Paul Schulte, Advisor, Banking and Financial Services
August 22nd, 2019
Paul Schulte is the Founder and Managing Editor of Shulte Research based in Singapore. Paul's roles[...]
Shaquille O’Neal Joins Steady; Company Raises $9 Million in Series A Round of Funding from Leading Fintech Investors
Digital Journal PR | Aug 7, 2018
ATLANTA--(Business Wire)--Steady, the income-building platform for the Build-Your-Own (BYO) workforce is already serving 100,000 Americans since it launched last week. The company, which today delivers personalized income-building opportunities, an income tracker, and exclusive relevant discounts, has raised $9 million in Series A financing round led by Propel Venture Partners, with significant participation from Omidyar Network, the impact investing firm established by Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay. The funds raised in this round will be used to rapidly scale and extend product features. Other investors include 25Madison, Clocktower Ventures, and Commerce Ventures. Shaquille O’Neal has joined the team as an Advisor and Advocate for the BYO workforce.
“The traditional 9-5 career path doesn’t work for everyone, and we’re seeing more and more people set out to make their own way. Steady sees and serves this group, giving them the tools to discover new job opportunities, and the resources to earn more money and take control,” said Shaquille O’Neal. “Helping hardworking folks do and get more is an important mission and I’m excited to be part of it.”
Work is changing. Full-time jobs are giving way to more flexible arrangements—shift work, part-time contracts, gigs, and an endless combination of these—that create income uncertainty; retirement resources aren’t cutting it for millions of Americans; and the resulting income mix throws people’s relationship to banks and financial products out of balance. Enter Steady.
See: A U.S. Perspective: Can Canadian Alternative Finance Contend?
“In today’s America, the single, upward career path is a false notion for too many people. A long-term, consistent, path of ascension just isn’t attainable in most industries. People need to create their own,” said Steady co-founder and lead seed round investor Michael Loeb, from Loeb Enterprises.
“Steady is uniquely built to address a financial health crisis that’s hitting epidemic proportions.”
Steady starts by helping BYO workers easily find and apply to income-building opportunities that match their availability, abilities, and interests. Whether augmenting retirement savings, working around childcare responsibilities, leveraging gig opportunities, or supplementing insufficient income from a primary employer, Steady helps people earn more.
“Today’s workforce faces wage stagnation, underemployment and an increasing cost of living. All this leads to people just not making enough money to live the American Dream, and instead they’re caught in a very vulnerable place,” said Ryan Gilbert, Partner at Propel Venture Partners.
“We’re excited to back Steady in delivering much needed solutions aimed at the root problem—insufficient earnings. If people are to thrive in today’s changing world, a solution like Steady is imperative.” Gilbert and Propel Venture Partners Vice President David Mort will be joining Steady’s Board of Directors.
See: Why Blockchain Is The Future Of The Sharing Economy
The new BYO workforce will be able to rely on Steady to:
- Build income: Discover and apply for extra income opportunities and shifts from large employers, small, and medium businesses and the hottest startups (including the top 40 gig economy players)—filtered by location, interests, availability, and goals, in addition to helping define their overall portfolio of work.
- Build networks: Monitor relevant community activity, learn from peers, uncover new opportunities, and create connections that help maximize earning potential.
