Over one billion people leave behind trails of information on WeChat every day as they use the messenger to chat, read, shop, hail rides, rent umbrellas and run many other errands. And the Tencent app has quietly started using this type of signal to determine whether a user is worthy of perks such as deposit-free […]
View More WeChat is quietly ranking user behavior to play catch-up with AlibabaCategory: online lending
Clearbanc raises $70M to fund startups with ad money for a rev share
Selling equity to buy Facebook and Google ads is a bad deal for startups. Clearbanc offers a fundraising alternative. For fast-growing businesses reliably earning sales from their marketing spend, Clearbanc offers funding from $5,000 to $10 million in exchange for a steady revenue share of their earnings until its paid back plus a 6 percent […]
View More Clearbanc raises $70M to fund startups with ad money for a rev shareUnderstanding Renaud Laplanche’s next Upgraded act
Renaud Laplanche spent ten years building LendingClub. In the process, he created an industry from scratch. Circumventing conventional banking channels for consumer credit began in 1996 when Chris Larsen started E-LOAN, which ultimately led to Prosper Marketplace. But LendingClub, which Laplanche founded in 2007, was and remains the poster child for the business of marketplace […]
View More Understanding Renaud Laplanche’s next Upgraded actThe ambitious real estate ‘unicorn’ Opendoor just made its first acquisition, snapping up Open Listings
Opendoor, a four year-old, San Francisco-based company, has from the outset intended to make it possible to buy and sell residential real estate with a few key strokes. It seemingly gets closer to that audacious vision by the day. The company closed on $325 million in new funding in June in a round that brought […]
View More The ambitious real estate ‘unicorn’ Opendoor just made its first acquisition, snapping up Open ListingsUpgrade, the newest lending startup of Lending Club founder Renaud Laplanche, has raised $62 million in Series C funding
Upgrade, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based consumer lending venture founded by Renaud Laplanche, has raised $62 million in Series C funding led by CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund. The company’s earlier investors also joined the round, including Apoletto, FirstMark Capital, NOAH, Ribbit, Sands Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, Union Square Ventures and Vy Capital. The money brings the total […]
View More Upgrade, the newest lending startup of Lending Club founder Renaud Laplanche, has raised $62 million in Series C fundingWonga investors inject £10M so cash-strapped payday lender can fund claims
If you were at Disrupt London four years ago you may remember more than a little awkwardness during an investor panel when two VCs that had invested in European payday loans firm Wonga declined to comment on what had gone wrong at their portfolio company in the wake of a £220M write down. Yesterday Sky News reported that those same […]
View More Wonga investors inject £10M so cash-strapped payday lender can fund claimsThe dramatic rise and fall of online P2P lending in China
Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on TechNode, an editorial partner of TechCrunch based in China. When Emily Zhang was interning with a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending firm in the Summer of 2016, her main task was to carry out research on other P2P lending firms. She found the rates of return tempting and some underlying […]
View More The dramatic rise and fall of online P2P lending in ChinaBlockFi just gathered up $50 million to lend to bitcoin and ethereum holders who don’t want to cash out (yet)
Because cryptocurrency prices are almost comically volatile owing to challenges involved in valuing them, it’s hard to know when or why to sell. Enter crypto-asset backed loans, around which a small but growing number of startups is beginning to spring up. The idea is to lend money to cryptocurrency holders who don’t want to offload […]
View More BlockFi just gathered up $50 million to lend to bitcoin and ethereum holders who don’t want to cash out (yet)The formula behind San Francisco’s startup success
Why has San Francisco’s startup scene generated so many hugely valuable companies over the past decade?
View More The formula behind San Francisco’s startup successInvesting in frontier technology is (and isn’t) cleantech all over again
Shahin Farshchi Contributor Shahin Farshchi is a partner at Lux Capital. More posts by this contributor The dos and don’ts of crafting frontier-tech companies Five billion-dollar businesses for the driverless future I entered the world of venture investing a dozen years ago. Little did I know that I was embarking on a journey to master […]
View More Investing in frontier technology is (and isn’t) cleantech all over againA look at 42 women in tech who crushed it in 2017
What a challenging, exhilarating year it has been for women everywhere, starting from the women’s March on Washington to former Uber engineer Susan Fowler’s eye-opening and now famous blog post to the #metoo movement that has swept the country, washing dozens of sexual predators out of their powerful roles in the process. All the while, women in tech have been driving their… Read More
A look at 42 women in tech who crushed it in 2017
What a challenging, exhilarating year it has been for women everywhere, starting from the women’s March on Washington to former Uber engineer Susan Fowler’s eye-opening and now famous blog post to the #metoo movement that has swept the country, washing dozens of sexual predators out of their powerful roles in the process. All the while, women in tech have been driving their… Read More