Across the globe, the modern state is undergoing a radical transformation. A new generation of technology companies, called govtech, is using new technologies applied to public services, and designed for local and central governments. These tech-enabled solutions promise greater efficiency and transparency in the way the citizens engage with the administration, transforming the way nations distribute welfare, keep citizens safe, provide healthcare, and deliver key public services. Govtechs provide government and the public sector with many different types of services from democracy and community engagement, and platforms matching citizens with services to meet their needs, to insight through data and…

In recent years, the Danish fintech sector has experienced significant growth, facilitated by a highly educated and digitally literate population, the support of specific government policies aimed at promoting financial innovation, and the development of Copenhagen as an international fintech hub. The Danish ecosystem has evolved massively over the last three years and the entrepreneurs that started their ventures within this timeframe are now seizing global markets or building solutions with large financial corporations. Last year, Denmark welcomed its first fintech unicorn when Tradeshift, a cloud-based business network and platform for supply chain payments, closed a 250 million Danish kroner…

Switzerland is the world’s most-innovative country according to the 2019 edition of the Global Innovation Index. Sweden is a close second followed by the United States, Netherlands and United Kingdom. Now in its 12th edition, the GII is a global benchmark that helps policy makers better understand how to stimulate and measure innovative activity, a main driver of economic and social development. The GII 2019 ranks 129 economies  based on 80 indicators, from traditional measurements like research and development investments and international patent and trademark applications to newer indicators including mobile-phone app creation and high-tech exports. The GII 2019 also…

Scalable Capital and authentication innovator Futurae have announced a partnership to integrate Futurae’s multi-factor authentication portfolio with Scalable Capital’s investment platform. They parties involved expects that the partnership will enable Scalable’s platform to  become even easier to use while ensuring the highest level of security. As part of the collaboration, Futurae’s next-generation authentication technologies will become available in Scalable Capital’s investment platform as an additional security layer. The robo-advisor creates a customized exchange-traded fund (ETF) portfolio for each individual based on an assessment of their risk tolerance and uses its proprietary risk-management technology to regularly monitor and adjust each portfolio.…

Swiss fintechs sector is booming, this is made evident by the fact that fintech startups in Switzerland has raised more than CHF 100 Million last year. Supporting the growth in this segment are the team behind Venturelab. Every year for the past 19 years, VentureLab has been supporting some Swizterland’s best startups by organising international roadshows to Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, China and Barcelona. This year, Venturelab will be sending 10 winners of the “Venture Leaders Fintech” to Hong Kong Fintech Week with the intention of fund raising in Hong Kong. The roadshow to Hong Kong is jointly organised…

During a hearing in the US Senate, David Marcus, the head of Facebook’s digital currency project Libra, said that Swiss authorities will be overseeing data and privacy protections for its Libra cryptocurrency. But a spokesperson for the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) told CNBC on July 16 that the Swiss agency has not yet been contacted by the company. In his testimony before the US Senate Banking Committee, Marcus said that “for the purposes of data and privacy protections, the Swiss FDPIC will be the Libra Association’s privacy regulator.” However, Hugo Wyler, head of communication at the FDPIC,…

Over the course of ten weeks, 12 startups from 8 different countries and 4 continents participated in the first CV Labs Incubation Program in the Crypto Valley in Zug. The first batch of incubatees successfully passed the graduation and received funding of up to $125,000 in exchange for 10% of equity by the venture capital company CV VC. During various events, they had the opportunity to present in front of over 100 investors and industry experts, which has led to partnerships with corporates for some of the startups. It is the beginning of a new era in the Crypto Valley:…

ESMA, the EU’s securities markets’ regulator, publishes a report on the status of licencing regimes of FinTech firms across the European Union (EU). The report is based on two surveys conducted by ESMA since January 2018, which gathered evidence from national competent authorities (NCAs) on the licensing regimes of FinTech firms in their jurisdictions. The first survey conducted in January 2018, sought to identify potential gaps and issues in the existing EU regulatory framework, assess how the existing national regimes diverge and, if identified, propose recommendations to adapt EU legislation to the emerging innovations. The second, launched in January 2019 attempted…

