May 18, 2017 – FinTech and Blockchain Law Watch

Proprietary companies to be able to access crowd sourced funding

May 18 2017

On 9 May 2017, the Corporations Amendment (Crowd-sourced Funding for Proprietary Companies) Bill 2017 (Bill) was released for public consultation. If passed into law, the Bill will allow proprietary companies that meet eligibility requirements to access crowd-sourced funding (CSF).

As detailed in a recent blog post on the FinTech Law Watch, CSF will become available in Australia on 28 September 2017 due to the Corporations Amendment (Crowd Sourced Funding) 2016 (Cth) (Act). However, the Act limits the availability of crowd-sourced funding to public unlisted companies.

Dubai International Financial Centre’s FinTech Hive accelerator opens

May 18 2017

By Jonathan Lawrence

The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has formally opened its call for applicants to its ‘FinTech Hive at DIFC’ accelerator programme, following registered interest from over 200 companies since its launch in January 2017. The 12-week programme is aiming to help early and growth-stage FinTech companies accelerate product and business development by gaining exposure to help from financial institution executives. Successful applicants will be offered the opportunity to develop, test and modify their innovations in collaboration with senior representatives from DIFC Authority, Accenture, and financial institutions such as Citi, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Visa, Emirates NBD, and Mashreq.

The programme also aims to provide access to mentorship from technology partners such as Facebook and Envestnet | Yodlee. Facebook will run an independent mentorship workshop for startups, providing advice on monetisation, growth and engagement, development and marketing tools, and analytics. Envestnet | Yodlee will provide developers with access to Application Program Interfaces (APIs) to build innovative financial applications and services.

Archive:May 18, 2017