p2p
Chaka opens up global investing to Africa’s most populous nation
Fintech startup Chaka aims to open up online investing to Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria. The seed-stage company recently went live with its mobile-based platform that offers Nigerians stock trading…
Nigerian fintech startup Kuda — a digital-only retail bank — has raised $1.6 million in pre-seed funding. The Lagos and London-based company recently launched the beta version of its online…
Peer-to-peer boat rental marketplace Boatsetter raises $10M as it looks to grow globally
Obviously, not everyone owns a boat, and boat ownership is far more unique than car ownership — which makes it maybe an ideal category for peer-to-peer marketplace rentals. P2P boat…
Mercari’s new Instant Pay feature transfers verified sellers’ balances to their debit cards within minutes
For online sellers, waiting three to five days for e-commerce platforms to transfer their balance is one of their biggest pain points. Mercari is going after rivals with its new…
Opera founded startup OPay raises $50M for mobile finance in Nigeria
OPay, an Africa-focused mobile payments startup founded by Norwegian browser company Opera, has raised $50 million in funding. Lead investors include Sequoia China, IDG Capital and Source Code Capital. Opera…
Africa Roundup: Jumia’s post-IPO earnings, Gokada’s $5.3M raise, Facebook’s fake-news purge, Joe Montana’s fintech investment
Jumia held its first post-IPO earnings call and weathered a short-sell assault in May, with Wall Street showing confidence in the Pan-African e-commerce company. On the numbers, key takeaways were…
Continuing its investment in India, Amazon today announced the launch of person-to-person (P2P) payments via Amazon Pay for Android users in the country. Customers can now make instant bank-to-bank transactions…
Drivezy, India’s vehicle-sharing startup, is raising $100M+ at a $400M valuation, eyes US expansion
Drivezy — the startup out of India that wants to turn private car usage on its head through a car-sharing network where people lend their cars and two-wheeled vehicles but…
Korean lending startup PeopleFund raises $11M led by chat app Kakao’s payment unit
South Korean peer-to-peer lending startup PeopleFund is in the money itself after it raised an $11 million Series B funding round that was led by Kakao Pay, the fintech division of…
What the Bolsonaro victory means for Brazil’s startup ecosystem
On October 28, far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro won the Brazilian elections, after one of the most polarizing campaigns of the last decades. The uncertainty caused by the elections hit Brazil’s…
With a $10 million round, Nigeria’s Paga plans global expansion
Nigerian digital payments startup Paga is gearing up for an international expansion with $10 million in funding let by the Global Innovation Fund. The company is planning to release its payments product in…
Didi makes more safety changes — and will pause night services while it does
Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi has detailed further safety measures incoming to its platform following a second murder of a female passenger last month. The 20-year-old woman had been using Didi’s Hitch…
Featured Article
The 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…
What does a startup do with $48 million? $130 million? $1.7 billion? This question – one integral in the whole ICO craze – hasn’t quite been answered yet but it’s…
Africa Roundup: African startup investments turn to fintech this winter season
Forty-seven and a half million dollars is a big commitment to African technology companies — even with the recent uptick in VC investment on the continent.
Given all the hype and noise swirling around crypto and decentralized network projects, which runs the full gamut from scams and stupidity, to very clever and inspired ideas, the release…
Green Power Exchange enables peer-to-peer energy sharing
True friends share everything, from purses to lawnmowers to the limitless energy they pull from the sun, wind, and deep underground. Green Power Exchange aims to make one of those…
Android Pay now used for international P2P transfers, courtesy of WorldRemit
AndroidPay, Google’s wallet for Android devices, is getting a boost in its global profile and functionality today: WorldRemit, the $500 million remittance startup connected to around 120 million mobile money…
P2P car marketplace Shift pauses DC operations, lays off 10% of staff
After Beepi shut down its service and transferred its operations to stealth Fair.com, its closest competitor Shift is facing some downsizing, too — a measure of the challenges of the peer-to-peer car…
Zelle p2p payments push to compete with Venmo now has 19 US FI backers
The US finance industry might finally be getting its ducks in order to compete with the likes of PayPal-owned social payments platform Venmo. Today bank network operator Early Warning announced…
Google Wallet debuts automatic transfers so you can skip “cashing out”
Google today is stepping up its battle with Venmo, Square Cash and other person-to-person payment applications with an update to its Google Wallet mobile app, which now allows for automatic…
Lending Robot makes Lending Club investing easy as setting screen brightness
Thanks to Lending Robot, even those who took their finance lessons from Margot Robbie and Anthony Bourdain in “The Big Short” can invest in loans via primary and secondary markets. Users will…
FireChat Alerts could help spread vital information in offline and disaster-stricken areas
Decentralized chat app FireChat is adding a new feature that could help disseminate critical info like storm warnings, health advisories and so on when the normal communications grid is down.…
Africa Roundup: More VC to Jumia’s parent, Konga Launches Nigeria’s PayPal, M-Kopa Solar lights homes with M-Pesa
A monthly roundup of stories on African tech companies.
BitTorrent Supersizes Sync, With An Enterprise App Built By Onehub And An Expanded API
BitTorrent, the peer-to-peer networking company, is today taking the wraps off two big updates to Sync, a file-sharing app that BitTorrent presents as server-less alternative to cloud-based storage and file-sharing…
In a world of decreasing size and rapidly increasing technological development, the financial sector needs to keep up at the same pace. While physical supply chains have improved to keep…
They’re All P2P Employment Agencies
Instagram is big. But Upwork and YouTube are bigger. Twitter is big. But Uber and Airbnb are bigger. Your startup idea is big. But your startup idea that pays people…
Nowy Friends Is A P2P Social Radar App That Does Not Log Your Location
This Swiss startup has built a social radar app with a pro-privacy twist: instead of tracking users via GPS, or other location triangulating technologies, it’s opted to use peer-to-peer proximity…
Ventoura App Combines P2P Guiding And Traveler Matching
Meet Ventoura: the latest startup seeking its fortune by building a peer-to-peer platform. This one is playing in the travel space, and has just launched an app where travelers can…
Sharing Is Everything But Caring In The Sharing Economy
One of the hot topics so far this year is what will become of P2P services and the sharing economy. Last year Airbnb became the largest hotel chain in the…