Die Zurich Gruppe Deutschland hat das Berliner Insurtech dentolo Deutschland GmbH übernommen. Mit dem Erwerb stärkt die Zurich Gruppe Deutschland ihren Direktversicherer DA Direkt bei dem vorgesehenen Einstieg in das Geschäft mit Zahnzusatzversicherungen. Zurich übernimmt 100 Prozent der Anteile an Deutschlands führendem zahnmedizinischen Ökosystem mit einem bundesweiten Netzwerk aus 500 Zahnärzten. Über den Kaufpreis haben beide Seiten Stillschweigen vereinbart. „Im Rahmen der Strategie der Zurich Gruppe Deutschland ist es unser Ziel, die Marke DA Direkt stärker als eigenständige Marke für Kunden zu entwickeln, die ihre Versicherungsbedarfe weitgehend selber und Online-basiert steuern wollen“, so Dr. Carsten Schildknecht, Vorstandsvorsitzender der Zurich Gruppe…

N26 announce a  $170 million extension of our Series D funding round to $470m. The extension drives N26’s valuation to $3.5bn, making it the highest valued German startup. The Mobile Bank now also ranks among the most valuable European startups and the top ten of the most valuable Fintechs worldwide. All previous investors from the Series D funding round in January 2019 extended their investment in the company, thus underpinning their confidence in N26’s future growth and overall success. Among the participants are many of the world’s most established investors, including Insight Venture Partners, GIC (Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund), Tencent,…

Im Februar dieses Jahres hat Datastore  die erste Swiss Cyber Security Technology Startup Map lanciert. Sie umfasst 44 Technologie Jungfirmen, aufgeteilt in neun Bereiche. Mit der Swiss Cyber Security Technology Startup Maps soll die Map im Markt Sensibilisierung für die Schweizer Innovationskraft im Bereich der Informationssicherheit schaffen. Datastore arbeiten daran, bestehende Vorbehalte zur Zusammenarbeit mit Startups bei der Unternehmens IT abzubauen und zukunftsfähige Swiss made Lösungen zu stärken. Wir haben Cameron McNiff, Solution Area Manager Security bei Datastore, nach den persönlichen Erfahrungen aus den ersten Monaten rund um die Schweizer Security Jungfirmen befragt. Welche Erkenntnisse konntest Du seit Februar 2019…

Crypto related thefts, scams and fraud surged in the first quarter of 2019 to US$1.2 billion, or 70% of the entire year 2018 at US$1.7 billion, according to a report by cryptocurrency security firm CipherTrace. During Q1 2019, criminals stole more than US$356 million from exchanges and infrastructure, and losses from fraud and misappropriated funds amounted to US$851 million. Among these losses, exit scams robbed cryptocurrency users of nearly US$195 million, according to CipherTrace’s Q1 2019 Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering Report. Among the major exchange thefts, New Zealand-based Cryptopia suffered a US$16 million heist in January, Singapore-based exchange CoinBene lost an…

Sygnum informed the nomination of Peter Wuffli, former Group CEO of UBS, to its Board of Directors subject to the formal election by an Extraordinary General Assembly of shareholders. As a member of Sygnum’s Advisory Council and an active investor from the outset, Peter Wuffli has already made important strategic contributions to building Sygnum. His appointment complements the Board’s already strong industry experience and supports Sygnum’s strategy for growth and sustainable value creation. Luka Müller-Studer, Sygnum Chairman & Co-Founder: “We are thrilled that Peter Wuffli is further strengthening his personal commitment to and involvement in Sygnum. His experience and knowledge…

As of now, Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are no longer just a niche technological curiosity. Old-school corporations like IBM are among top Blockchain employers; the biggest banks make direct Blockchain investments; VCs have invested more than $8.9 billion in Blockchain companies since 2014 and YTD for 2019. But it’s still pretty hard to find people that know the intricacies of how those systems work that are also changing very rapidly right now. There is a very small group of experts that stay in the know about it. The rising demand for the Blockchain experts is represented in the high median…

