The FinTech & PropTech Weekly Round-Up: Week 4
“Danke” for the money, YieldStreet yields $62m, and investment guaranteed for the TheGuarantors. Plus a couple other bits and pieces.
“Danke” for the money
Danke (“Eggshell” in Chinese, or “Thank you” in German) just raised a cool $500m in funding from Tiger Global Management and Ant Financial. The PropTech focuses on Co-Living (think WeWork for apartments), a model which is gaining popularity and growing fast globally. Medici proved as such, when it raised €1bn late last year to expand operations internationally.
Our verdict: Backed by Ant Financial, I see this company doing well. And they may just be preempting WeWork’s ‘WeLive’ entering the Chinese market.
Investors: Tiger Global Management & Ant Financial
Source: Rita Liao, TechCrunch
YieldStreet yields $62m
YieldStreet raised $62m, as it builds out its product offering to include more investment, banking and wealth management features. YieldStreet’s platform offers users an array of alternative investment products, which can get quite exotic, shipping loans or legal finance anyone? The company is doing well, as it has over 100,000 users and has managed $600m of investments to date.
Our verdict: Digital wealth management is currently in focus, with some voices in FinTech believing that it is the area that needs disrupting most.
Investors: Edison Partners
Source: Madeline Shi, Business Insider
Investment guaranteed for the TheGuarantors
TheGuarantors closed a new round of funding, raising $15m from some notable VCs. The Company is at the intersection of InsurTech and PropTech, as they offer rental deposit guarantees to replace old fashioned cash deposits. This is a fast growing segment, which seems to be getting crowded. However, TheGuarantors already seem to be diversifying their product offering.
Our verdict: Rental deposit guarantees are presently a hot commodity, and their needs to be one company that can lead the pack, TheGuarantors?
Investors: Global Founders Capital, White Star Capital, Alven Capital, Partech Ventures & Silvertech Ventures
Source: FinSMEs
Metro, Starling and ClearBank share the swag
Context. In 2008, when global financial markets were in melt down, the UK government stepped in and gave RBS a £45bn bail out. Now it’s time to pay some of that £45bn back (£450m to be exact), in the form of a fund to promote competition in the UK’s SME banking sector. £280m of that fund has now been awarded to three challenger banks, Metro, Starling and ClearBank (with Tide).
Our verdict: Great news for those challenger banks being awarded funding. However, a bit disappointing that some established banks are also applying.
Companies: Metro, Starling, ClearBank & Tide
Source: Callum Keown, CityAM
Colliers and Techstars are at it again
Colliers International and Techstars have just announced that their joint PropTech Accelerator is open for 2019 applications. This is the second Accelerator programme launched by the two companies, as they found relative success with their previous batch companies (see, below) in 2018. For those interested in applying, you have until the 12th of May to do so!
Our verdict: As a founder of a PropTech who was part of an Accelerator, I think it’s great. It’s just a shame that it takes place all the way in Toronto.
Companies: A Retail Space, Basking, Booqed, Lane, Map Your Property, Raybased, Refine RE, SPCE & Upsuite
Source: Anna Pakulniewicz, EuroBuild
Yes, we even have an epilogue
As you might have guessed, this article is somewhat of a plug for us and our startup, mietwise. Even so, we are two founders going through the (sometimes testing) steps of founding and running a new PropTech / FinTech company in Germany. As such, we intend to share our experiences and knowledge in the hope that we can help others do the same.
Don’t forget to take a look at mietwise, and if you ever want to get in touch, we love good coffee!
The Mietwise Team,
Jonathan
