On the constantly evolving fintech scene, a new player is emerging; say hello to Hello Soda, who have created a new platform that uses social media data to assessing the creditworthiness of loan applications.
Whilst most people are aware that recruiters may scan potential applicants’ social media profiles for clues about their suitability, analysing minute data from those sites to assess their creditworthiness is something quite different. Founded in 2013, the new platform PROFILE aims to inject an element of human behaviour into a typical computer-led lending application process, and give a more accurate depiction of customers’ situations. The company is the brainchild of James Blake, previously head of Global Sales at the UK’s second largest credit reference agency Call Credit and tech entrepreneur, Paul Shepherd.
PROFILE founder, James Blake
This process benefits both lenders and consumers, who get quicker decisions that are more accurately aligned to ‘the fabric of their life’. The data can also be used by recruitment and gaming companies to help compile personality profiles. Blake says:
“That human element, especially in lending, disappeared with the financial crash in 2008 when the world changed, leaving many people unable to access credit.
“With the exponential growth in online data, it makes sense to take a ‘snapshot’ of a person’s real life and cross reference that with traditional metrics to further verify an individual’s application in a way that benefits the customer and lending provider”.
The information Blake refers to comprises of thousands of pieces of online data, including the use of only capital letters when filling out forms ad the amount of time a person spends reading terms and conditions. These are then collated to deliver a ‘Soda Score’ that forecasts trustworthiness, affordability and consumer intent.
“We think technology should be leveraged to the mutual benefit of vendor and consumer,” says Paul Shepherd, Hello Soda’s co-founder and marketing director, “and we believe PROFILE does that.”
The Manchester-based company recently took part in Pitch@Palace 3.0, the third event organised by HRH The Duke of York, which aims to identify the most promising technology startups from within the creative industries. Furthermore, the company has attracted backing from several European investors and has recruited leading data-scientists and engineers from the likes of Skype and General Electric.
For further information on HelloSoda and their services, visit their website here.
The Big Four supermarkets had another slow quarter, as growth in the British grocery market continues to stagnate according to figures from Kantar Worldpanel.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, comments: “Industry growth of around or below 1% has now persisted since summer 2014 and has become the new normal. Despite the accelerating British economy like-for like grocery prices are still falling, with a representative basket of everyday items now 1.7% cheaper than in 2014.”
However, budget retailers have had another good period, continuing to push down the market share of the Big Four.
Asda has retaken its position as Britain’s second largest supermarket, and growth at Aldi has accelerated to 18.0 percent. Lidl’s sales have also risen, up 12.8 percent, taking its market share to a new high of 4.1 percent. Aldi and Lidl now have a combined market share of 9.7 percent, up from 8.4 percent a year ago.
Tesco’s (LON:TSCO) market share fell from 28.8 percent to 28.3 percent year on year, and Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY) share of the market fell 0.1 percent to 16.3 percent.
Anglo American diamond giant De Beers has lowered prices by 9 percent, according to Bloomberg.
The economic slowdown in China has affected demand, with the area being one of the key diamond markets, combined with the effects of the recent commodities slump. Production cuts failed to support demand for the precious stones, as traders, cutters and polishers fail to make a profit.
The site quotes three unnamed sources, who say the information is not yet public. De Beers have cut their full-year production goal to from 32 million carats to between 28 and 30 million.
Shares in Poundland (LON:PLND) shot up 4 percent this morning after being given the go ahead to acquire the 99p Store chain.
An investigation by the antitrust watchdog has concluded that the merger will not significantly reduce competition on the high street, however in findings reported this morning it was announced that the deal “may not be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition”.
The Competitions and Market Authority have given the green light to the agreement, meaning that Poundland will buy 99p Stores for £55 million.
Poundland has opened about 600 stores since 1990 in the UK, Ireland and Spain and plans to launch 60 shops annually over the next two years in the UK and Ireland.
BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) are up 6 percent this morning after releasing final year results, despite disclosing their worst underlying profit in a decade.
Falling commodities prices and trouble in the Chinese markets have affected the company’s performance. Their underlying attributable profit fell to $6.42bn for the year to June from $13.26bn a year earlier, a drop of 86 percent.
The company has pledged not to cut its dividend to shareholders and has reduced their capital spending to $8.5 billion in 2016 to meet that goal.
BHP Billiton Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Mackenzie, confirmed that volatility in China had affected the company’s outlook:
“In the short term we expect ongoing economic reforms in China to contribute to periods of market volatility. And, while we remain confident in the long-term outlook for commodities demand as emerging economies continue to urbanise and industrialise, we have lowered our forecast of peak Chinese steel demand to between 935 million tonnes and 985 million tonnes in the mid 2020’s.
“However, improved productivity can further stretch the capacity of our existing operations to increase volumes at very low cost.”
As the ‘Great Fall of China’ continues, it appears that Chinese policy makers have begun to take a step back and let the markets run their course rather than intervene as they have done over the past few weeks.
Perhaps authorities have recognized that the recent measures designed to prop up the market appear to have done little, and been left with little choice but to instigate a more laissex-faire approach and watch the drama unfold.
The Shanghai Composite Index tumbled another 7.6 percent to 2,964.97 at the close, sinking below the 3,000 level for the first time in eight months.
However the FTSE bucked the trend and rallied this morning. Germany’s DAX index did the same, up 2.8% after a steep plunge yesterday, suggesting that investors may be resisting the urge to panic.
Whilst the Chinese stock market is taking a hit, growth for the world’s biggest economy is still on track at 7% for the year – still an impressive rate for any country. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott spoke out against panicking over the problems in China:
“I think it’s important that people don’t hyperventilate about these type of things.
“It is not unusual to see stock market corrections. It is not unusual to see bubbles burst in particular markets and for there to be some flow-on effect in other stock markets, but the fundamentals are sound.”
Chancellor George Osborne announced plans to sell off more of the government’s share in Lloyds (LON:LLOY) bank.
UK Financial Investments, the company that holds the goverment’s stakes in both Lloyds and RBS, has reduced it’s holding to 12.97%.
George Osborne was quoted as saying that he hopes the sale of the UK government’s shares in Lloyds Banking Group will soon be completed.
“My view is that we want the government out of the banking system in the UK,” Reuters agency reported him as saying.
“I hope that [Lloyds] will be complete within the year.”.
The government began selling off the 43% stake in September 2013, after the government bailed the bank out with £20.5bn after the financial crisis. The banking group is currently trading down 2.73 percent at 73.78 pence per share.
Corporate accommodation provider House of MoLi is about to begin a crowdfunding round on Crowd2Fund, to raise money to expand their portfolio.
House of MoLi – otherwise known as House of Modern Living – offers serviced apartments for mid to long term stays. They estimate to have reduced accommodation price for businesses by 30% compared to standard hotel rates.
Founded in 2008 by former investment banker Sid Narang, House of MoLi is growing fast. They have doubled the number of apartments on offer since January 2014, and currently manages over $150 million of real estate worldwide, with apartments in London, Paris and New York. The company have a turnover of nearly $4 million, with a £1,105,000 gross profit, and Narang hopes the business will reach revenue of $5 million by 2020. He says:
“Consumers today are becoming more aware of their options and their expectations are constantly increasing. We want to make everything easier for the client. We are
introducing an all-in-one account for clients so that they can manage their finances
and bookings in one place.”
House of MoLi founder Sid Narang
House of MoLi has several well known clients, including Fortune 500 companies as well as large investment banks and IT firms. The company will be introducing a loyalty scheme whereby customers can earn points with each booking:
“We are the first in our industry to introduce this kind of loyalty scheme and we are very excited for what the future brings.Next step for our new brand is to develop a concierge app so people can manage everything from their pocket.”