- Build buying power: Access a marketplace of exclusive benefits—from essentials such as prescriptions and groceries, and discounts on major expenses such as auto care and telecom.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a cross-Canada non-profit actively engaged with cryptocurrency, blockchain, crowdfunding, alternative finance, fintech, P2P, ICO, STO, and online investing stakeholders globally. NCFA Canada provides education, research, industry stewardship, services, and networking opportunities to thousands of members and subscribers and works closely with industry, government, academia, community and eco-system partners and affiliates to create a strong and vibrant crowdfunding and fintech industry. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: ncfacanada.org
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DealSquare | Peter-Paul Van Hoeken | Oct 22, 2019 Launch of Canada’s first B2B centralized digital platform for private placements Toronto, October 22, 2019 – NEO is pleased to introduce DealSquare, Canada’s first centralized platform to simplify private placements in Canada, by digitally connecting capital raisers to dealers and their investment advisor networks. DealSquare is a technology solution developed by NEO in partnership with Silver Maple Ventures Inc., the company behind Canada’s leading online B2C private markets investment platform, FrontFundr, DealSquare will support the entire private placement process from marketing investment opportunities and electronically managing the due diligence and subscription process, through to efficiently closing the deal. By utilizing NEO Connect technology, exempt securities will be seamlessly integrated into client accounts and back office systems. With broader and more efficient access to private placement offerings, the costs and operational risks of raising private money will go down, ultimately expanding investment opportunities. It’s a win-win for capital raisers, dealers, investment advisors and investors. Over the past ten years, investors have flocked to the private markets looking for superior returns and to add balance to their portfolios. However, despite the overall growth in private markets compared to public markets, asset managers and ...
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Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Oct 21,2019 The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), part of the Judge School of Business at Cambridge University, has partnered with the World Bank to publish a report on the global regulation of alternative finance and innovative Fintech firms. According to the new report, the regulation of alternative finance will increase significantly over the next two years, as indicated by a global survey of 111 regulatory jurisdictions. Equity Crowdfunding, Peer to Peer Lending & Initial Coin Offerings As various forms of alternative finance emerge, typically regulators are slow to update or create new rules as they research and dissect digital services. More specifically, access to capital platforms such as equity crowdfunding, peer to peer (marketplace) lending and initial coin offerings (or token offerings), have digitized investment opportunities and the capital-raising process. These three types of finance are the focus of this report. The CCAF study seeks to better comprehend alternative finance via empirical information gleaned from regulators and other public authorities. Alongside AML/KYC requirements, regulators’ main priorities are said to be: “… protections against misleading promotions or the misuse of client money. Depending on the activity in question, between 93% and 100% of ...
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CNBC | Scott Steinberg | Oct 13, 2019 Key Points Forty-three percent of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves, according to Accenture. These incidents now cost small businesses $200,000 on average, reveals insurance carrier Hiscox, with 60% of them going out of business within six months of being victimized. More than half of all small businesses suffered a breach within the last year. Today it’s critical for small businesses to adopt strategies for fighting cyberthreats. In an age of ongoing digital transformation, cybercrime has quickly become today’s fastest-growing form of criminal activity. Equally worrying for modern executives, it’s also set to cost businesses $5.2 trillion worldwide within five years, according to Accenture. With 43% of online attacks now aimed at small businesses, a favorite target of high-tech villains, yet only 14% prepared to defend themselves, owners increasingly need to start making high-tech security a top priority, according to network security leaders. See: The growing cost of cybersecurity “Modern IT infrastructures are more complex and sophisticated than ever, and the amount of virtual ground that we’ve got to safeguard has also grown exponentially,” explains Jesse Rothstein, CTO of online security provider ExtraHop. “From ...
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Wharton Fintech via Medium | Peter Jankovsky | Sep 15, 2019 In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG’20) is joined by Omer Ismail, the head of Goldman Sachs’ US consumer business. In this role, Omer oversees the Marcus by Goldman Sachs and Clarity Money businesses as well as the Goldman Sachs/Apple credit card partnership. Omer was originally the consumer business’ first employee, and under his leadership, Goldman Sachs’ US business has grown to over 4 million customers, $5 B in loan balances, $50 B in deposits, and 1,300 employees. See: Goldman Sachs is slashing employee pay as it ramps up new tech ventures like the Apple Card Inflection point:Seven transformative shifts in US retail banking What does the future of banking look like, according to the experts? In this extensive interview, Omer dives into: The story behind Goldman’s decision to enter consumer banking and how it went about understanding consumer pain points to deliver a unique value proposition How the consumer business operates as a distinct business within the broader Goldman umbrella, and how its focus on constant iteration of design and UX delivers a differentiated customer experience Surprises and challenges that Goldman tackled as it scaled its consumer business ...
