world. I think that's amazing the fact that Dubai is such a great example of block chain and how they're incorporating it into every aspect of their government I'm really jazzed about it. I think 2020 we're going to have a look back and see 2019 as a real pivotal time in both those industries. Jason how about you?
Jason Sosnowski: I agree 100 percent I think with You know as if it's been a really interesting few years in a crypto space with you know whether it's that situation that you mentioned with JP Morgan and Jim Diamond introducing their own crypto currency this is going to really shake up this space in terms of decentralized crypto currencies and what was interesting is even though they announced it the entire market there was almost no change in the entire market. And that says a lot about where crypto is today I think versus a year ago and where watching technology and cryptocurrency technology is going to be in another year or two years or five years because if a big bank know when the largest banks in the world JP Morgan can say hey we're launching our own crypto currency and the unregulated market who is known for being very skittish and reacting to everything literally doesn't react at all to it. I think that shows the strength and stability of that and then also shows that the world is now realizing hey this technology is here to change and that's transformative. And we're going to actually embrace it as opposed to fighting against it. I think that you know all the projects that we're working on as well. Next year we're going to see lots of other things and like you said there's so many things that aren't on that list that we have going on. It's a super exciting time.
Kate Guimbellot: Yeah. You said you said a lot of your listeners are or all of your listeners are in the space some are younger folks who are just coming into it. Others are already in and looking for the next new thing is that. Did I say that right?
Manseeb Khan : Yes, you did.
Kate Guimbellot: So, I love this one Jason. Jason what do your geek out about Most right now in what's happening in the industry what's the what's the next new thing that that you're hearing about.
Jason Sosnowski: You know I really think that at the mainstream adoption there's this there's so many benefits of mainstream adoption whether it's you know whether it's actually making the actual business use case for it or the broader effects that it has on or the potential it has on products whether the strength it has for data and how we can have privacy and we can share our data in a secure way. You know one of the things that that I hear a lot about lately is block chain in say the medical space where here in Canada actually there's a number of projects going on in the healthcare space where you know records are being stored in a secure way on secure block change and you can share that data using your private token with only the people you want to. So even the nurse at that doctor's office that you're at can't see your file only that you're treating physician and they have to authorize access because they have that key shared with them. So, there's lots of you know this is the next step evolution. You know we have a we started this with bitcoin about 10 years ago just over 10 years ago now and it started it was really inefficient and we're seeing lots of benefit. We're seeing lots of efficiencies being made and now we're seeing mainstream adoption. This is like you can because it's the advancement of technology. You know this is what I love, I love pushing the boundaries and making it better and making it easier for people to use.
Kate Guimbellot: Yeah absolutely. You know that's actually one of the first times I've understood every single thing you've said when you talk about the stuff you're about. I have to say like whoa Jason I understand what that is. What do you mean?
Manseeb Khan : Oh yeah, I tried I tried to explain to a girl at a bar with security tokens or I was like oh the looks I got from my friends Oh man. The probably listening to this right now in the future belonged there. OK just give me that look like come on.
Jason Sosnowski: But what's really interesting about that is explaining a security token relatively easy compared to explaining maybe a utility token and then explaining the divide between the two of them.
Manseeb Khan : Oh yeah. And essentially how and like security token Okay. And then like a stable token it just oh my god you can just rabbit hole for hours the person you talk to kind of go look like you lost me three minutes like encrypt the what now. What computer do I need? What. I don't know what you’re talking about! So, I'll wrap this up so we'll be the best way for the audience that girl at the bar to contact you guys would it be through email would we through Snapchat, smoke signal. I mean what would be the best way?
Kate Guimbellot: You know the best thing really is to hop online and go to travel point Board and check us out there's a way to contact us there. We're a big presence in social media in particular on Facebook and you can find all of our contact information there as well. So yeah you just hop on and see what we’re doing and see if it aligns. The great thing is people can become subscribers without investing a thing you don't have to invest in travel coin. You can just sign up and stay in tune with what's going on over it travel coin foundation when we're doing something that really sparks a fire and you then join us, join us on this journey because it's for ordinary what I call ordinary extraordinary human beings we want we want to build this global community. And that's what we're doing. So yeah. Travelcoin.org
Outro : you've been listening to fintech Fridays brought to you by NCFA and partners. Tune in weekly for the latest fintech Friday podcast by subscribing to this channel. The National crowdfunding and FinTech Association of Canada is a non-profit actively engaged with social and investment fintech sectors around the globe and provide education research industry stewardship services and networking opportunities to thousands of members and subscribers. For more information please visit and see if a Canada dot org. Oh yea.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Forbes | | Feb 4, 2019
This article was updated on 2/4/19 to include Ripple, the fourth-most valuable private fintech company in the U.S.