With the promise of solving the volatility issue inherent to cryptocurrencies all the while retaining the main benefits of crypto and blockchain, stablecoins have been all the rage these past two years, with now more than 130 stablecoin projects in development, according to a new report by blockchain research company Blockdata. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are pegged to or backed by real-world assets. Stablecoins arose as an attractive solution to the volatility issue of cryptocurrencies, promising to make these usable for everyday means of exchange and as a store of value, but also provide liquidity to cryptocurrency exchanges as well…

Long gone are the days when crypto coins and digital tokens were solely affiliated with scammers, cyber-attacks and dark web purchases, as today, an increasing number of banks around the world are beginning to launch their very own digital coins, backed by blockchain technology. Among the key benefits, blockchain and digital tokens promise to bring improved efficiency, speed and cost-savings for both wholesale and retail banking, as well as facilitate cross-border transactions and every day purchases. These are 6 banks came around and launched their own coin. JPM Coin (JPMorgan Chase) JPM Coin is a dollar-backed cryptocurrency announced in…

Die deutsche FinTech-Branche boomt – allerdings kennt die Euphorie auch eine Kehrseite, die bislang kaum beleuchtet wird. Während einzelne Finanz-Startups immer grösser werden, geben viele andere oftmals unbemerkt auf. So zeigt der aktuelle Auszug des FinTech-Kooperationsradars von PwC, dass seit 2011 insgesamt 233 hiesige Finanz-Startups ihr Geschäft eingestellt haben. Dabei fällt auf, dass sich die Geschäftseinstellungen nicht erst in diesem oder dem vergangenen Jahr häufen, sondern dass dieser Trend schon 2017 begann. Hatten bis dahin nur einzelne Finanz-Startups aufgegeben, stieg die Zahl der Geschäftseinstellungen laut PwC-Kooperationsradar vor zwei Jahren auf 62 steil an. Im Jahr darauf verschwanden dann schon 74…

BlockState hat eine Studie durchgeführt, in der die weltweite Entwicklung der Tokenisierung von Wertpapieren untersucht wird. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen, was viele Branchenkenner vorhergesagt haben: Mit bereits 64 erfolgreich durchgeführten Security Token Offerings ist der Trend ein klares Zeichen dafür, dass Blockchain-basiertes Fundraising aus den Kinderschuhen herausgewachsen ist. “Tokenisierung wurde häufig als Allheilmittel für alle Probleme gesehen, die im Zusammenhang mit ICOs und Utility Tokens stehen. Es gilt jedoch zu bedenken, dass sich der Markt noch im Anfangsstadium befindet”, sagt Paul Claudius, Gründer und Geschäftsführer von BlockState. In der Studie wurden über 120 durchgeführte, aktive oder geplante STOs analysiert. Bei der…

Regulatory technology, or regtech, is an emerging field within the fintech industry that utilizes information technology to enhance and streamline regulatory processes. The main functions of regtech are regulatory monitoring, reporting and compliance, with companies in the space using technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing to enhance transparency and consistency, as well as standardize regulatory processes. Ever-increasing regulatory burden, rising compliance costs, along with regulators’ and the industry’s growing interest in automation, have created an environment ripe for disruption by emerging regtechs. Today, regtech is one of the fastest growing segments of fintech, and by 2020, KPMG estimates…

Following a capital increase at 21.finance AG, Bank Frick now holds a majority in the Liechtenstein-based fintech company of 50.14 %  of the share capital. Founders Max J. Heinzle and Udo Oksakowski hold just under 30 per cent of the shares. The remaining shares are in free float. Bank Frick already acquired a stake (25%)  in 21.finance AG in September 2018, buying just over 25 per cent of the Liechtenstein fintech company’s shares. 21.finance AG digitises and automates processes on the area2Invest investment platform in compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements. Open for discussions with new partners “We believe…