Read More
Financial Post | Business Wire | Oct 21, 2019 MONTREAL — Mako Fintech, a tech startup delivering next-generation software for securities transfer and administration, announced today that it has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate as a securities transfer agent in the United States. The transfer agency space has long been overdue for modernization. Legacy systems, low availability, high service costs and transaction delays have created a significant opportunity to move the industry forward through innovation. Mako is entering the transfer agency market with a streamlined, cloud-based SaaS service, offering centralized online voting, engaging investor communications and superior availability through smart automation. “Speaking with customers, we realized that there was a huge disconnect between the service clients expected and the current standards in the transfer agency industry. We created Mako in order to close this gap and the reaction so far has been phenomenal,” said Raphael Bouskila, founder of Mako. Mako’s transfer agency platform—available today to US public and private issuers—is designed to provide shareholders with modern reporting and easy, interactive service, while helping issuers reduce their risks, costs and reliance on external proxy voting and reporting services. See: A Digitized Staff Compliance Platform is a ...
Read More
CNBC | Hugh Son | Oct 17, 2019 Key Points The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits this year, the lowest that ratio has been in at least a decade, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. “As we grow more platform-driven businesses, we expect compensation to decline as a proportion of total operating expenses,” CFO Stephen Scherr says. Goldman Sachs is on track to pay its employees the lowest of any year in at least the past decade, and executives warned that the trend will continue as software consumes more of the firm’s businesses. The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits so far this year, the lowest since at least 2009, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. See: Silicon Valley VCs Are Planning to Get Bankers Out of the IPO Business Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. That ...
Read More
AltFi | Luke Lang | Oct 21, 2019 Something special is happening at the intersection of retail investors and financial technology, writes Crowdcube's Luke Lang. It became clear that fintech companies began to prize crowdfunding three years ago. Monzo crashed our servers in 2016 when it raised £1m in 96 seconds. Last December, the now-serial crowdfunding neobank raised £20m from retail investors. The staggering thing about Monzo’s raise – and it speaks volumes about where crowdfunding and fintech have reached – is that it did not need to raise the £20m from any of us on the street. In October – i.e. just two months shy of the raise – the bank had closed an £85m round led by VC firm Accel. Raising £20m is no walk in the park. You need to build a prospectus, which is a lengthy and expensive process. Monzo’s crowdfunding raise capped all investments at £2,000, meaning the team chose to have more investors to look after. See: Canada Update: Alberta Updates Crowdfunding Regulations but Where Does Canada Stand in the National Harmonization of Rules? What about Fintech Development? The world’s leading fintechs are using crowdfunding to cement and enhance their relationship with their customers ...
Read More
Investment Executive | Maddie Johnson | Oct 16, 2019 C.D. Howe calls for more regulatory barriers to be removed For years, Canada’s productivity growth has lagged many of its international peers, according to an upcoming report from the C.D. Howe Institute. And the financial services sector could play a vital role in reversing the trend. The report, to be released Thursday, examines the financial services sector and its overall contribution to productivity in Canada. Authors Farah Omran and Jeremy Kronick link long-term sustainable economic growth with an improvement in productivity, saying advanced economies need to do more than just increase their traditional inputs, such as labour and capital. The financial services sector has the ability to improve its productivity, which would in turn enhance Canada’s overall productivity growth, the report says. Despite its potential, the sector falls short, and its overall contribution to Canada’s productivity growth is “underwhelming.” The report discusses how three main channels — competition, attracting capital and the allocation of capital — are hindered by restrictive regulation, hurting Canada’s overall productivity growth. “Canada’s current regulatory framework has improved over the past decade; however, more could be done to remove regulatory barriers that hamper competition, the progress of innovative ...