Narang cites the importance of reaching the right kind of investor as a motive for choosing crowdfunding.
“Crowdfunding gives us an opportunity to reach out to investors who are involved in the latest tech and industry trends. We specifically chose to raise on Crowd2Fund due to them understnading our business and the start-up scene. Their approach is humane and personal.”
The business is aiming to raise a loan of between £250,000 and 500,000, over four years and with 6-15% APR. Larger investors will also receive perks including stays in the serviced apartments.
For more information on this opportunity, visit their campaign page here.
Germany’s DAX index is heading for a bear market after tumbling 3.8 percent today.
The index has lost all of its gains for the year and entered negative territory. The Dax has fallen for the seventh consecutive day, with its biggest one day decline since 2007.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped, moving into its worst week in four years. Thirteen out of 18 western-European markets have fallen 10 percent or more from their high, and the volume of Stoxx 600 shares changing hands almost double the 30-day average on Monday.
£44 billion was wiped off the FTSE 100 this morning as share prices fell across the board.
Salami company Serious Pig is the latest snacking sensation, started by co-founders George Rice and Jonny Bradshaw. From humble beginnings – the idea came to them whilst casually chatting about bar snacks over a pint in The Junction Tavern near Tufnell Park – the company has gone from strength to strength.
Since 2011, Serious Pig business has sold nearly 1 million Snacking Salamis. The founders wanted to create a bar snack that was a tastier, artisanal, authentic alternative to the traditional crisps-and-pork-scratchings offered by most pubs and by all accounts, they’ve succeeded; their products have won several Great Taste Awards and been personally approved by Heston Blumenthal. Jamie Oliver’s Recipease sites list Snacking Salami, as well as it being offered in Claridge’s Hotel, Conran Shop, Harvey Nichols Food Hall and Brew Dog Bars.
Unsurprisingly, the founders are pleased with the brand’s immediate success:
“We’ve created authentic salami using British pork and carefully selected ingredients. I’m thrilled that we now have the chance to expand our product range and bring the snacking industry some serious competition.”
In order to bolster its position in the UK Serious Pig recently underwent a funding round using Crowdbnk, successfully raising £126,000. When asked why the company chose to crowdfund rather than pursuing more traditional options such as a loan, Rice said:
“We’d seen crowdfunding emerging and thought this would work for us. It’s exciting because it engages with the consumer much more and gave us another way to engage with potential customers.”
With Crowdbnk just one of many online crowdfunding platforms, I was interested to find out what drove Serious Pig to choose Crowdbnk for their online campaign.
“Crowdbnk does all its due diligence up front and saves investors a lot of time. Crowdbnk also offered us more guidance than the others and were proactive in in introducing us to investors at the beginning which gave our funding round some momentum. They’re also a start up too so we can help others in a similar position to us.”
The money raised will be spent on a sales and marketing campaign, including the appointment of two talented and experienced individuals, a Senior Sales Manager and a Brand Manager, as well as a reserve fund to mitigate the risk of unforeseen challenges.
It’s 10am and just browsing the Serious Pig website enough to make any meat lover’s mouth water. Their “Snackingham” packets of pork salami nibbles are infused with a special blend of herbs and spices, cured and air-dried in the traditional way. The company’s founders say that their salami is the “perfect and most delicious snack to accompany the recently ordered pint of real ale”, and I’m tempted to give it a go – roll on five o’ clock!
For more information on Serious Pig, visit their website here.
Narang cites the importance of reaching the right kind of investor as a motive for choosing crowdfunding.
“Crowdfunding gives us an opportunity to reach out to investors who are involved in the latest tech and industry trends. We specifically chose to raise on Crowd2Fund due to them understnading our business and the start-up scene. Their approach is humane and personal.”
The business is aiming to raise a loan of between £250,000 and 500,000, over four years and with 6-15% APR. Larger investors will also receive perks including stays in the serviced apartments.
For more information on this opportunity, visit their campaign page here.
