Crowdfunding has been gaining more hype – especially in the last year since new regulation was passed allowing anyone in America to own shares of a private company. What does that mean for VCs? Why is Indiegogo positioned to win this game?
Finance
Quantopian – Crowdsourcing Investment Algorithms
Quantopian has created a programmer-friendly toolkit allowing programmers to profit from trading algorithms
Quantopian: Crowd Sourcing Hedge Funds
Quantopian harnesses the power of crowds by allowing anyone to contribute quantitative investment strategies through their platform – and get paid for performance.
Vetr: Crowdsourcing Stock Ratings
Can crowds do better than sophisticated analysts when it comes to predicting future stock prices?
Is Prosper prospering? The potential shift of banking into a platform business
Inherently risky or opportunities for value creation and capturing?
YC: organizing the seed-funding ecosystem
Y Combinator (YC) started in early 2005 to create a better seed funding ecosystem. Since then, it has spurred a new category of incubators and accelerators such as TechStars, AngelPad. These accelerators provide short-term intensive coaching and mentorship. Before this […]
WeChat – The One App That Rules Them All
Introduced as a messaging app in 2011 by Tencent, WeChat has evolved into lifestyle platform for users in China. With ~850 million monthly active users, it now offers to its users what Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, Venmo, Grubhub, Amazon, Uber, Apple Pay, etc. together offer in the West. The blog discusses how WeChat has used the strong network effects to emerge as the one app that rules them all.
Transferwise: Disruptive money transfer
A platform of borderless money transfer with significant cost benefit.
Betterment: fintech finds a place among wealth managers
A leading independent robo-advisor demonstrates how technology can help democratize personal wealth management.
Winner: Venmo – the next generation checking account
Venmo, the PayPal-owned peer-to-peer payments app, is one of the best-known and largest disruptive fintech companies.