Read More
Forbes | Andrea Tinianow | Oct 18, 2019 Fnality, a London-based company is banking on blockchain technology to usher in an era of digital financial markets. They are betting that the financial markets are going to tokenize. Fnality intends to be there when that happens. In fact, they intend to spur the transformation. According to Fnality’s chief executive officer, Rhomaios Ram, “if the markets are moving to a new model, they will need a secure infrastructure for digitizing payment and settlement on a global basis. We are creating a new financial market infrastructure, a new payments system [for wholesale banking].” Wholesale banking refers to lending and borrowing between banks, or with large customers such as the government, pension funds, and big corporations. Ram continues, “our two areas of focus right now are establishing a digital currency capability in each currency, and coordinating and orchestrating with business applications, such as tokenized exchanges, issuance platforms, collateral and trade finance, that want to use this new payment functionality.” Backed by a consortium of financial institutions, including some of the world’s most important banks: Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, ING, KBC Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., ...
Read More
NCFA Guest Post | Oct 18, 2019 During the history of the stock market its value has typically climbed. This has seen the most successful investors profit by buying shares in stocks at a low price and seeing their value increase steadily over time. Playing the markets can be risky however, as entire investments can be lost. But with the right set of circumstances stock prices can increase in value greatly over the years. This reward and risk trade off is appealing to lots of investors. However, it is sometimes the case that investors believe that the value of a certain stock will decrease rather than increase. In such instances, buying these shares will result in the investor losing money. Short selling provides investors with the opportunity to profit from the price of a stock decreasing in value. This practice is also sometimes referred to as going short on a stock and provides the investor with a profit should the price of a stock decrease. However, if the price of the stock goes up then the investor will face losses. How is shorting a stock done? This process involves lending shares of a stock that you wish to sell from ...
Read More
DealSquare | Peter-Paul Van Hoeken | Oct 22, 2019 Launch of Canada’s first B2B centralized digital platform for private placements Toronto, October 22, 2019 – NEO is pleased to introduce DealSquare, Canada’s first centralized platform to simplify private placements in Canada, by digitally connecting capital raisers to dealers and their investment advisor networks. DealSquare is a technology solution developed by NEO in partnership with Silver Maple Ventures Inc., the company behind Canada’s leading online B2C private markets investment platform, FrontFundr, DealSquare will support the entire private placement process from marketing investment opportunities and electronically managing the due diligence and subscription process, through to efficiently closing the deal. By utilizing NEO Connect technology, exempt securities will be seamlessly integrated into client accounts and back office systems. With broader and more efficient access to private placement offerings, the costs and operational risks of raising private money will go down, ultimately expanding investment opportunities. It’s a win-win for capital raisers, dealers, investment advisors and investors. Over the past ten years, investors have flocked to the private markets looking for superior returns and to add balance to their portfolios. However, despite the overall growth in private markets compared to public markets, asset managers and ...
Read More
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Oct 21,2019 The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), part of the Judge School of Business at Cambridge University, has partnered with the World Bank to publish a report on the global regulation of alternative finance and innovative Fintech firms. According to the new report, the regulation of alternative finance will increase significantly over the next two years, as indicated by a global survey of 111 regulatory jurisdictions. Equity Crowdfunding, Peer to Peer Lending & Initial Coin Offerings As various forms of alternative finance emerge, typically regulators are slow to update or create new rules as they research and dissect digital services. More specifically, access to capital platforms such as equity crowdfunding, peer to peer (marketplace) lending and initial coin offerings (or token offerings), have digitized investment opportunities and the capital-raising process. These three types of finance are the focus of this report. The CCAF study seeks to better comprehend alternative finance via empirical information gleaned from regulators and other public authorities. Alongside AML/KYC requirements, regulators’ main priorities are said to be: “… protections against misleading promotions or the misuse of client money. Depending on the activity in question, between 93% and 100% of ...
