FundingKnight Wins Your Money Award

Hampshire-based alternative finance platform FundingKnight has been named the Best Online Peer to Peer Provider at the Your Money Direct Awards.

Your Money is a website which helps people get the most from their money with features, news and tips on investments, savings, retirement and financial planning. The Your Money Direct Awards, now in their 18th year, are held each year to recognise the best direct providers of financial services in the UK. The awards cover categories such as current accounts, ISAs, personal loans and insurance. This is the second year that the Online Peer to Peer Provider category has been running.

The awards judging process evaluates the products of qualifying organisations based on the competitiveness of their price and structure. A final shortlist is compiled which is then judged by a panel of mystery shoppers on criteria including user-friendliness, application process, clarity of information and overall price satisfaction.

FundingKnight’s CEO, Graeme Marshall, commented: “Quality and integrity have always been at the heart of FundingKnight and we have always strived to achieve the best results for both borrowers and lenders. This ethos has resulted in products that offer demonstrable customer value, and we are delighted that Your Money has recognised this achievement.”

FundingKnight

Established in 2012, FundingKnight is one of the UK’s fastest growing alternative finance providers with growth in 2015 expected to top 300%. The company provides secured and unsecured loans to businesses, property developers and renewable energy projects. To date the company has provided over £20m of funds to over 100 loans to companies across the UK.

Peer to Peer Lending

Peer to peer lending, also known as P2P, is a form of alternative finance which provides loans to individuals or businesses. Each individual loan is made up of hundreds or thousands of small “loan parts” contributed by institutions, investors and ordinary people. Peer to peer lending enables businesses and individuals to get access to finance more flexibly and quickly than by going to a bank, and it allows investors to spread the risk of investment across multiple loans.

Peer to peer lending is the largest sector of the alternative finance market, accounting for 75% of an industry currently worth around £200m a month.

Marine Power Systems welcomes European Commission’s proposal for an Innovation Fund

Marine Power Systems (MPS), a Swansea-based company that is developing revolutionary technology designed to harness wave energy, welcomes the European Commission’s proposal for an Innovation Fund, to strengthen the Emission Trading Scheme and support emerging renewable technologies.

With its sights on the European landscape, MPS is developing the WaveSub to provide a reliable renewable energy source through harnessing wave energy. The technology being developed at MPS has huge potential to contribute to energy security targets across the EU (and globally) and will reduce reliance on unpredictable and non-renewable energy supplies.

Dr. Gareth Stockman said:

“MPS is supportive of the creation of a potential finance up-front and flexible Innovation Fund, which is truly needed to support the industry and developers such as MPS to reach commercialisation.

“We are reaching some exciting milestones in the development of our technology, specifically the deployment of a quarter-scale prototype WaveSub device. Looking ahead, initiatives such as the Innovation Fund can provide further support, when MPS plan to install a full-scale demonstrator in the South Pembrokeshire Demonstration Zone.

“At the upcoming Ocean Energy Europe conference in Dublin, we will embrace the opportunity to present to delegates on how we solve the specific challenges faced when capturing wave energy. In addition, we will update the sector on our plans going forwards.”

In line with the outlook of MPS, the recent draft report by the European Commission for the Environment, Climate Change and Energy of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), outlines the important contribution the ocean energy sector will make to the future energy needs of the European Union (EU). The report states the crucial role of the EU in driving the progression of the sector and the prospects that could be available through exploiting collaborations between regions across the EU.

The report has offered an analysis of the ocean energy industry and presents Europe’s global leadership in the sector. It also highlights the benefits in terms of industrial and economic growth through jobs, skills technology progression and commercial exports.

Stockman said:

“This is a crucial report that MPS welcomes. It acknowledges the forward thinking and commendable leadership in the renewable energy sector within Europe’s regions. It is encouraging to see that innovation in technology, such as MPS’s WaveSub Wave Energy Converter, is being recognised and supported for the future of energy in the EU.”

The recent report also makes reference to the European Ocean Energy Roadmap (EOER) 2010-2050. The Roadmap estimates that by 2050, ocean energy could supply up to 15% of the European Union (EU) power demand by then. This is said to be enough energy to power around 115 million homes.

The final roadmap will be presented to European Ministers during a summit on ocean energy taking place in Dublin on 20 October 2015, where MPS will be presenting a developer update.

MPS was co-founded by Swansea University graduates Dr. Gareth Stockman and Dr. Graham Foster in 2009 with the purpose of developing and commercialising its innovative WaveSub Wave Energy Converter technology.

iTech Capital invests US$3 million in TradingView

iTech Capital, a Europe-based private equity (PE) fund with a focus on the global digital market, has invested US$3 million in TradingView, a growing social FinTech platform that unites traders and investors from around the world.

iTech Capital, who will take a minority stake in TradingView, led the Series A round, which amounted to US$3.6 million alongside other seed investors and angels.

TradingView provides a next-gen online platform where thousands of amateur and professional investors and traders share insights and ideas in real-time, free of charge. The site currently features over 500,000 monthly active users from 100 countries, and since launching in 2012, has experienced 10 percent month-on-month organic growth in unique users.

In addition to its burgeoning trading community, TradingView produces powerful financial charts with data that are used by over 4,000 financial portals and websites such as Investopedia, InstaForex, DailyFX and more. As a result, five and a half million monthly unique visitors are engaged with the TradingView brand through partner platforms.

This round of investment will allow TradingView to develop and launch new services, including localisation, as well as expanding their sales and marketing efforts to enhance customer acquisition activities and implement new data feeds.

Gleb Davidyuk, Managing Partner of iTech Capital, said:

“TradingView is a unique player in the FinTech sector with a powerful mix of user generated charts and investment insights from its community, which helps its large user base to make informative investment decisions. Since its inception, the business model has successfully demonstrated continuous monthly growth in user acquisition and revenues.

With the capital and experience provided by iTech Capital, we believe that TradingView can capitalise on the significant opportunity.”  

iTech Capital’s Managing Partner, Gleb Davidyuk and Portfolio Manager, Alex Telnov will both join the TradingView Board as executive directors. Along with the management team, their focus will be to identify and execute on future growth opportunities, enhance marketing efforts and build a corporate culture.

Stan Bokov, co-founder and COO of TradingView, said:

“TradingView is doing in the financial industry what the first iPhone did to old phones. If you are a trader or investor, you’ll just ‘get it’. It’s a completely new way to visualise financial data and analyse it. It doesn’t matter if you are on a phone, tablet, PC, Mac or any other device - it’ll just work.

The platform reinvents investors’ user experience and co-operation - you are never alone with the markets. The additional funding from iTech Capital and their expertise on our Board will help us with business development, marketing and further expansion into new markets.”