Financial technology startups continue to attract a growing amount of attention and capital. In 2018, valuations of the biggest private companies bulged, and at least six new fintech unicorns were minted in the U.S.
U.S. fintechs raised $12.4 billion in funding, or 43% more than 2017, reports CB Insights. That growth outpaced the 30% increase in venture investments across the entire U.S. market. And fintechs will need those dollars—they tend to burn about two to three times as much cash compared with other startups, according to an analysis by Brex, likely due to factors like regulatory hurdles.
Here are the 10 most valuable private, venture-backed fintechs in the U.S.:
Originally a service to help small online sellers process payments, today Stripe serves tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon, too. In 2018 the company announced three new high-profile products, including credit card issuing technology, point-of-sale software and a billing platform for subscription businesses.
Cofounders: CEO Patrick Collison, 30, and president John Collison, 28. Irish-born brothers, dropouts from MIT (Patrick) and Harvard (John) launched Stripe in 2011
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Photo credit: Bloomberg Finance LPMichael Short/Bloomberg
Expanding beyond its roots as a bitcoin wallet and retail exchange, Coinbase now offers cryptocurrency custody and professional and institutional trading platforms. Last year bought Earn.com, a service where users pay in bitcoin to contact experts via email, for a reported $100 million.
Cofounder & CEO: Brian Armstrong, 36, whose Coinbase holdings make him a billionaire
Broker offers commission-free trading of stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies and options through a mobile app. Robinhood Gold subscription service, starting at $6 per month, gives investors access to margin trading. Later this year the firm will take on the checking and savings market with a new cash management program.
Cofounders and co-CEOs: Stanford grads Baiju Bhatt, 34, a second-generation American with Indian parents, and Bulgarian-born Vlad Tenev, 32
Its blockchain-based global settlements network aims to replace SWIFT, the interbank messaging platform that has long connected nearly every bank in the world. Also has a service that lets companies make cross-border payments in XRP, the cryptocurrency created by Ripple’s founders.
Cofounders: Jed McCaleb, 43; Chris Larsen, 58; and Arthur Britto
CEO: Brad Garlinghouse, 48, former AOL president
SoFi CEO Anthony Noto. Photo credit: Bloomberg Finance LPDavid Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Founded in 2011, SoFi started with online student loan refinancing and later branched into other services for affluent Millennials, including mortgages, robo-investing advice and life insurance.
CEO: Anthony Noto, 50, former Twitter COO
Credit Karma cofounders (from left) Kenneth Lin, Nichole Mustard and Ryan Graciano. Photo credit: ForbesForbes
Offers its 85 million-plus “members” a growing suite of free services, including credit scores, tax-prep software, help fixing credit-report errors and alerts of new accounts opened in a user’s name. Credit Karma earns referral fees when users bite on the personalized offers for credit cards and loans it shows them.
Cofounders: CEO Kenneth Lin, 43; chief revenue officer Nichole Mustard, 45; CTO Ryan Graciano, 37
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Grow Technologies | Jesse Penner | Jan 23, 2019
“Is AI going to replace us?”This is a concern we hear most often – that service providers, like the financial institutions we work with, will end up being replaced by algorithms.
As I noted in the discussion “Pioneering Markets: Game Changing Tech Innovations Impacting Finance and Society” AI isn’t seeking to replace financial advisors whose guidance customers value. Rather, AI will augment and improve the overall value that the financial service provider is able to present.
The threat of tech giants like Amazon and Google and consumer focussed fintechs that are seeking to cut out financial institutions altogether means traditional banks will need to do more than offer marginal savings on fees to win the long-game.
Their key differentiator will be a brand that people trust, and customer experience.
The benefits of AI applied to the banking experience don’t just apply to those customers on their mobile phones, but can provide greater insight to advisors in branch for a more effective banking relationship. AI is improving the customer experience by providing an overall more consistent, hyper-personalized omnichannel experience for every customer.
Financial institutions are well aware that different customer segments prefer different types of access and service – self-serve, in branch, on mobile, at home, one-to-one.
Irregardless of how they prefer to consume service whether it’s on mobile or on their laptop at home, 87% of banking customers still want advice and guidance from their bank.
Unfortunately, the industry is currently falling short of meeting those expectations. As digital adoption increases, customer satisfaction is dropping, and customer satisfaction is lowest among digital only segments. Today’s consumers want it all: digital self-service convenience and personal relationships.
In a recent report released by Kantar, customer experience leaders earned 1.9x greater wallet share than others and 1.9x greater level of recommendation. Additionally, customer experience leaders’ customers are 2.1x more willing to take up new products.