Read More
Read More
CNBC | Scott Steinberg | Oct 13, 2019 Key Points Forty-three percent of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves, according to Accenture. These incidents now cost small businesses $200,000 on average, reveals insurance carrier Hiscox, with 60% of them going out of business within six months of being victimized. More than half of all small businesses suffered a breach within the last year. Today it’s critical for small businesses to adopt strategies for fighting cyberthreats. In an age of ongoing digital transformation, cybercrime has quickly become today’s fastest-growing form of criminal activity. Equally worrying for modern executives, it’s also set to cost businesses $5.2 trillion worldwide within five years, according to Accenture. With 43% of online attacks now aimed at small businesses, a favorite target of high-tech villains, yet only 14% prepared to defend themselves, owners increasingly need to start making high-tech security a top priority, according to network security leaders. See: The growing cost of cybersecurity “Modern IT infrastructures are more complex and sophisticated than ever, and the amount of virtual ground that we’ve got to safeguard has also grown exponentially,” explains Jesse Rothstein, CTO of online security provider ExtraHop. “From ...
Read More
Read More
Wharton Fintech via Medium | Peter Jankovsky | Sep 15, 2019 In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG’20) is joined by Omer Ismail, the head of Goldman Sachs’ US consumer business. In this role, Omer oversees the Marcus by Goldman Sachs and Clarity Money businesses as well as the Goldman Sachs/Apple credit card partnership. Omer was originally the consumer business’ first employee, and under his leadership, Goldman Sachs’ US business has grown to over 4 million customers, $5 B in loan balances, $50 B in deposits, and 1,300 employees. See: Goldman Sachs is slashing employee pay as it ramps up new tech ventures like the Apple Card Inflection point:Seven transformative shifts in US retail banking What does the future of banking look like, according to the experts? In this extensive interview, Omer dives into: The story behind Goldman’s decision to enter consumer banking and how it went about understanding consumer pain points to deliver a unique value proposition How the consumer business operates as a distinct business within the broader Goldman umbrella, and how its focus on constant iteration of design and UX delivers a differentiated customer experience Surprises and challenges that Goldman tackled as it scaled its consumer business ...
Read More
Read More
Financial Post | Business Wire | Oct 21, 2019 MONTREAL — Mako Fintech, a tech startup delivering next-generation software for securities transfer and administration, announced today that it has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate as a securities transfer agent in the United States. The transfer agency space has long been overdue for modernization. Legacy systems, low availability, high service costs and transaction delays have created a significant opportunity to move the industry forward through innovation. Mako is entering the transfer agency market with a streamlined, cloud-based SaaS service, offering centralized online voting, engaging investor communications and superior availability through smart automation. “Speaking with customers, we realized that there was a huge disconnect between the service clients expected and the current standards in the transfer agency industry. We created Mako in order to close this gap and the reaction so far has been phenomenal,” said Raphael Bouskila, founder of Mako. Mako’s transfer agency platform—available today to US public and private issuers—is designed to provide shareholders with modern reporting and easy, interactive service, while helping issuers reduce their risks, costs and reliance on external proxy voting and reporting services. See: A Digitized Staff Compliance Platform is a ...
Read More
Read More
CNBC | Hugh Son | Oct 17, 2019 Key Points The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits this year, the lowest that ratio has been in at least a decade, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. “As we grow more platform-driven businesses, we expect compensation to decline as a proportion of total operating expenses,” CFO Stephen Scherr says. Goldman Sachs is on track to pay its employees the lowest of any year in at least the past decade, and executives warned that the trend will continue as software consumes more of the firm’s businesses. The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits so far this year, the lowest since at least 2009, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. See: Silicon Valley VCs Are Planning to Get Bankers Out of the IPO Business Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. That ...
