Diagram has raised $25 million (USD$19.13 million) for a new fintech venture capital fund that will be led by Paul Desmarais III; Paul Desmarais is part of Quebec's Desmarais family which has built a $7 billion (USD$5.36 billion) fortune through investment in the insurance business; the new fund's initial fundraising effort has come from Portag3 Ventures LP and over 50 individual angel investors; the fund will invest in a variety of Canadian fintech companies. Source
CB Insights reports on the venture capital industries top investors in unicorn exits; Sequoia Capital ranks first on the list of investors investing in unicorn startups with private market exits during 2009 to March 2017; Sequoia Capital has invested in 18 companies with unicorn exits including fintech company Square Capital. Source
Dow Jones Venturesource has released its first quarter Europe Venture Capital Report; venture capital funding for the quarter was EUR2.23 billion ($2.42 billion); Atomico's Atomico Ventures IV Fund led fundraising with EUR723.30 million ($786.02 million) representing 32% of total fundraising for the quarter; business and financial services was the top funding sector with EUR877.92 million ($954.05 million) across 163 transactions; Funding Circle reported one of the top five deals in the first quarter with its funding round of EUR94.43 million ($102.62 million); by geography, the UK led fundraising with EUR970.28 million ($1.05 billion) from 150 deals and France was second with EUR398.02 million ($432.53 million) from 78 deals; the full report is available here. Source
Edward Jones has announced a multi-year partnership with St. Louis based venture fund SixThirty; SixThirty invests in eight to 10 fintech startups annually with each startup receiving an investment of up to $100,000 along with support from a business development program that includes mentoring and networking; Edward Jones will be involved in numerous aspects of the venture fund's investing and Frank LaQuinta, a general partner with Edward Jones, will join SixThirty's investment committee. Source
Southeast Asia reported 71 fintech deals in 2016, an increase of 29% from 2015; total deal value was down from $177 million at $158 million; angel and seed investments led for the year with 62% of total financings; in 2016, Singapore continued to be the region's most active fintech innovator with 52% of the year's total deals; the top three venture capital investors since 2012 are East Ventures, 500 Startups and Golden Gate Ventures. Source
Investment funding deals for fintech businesses were lower in 2016, according to data from CB Insights; the firm reports that the number of deals remained steady with a 1% decrease to 836 however the total amount funded decreased by 13% to $12.7 billion in 2016; global instability and industry challenges in P2P lending were among the factors contributing to the lower investment. Source
Core Innovation Capital has raised approximately $71.5 million for a second venture capital fund; the fundraising round included 17 investors; the company invests in fintech companies focused on mobile and efficient financial products; it has invested in Mirador, Nova, Banking Up, Trim, NerdWallet, CoverWallet, Oportun and Ripple. Source
Singapore-based Dymon Asia Ventures has received investment of $20 million and plans to meet its target fundraising of $50 million over the next 12 months; firm plans to invest in 12 to 15 companies and has already begun investing in five companies which include: blockchain startup Otonomos, financing firm Capital Match, forex-focused 4XLabs, trading platform Spark Systems and marketing service WeConvene; the firm's investment focus will be on business to business companies targeting the growing Southeast Asia internet market; it says it will invest in seed stage funding through Series B funding with investments ranging from $300,000 to $3 million and reserves available for continued investment in follow-on rounds. Source
Errol Damelin has been steadily growing his presence in London's fintech sector; founder of Wonga, Damelin's expertise and mentorship has helped over 200 employees currently working in London's fintech scene; his company Wonga is a case study for online payday lending in Europe and despite his exit from the company in 2014, Damelin has gone on to successfully invest and mentor a wide range of startup businesses in London. Source
Nutmeg has received 12 million British pounds ($14.74 million) in capital from investor Taipei Fubon Bank; the 12 million British pound fundraise follows a Series C fundraising round in November led by Convoy Global Holdings; the funding will help to support the firm's rapid growth; assets under management for its robo advisor service have been increasing significantly and are now at approximately 600 million British pounds ($736.85 million); success has been driven by demand for its discretionary investment management service which also offers low fees. Source