Innovation foundation, Nesta, has announced the names of the challenge’s 10 finalists...features established fintechs iwoca and Funding Options, as well as newer startups such as Fluidly and Teller.
If there were one overriding theme to pick out in the applications for this year’s Future of Fintech Awards, it was a focus on small business customers.
If we look at some of the most recent fintech partnerships we can see that companies are joining forces to improve their product, and make sure it works flawlessly with their other financial applications. ... Digital bank Tide ... teamed up with Iwoca to offer users business loans of up to £100,000.
Start-ups often bring something fresh and innovative to an existing market... and by partnering with NatWest, we hope the Capital Connections programme gives budding business owners a second chance when they are unable to access traditional forms of finance.
Open Banking gives us the opportunity to access a hugely rich source of real-time data,” Christophe Rieche, CEO of Iwoca.
The pioneering fintech lender has grown fast by offering much needed working capital in hours – rather than weeks – to small business customers poorly served by the banks. But now the banks want their share of iwoca.
Christoph Rieche, founder of business loans firm iwoca, added: “All it is doing is making UK companies less likely to succeed internationally.
iwoca, the international lending firm, and PayU, a leading payment service provider, have today launched an innovative collaboration aimed at making it easier for small and medium-sized (SME) entrepreneurs, particularly those in the eCommerce and eService industries, to obtain financing for growth.
Fintech continues to gather pace within accountancy as alternative finance providers court practitioners and their cloud accounting platforms.
A London fintech startup that offers small businesses fast, online credit has raised £46 million in debt and equity.
The German bank's venture capital arm CommerzVentures are among investors in the £21m series C round after participating in last year's £15.7m series B.
Christoph Rieche, chief executive, iwoca, said: "Our technology can help businesses access much needed credit within hours using a simple online application form, and this will help thousands of small businesses manage their cash flow and take advantage of growth opportunities.
The four-year-old startup operates in the UK, Germany, Spain and Poland and increased its lending to small businesses by more than 250 per cent year-on-year.
The Prime Minister is throwing his weight behind a new fintech manifesto [...] and is holding a roundtable in Indonesia to coincide with the manifesto's release. The roundtable features representatives from top British firms like [...] online business loan provider iwoca.
iwoca Founder and Chief Executive Officer Christoph Rieche discusses providing funding for small businesses in the U.K.
iwoca is a credit facility for small businesses, which has just partnered with Alibaba […] Christoph Rieche, CEO, discusses further.
The Chinese ecommerce company is partnering iwoca, set up in 2012 by two former investment bankers and backed by venture capital.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba […] is working with two British lending startups to offer financing to U.K. companies […] iwoca – which stands for instant working capital – expects to lend £100 million to businesses through the Alibaba partnership.
iwoca was featured on BBC Radio 4's Money Box Live with Emma Jones (Enterprise Nation) recommending it as a great website offering an alternative to the banks. The discussion starts 01:35 into the programme.
Early this week, I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with Christoph Rieche, the CEO and co-founder of iwoca, a start-up offering fast-growing ecommerce businesses access to the working capital needed to invest in stock, staff, infrastructure or technology.
The startup, which is based in London, says it will use its latest funding to scale up its UK operations and expand into Europe.
Coupled with the rise of social networking, technological changes are allowing 'fintech' entrepreneurs to cut out banks entirely. iwoca, for example, analyses all of the data available from marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon, and is able to determine whether an applicant is eligible for a loan or not within five minutes.
iwoca [...] won the attention and crucial votes of delegates at Wired's inaugural financial conference after pitching its business "Dragons' Den-style" to attendees, alongside over 20 competing startups.
Is it time for the Government to stand back and let the market open up to more competition and a greater array of alternative sources of finance?