Read More
Read More
AltFi | Luke Lang | Oct 21, 2019 Something special is happening at the intersection of retail investors and financial technology, writes Crowdcube's Luke Lang. It became clear that fintech companies began to prize crowdfunding three years ago. Monzo crashed our servers in 2016 when it raised £1m in 96 seconds. Last December, the now-serial crowdfunding neobank raised £20m from retail investors. The staggering thing about Monzo’s raise – and it speaks volumes about where crowdfunding and fintech have reached – is that it did not need to raise the £20m from any of us on the street. In October – i.e. just two months shy of the raise – the bank had closed an £85m round led by VC firm Accel. Raising £20m is no walk in the park. You need to build a prospectus, which is a lengthy and expensive process. Monzo’s crowdfunding raise capped all investments at £2,000, meaning the team chose to have more investors to look after. See: Canada Update: Alberta Updates Crowdfunding Regulations but Where Does Canada Stand in the National Harmonization of Rules? What about Fintech Development? The world’s leading fintechs are using crowdfunding to cement and enhance their relationship with their customers ...
Read More
Read More
Investment Executive | Maddie Johnson | Oct 16, 2019 C.D. Howe calls for more regulatory barriers to be removed For years, Canada’s productivity growth has lagged many of its international peers, according to an upcoming report from the C.D. Howe Institute. And the financial services sector could play a vital role in reversing the trend. The report, to be released Thursday, examines the financial services sector and its overall contribution to productivity in Canada. Authors Farah Omran and Jeremy Kronick link long-term sustainable economic growth with an improvement in productivity, saying advanced economies need to do more than just increase their traditional inputs, such as labour and capital. The financial services sector has the ability to improve its productivity, which would in turn enhance Canada’s overall productivity growth, the report says. Despite its potential, the sector falls short, and its overall contribution to Canada’s productivity growth is “underwhelming.” The report discusses how three main channels — competition, attracting capital and the allocation of capital — are hindered by restrictive regulation, hurting Canada’s overall productivity growth. “Canada’s current regulatory framework has improved over the past decade; however, more could be done to remove regulatory barriers that hamper competition, the progress of innovative ...
Read More
Read More
Forbes | Andrea Tinianow | Oct 18, 2019 Fnality, a London-based company is banking on blockchain technology to usher in an era of digital financial markets. They are betting that the financial markets are going to tokenize. Fnality intends to be there when that happens. In fact, they intend to spur the transformation. According to Fnality’s chief executive officer, Rhomaios Ram, “if the markets are moving to a new model, they will need a secure infrastructure for digitizing payment and settlement on a global basis. We are creating a new financial market infrastructure, a new payments system [for wholesale banking].” Wholesale banking refers to lending and borrowing between banks, or with large customers such as the government, pension funds, and big corporations. Ram continues, “our two areas of focus right now are establishing a digital currency capability in each currency, and coordinating and orchestrating with business applications, such as tokenized exchanges, issuance platforms, collateral and trade finance, that want to use this new payment functionality.” Backed by a consortium of financial institutions, including some of the world’s most important banks: Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, ING, KBC Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., ...
Read More
Read More
NCFA Guest Post | Oct 18, 2019 During the history of the stock market its value has typically climbed. This has seen the most successful investors profit by buying shares in stocks at a low price and seeing their value increase steadily over time. Playing the markets can be risky however, as entire investments can be lost. But with the right set of circumstances stock prices can increase in value greatly over the years. This reward and risk trade off is appealing to lots of investors. However, it is sometimes the case that investors believe that the value of a certain stock will decrease rather than increase. In such instances, buying these shares will result in the investor losing money. Short selling provides investors with the opportunity to profit from the price of a stock decreasing in value. This practice is also sometimes referred to as going short on a stock and provides the investor with a profit should the price of a stock decrease. However, if the price of the stock goes up then the investor will face losses. How is shorting a stock done? This process involves lending shares of a stock that you wish to sell from ...
Read More
Read More
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