Improving customer experience isn’t just strategic lip service - it’s imperative for traditional banks to remain competitive. So how do financial institutions meet the challenge of human personalization in increasingly device and digital-driven services?
The intersection of AI and financial technology is inevitable because it’s one of the areas AI can add the most value. Financial data, with everyone in Canada utilizing banking services in some way, presents a hugely detailed data set for learning. After all, without data sets and application that solves tangible problems, AI isn’t really doing much for anyone.
The opportunity we have here to make a material impact on people’s lives is significant.
Analysis and the AI insights driven by financial data can help answer questions like “Should I go back to school?” or “Would I be better off if I moved to Calgary?”
These are huge life decisions where the information that supports different choices are from disparate or unreliable, anecdotal sources.
Aggregating and analyzing financial data means a service provider could give informed, real-time advice based off more information gleaned in 5 seconds than they could learn in a decade of face to face meetings. That advice could be delivered in person or through a mobile phone depending on the customer’s preference.
Given how quickly tech giants and consumer fintechs are moving in an effort to eat up market share, open banking could help level the playing field by enabling financial institutions to take advantage of product-focused fintechs who can offer immediate solutions and improve customer experience faster than they could do themselves. While banks and credit unions have the benefits of deep industry knowledge, trust and customer-centric services, taking advantage of the agility and niche skills of fintechs building AI applications will do more to ensure they not only survive, but flourish, as the financial landscape continues to evolve.
Jesse Penner is VP Product at Grow Technologies
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Globe and Mail | Sean Silcoff | Dec 18, 2018
Dragons' Den star Michele Romanow and her partner Andrew D’Souza have secured another US$50-million to grow their latest startup, Clearbanc, just weeks after announcing they had raised US$70-million to bankroll the financing provider for e-commerce firms.
Now, they are looking to secure hundreds of millions of dollars more to meet a surge in demand from online sellers looking for cheap alternatives to finance their growth.
“We see this as a pretty exciting next step,” said Ms. Romanow, president and co-founder of Clear Finance Technology Corp., which operates as Clearbanc. “I don’t think we expected this to come this quickly.”
Clearbanc fronts e-commerce entrepreneurs with money to pay for their online advertising in exchange for a small percentage of revenues that spending generates, until they repay the amount in full, plus a 6-per-cent premium. Customers do not have to provide personal guarantees, give up equity or submit to credit checks. Instead, they provide Clearbanc with access to business data from their online payment processors, their online advertising accounts and bank accounts.
Clearbanc’s software then crunches the data and assesses their unit economics in minutes, spitting out an automated financing offer based on the customer’s ability to repay. There are no fixed payment schedules, maturity dates, late penalties or collateral, and companies typically repay their obligations within six months. They also don’t have to give up a chunk of equity in their company to venture capital firms to fund their marketing spend. “I really believe if they do this right it will disrupt traditional venture capital,” said Rajen Ruparell, founder of online mattress company Endy Canada Inc. and a new member of Clearbanc’s board of directors.
On Nov. 12 the couple revealed their company had raised US$70-million from 12 U.S. and Canadian venture capital firms and had done 500 deals with e-commerce firms to date, providing US$100-million in total funding – partially drawn from the money it had raised. After that news broke, Clearbanc was inundated with applications from 1,000 more companies seeking US$1-billion in total capital. “We used up the initial allocation much faster than we expected and realized we needed additional capital,” said Mr. D’Souza, co-founder and chief executive.
The couple told their investors they needed more capital, and fast. A principal at one of Clearbanc’s investors, New-York venture capital firm CoVenture, introduced them to Jason Finger, chairman of Upper90, a private equity firm and one of CoVenture’s backers. That was on Nov. 16. Seventeen days later, Upper90 closed on a deal to provide Clearbanc with the US$50-million.
Mr. Finger said New York-based Upper90, which is backed by individuals who have built businesses, was set up to provide “alternative capital” to tech firms that have struggled to raise money because conventional financiers “misunderstood” their opportunity.
“When we met with [Clearbanc] we felt the stars were aligned and we were ready to deploy quickly ... we saw that the revenue growth [Clearbanc’s financing business] was able to drive was extremely compelling. It made us confident we would be helping businesses in a positive way."
Mr. D’Souza said Upper90’s money will be used to create a US$50-million, two-year fund that will be separate from Clearbanc’s capital structure but which it will draw from to finance its e-commerce customers. Clearbanc will manage the fund, taking an upfront management fee plus a share of the returns the fund earns from financing Clearbanc’s customers. Mr. D’Souza says he expects to be able to deploy the money four times over the fund’s two-year life, meaning it will be used to provide about US$200-million worth of financing in total. He said another new Clearbanc director, Keri Findley, a former partner with Third Point Hedge Fund, helped develop the fund structure.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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