Fintech Focus Roundup For October 17, 2020

Meet Q.ai, The App That's Disrupting Hedge Funds

The Nitty-Gritty: Though trading apps like Robinhood democratize financial markets, they don’t allow investors the tools to properly manage investments.

That’s according to Stephen Mathai-Davis, a former institutional investment manager who founded Q.ai (formerly known as Quantamize) in 2017 as an AI-driven robo hedge fund that brings the investment management industry into the 21st century.

Through Q.ai Invest, whose Alpha was just released, Q.ai taps into the $25 trillion fund management industry through the use of machine-learning algorithms and multi-factor models, unlocking AI-driven investment in nearly 13,000 global stocks and ETFs, as well as over 100 cryptocurrencies. A Beta version of the investing app is set to launch in the next few weeks to the general public.

How Orca Enables Responsible Investing

The Problem: Traditional solutions for investing are often barebones, failing to provide users the tools to build and protect long-term wealth.

The Solution: Orca, a European-based investment app founded to address the needs of medium- to long-term investors with little or no experience in the market.

In the simplest way possible: Orca enables all investors the tools to understand and manage their investments.

“Just giving access is not enough,” said CPO Fedor Panteleev. “You need to help people along the way because the investment journey is unique. It’s a medium- to long-term relationship with the app you can trust.”

Growing Your Portfolio Post-Election

What Happened: Emles Advisors, an asset management firm solving challenges offered by today’s markets, formally announced its launch and intent to empower investment in overlooked and undervalued asset classes.

The Solution: On the heels of selling indexing company Alerian, CEO Gabriel Hammond was looking to invest his money in uncommon, esoteric assets.

The themes Hammond was looking to invest in, however, weren’t offered by existing ETF vehicles: “We had to do separately managed accounts with super high management fees and taxes.”

“We said: if we were going to go through the trouble of structuring these products for ourselves, let’s do this for other people that are probably having the same issue,” the CEO added.

In deciding to open up access to the unconventional, structured products to the public, Hammond founded Emles, the bigger, diversified brother to his former company Alerian.

The company’s core product portfolio consists of four ETFs:

• Made in America ETF (AMER): Exposure to the secular shift of deglobalization by investing in U.S. manufacturing companies with substantial revenues.
• Federal Contractors ETF (FEDX): Stocks whose revenues are mostly derived from federal contracts with the U.S. government.
• @Home ETF (LIV): Companies benefiting from the accelerating shift towards more time spent at home.
• Real Estate Credit ETF (REC): Access to bonds issued by real estate companies.

According to Hammond, the new products are long-term investment themes not meant for active trading.

“This isn’t a trade,” he said. “This is a 10-year, decade-long investment theme for you to allocate to.”

Metromile Adds Insurance Pricing Transparency

What Happened: Metromile, an insurance-focused fintech powered by data science and machine learning, on Wednesday announced the launch of Ride Along, a tool to increase rate transparency for drivers.

Why It Matters: Founded in 2011, Metromile leverages big data and intelligent systems to adjust auto insurance rates based on driving behavior.

As part of a vision to give consumers further control over their mobility, Metromile announced last month, in a conversation with Benzinga, an ongoing initiative to reduce costs and make car ownership more unified.

In line with its vision, Metromile’s newly launched Ride Along feature allows drivers to monitor driving behavior and see how much they can save at no cost.

“Drivers can begin a Ride Along after downloading the Metromile app and entering some basic information,” the company’s press release said. "Drivers go about their routines and have their smartphone in the vehicle when they drive. After about two weeks, drivers will see how much they drove and their expected monthly bill.”

After the monitoring period, drivers can immediately lock in their behavior-based insurance rates and switch to Metromile.

M1 Finance Closes On $45M Series C

What Happened: After surpassing $2 billion in assets one month ago, M1 Finance, an automated money management platform, announced the closure of a $45-million Series C funding round led by Left Lane Capital, bringing the company's total funding to just under $100 million.

Why It Matters: As part of its vision to help self-directed investors build wealth for the long-term, M1 Finance pursued new funding opportunities to further its in-house growth initiatives.

The newly-acquired Series C funds will be used to improve the firm’s finance super app, which provides investors access to commission-free fractional investing, low-cost borrowing, checking accounts, as well as debit cards.

“The perfect finance account will manage all of a person’s finances and optimize them according to the individual’s unique wants and needs,” said founder and CEO Brian Barnes. “M1’s platform is furthest along in making this vision a reality and this fundraise lets us move faster towards that ideal.”

Danny Cortenraede's Tips For Entrepreneurship

What Happened: The pandemic devastated the global economy. That’s well-known.

What’s not often discussed is the surge in new business formations.

Applications to start a business are nationally at their highest level in more than a decade, according to CNN. This comes at a time of cheap borrowing costs as well as digital disruption in technology, remote work and communication.

Benzinga chatted with serial entrepreneur and investor Danny Cortenraede this week about how he built the digital agencies Wannahaves and 433 into a 55-million-follower community, and his tips for succeeding in a new age of entrepreneurship.

A Few Tips: Cortenraede’s work leading global companies through numerous market shifts has afforded him a unique perspective when it came to breaking away from peers.

In his experience, team, market fit, funding, compliance with law and timing are the five keys to running a successful business.

“There are a lot of reasons why most entrepreneurs fail,” he told Benzinga.

“About 32% of companies fail because the team is not correct or there is a lack of passion. 28% fail due to poor market fit. Funding is only 14% — a lot of people think if they have money, they can scale a company, but that is definitely not true because you can burn a lot of money if you don’t think about the value proposition. 24% is legal issues and timing.”

SuperRare Uses Ethereum For Art Market

About SuperRare: In the age of blockchain, tokenization, and Web 3.0, consumers and producers are finding new ways to assign and transfer value.

After years of working in and around Ethereum, Jonathan Perkins, alongside John and Charles Crain, founded SuperRare in 2017 on the back of a new non-fungible token (NFT) standard. Now, SuperRare’s interchangeable tokens allow collectors and artists the ability to exchange unique objects and art on the ethereum blockchain.

Simply Put: SuperRare is the internet’s digital art market.

“We have a global network of digital artists. Around 700 artists and growing fast at the time and thousands of collectors building their digital collections,” Perkins said. “More than $2 million has been earned by artists on SuperRare so far.”

Meet OptionsSwing, A Mentorship Service

About OptionsSwing: Some view the markets as a way to get rich quickly, while others treat it as a career.

Within those two broad categories is a subset of participants that want to take some sort of active and educated approach, but lack the know-how. This group often looks to alert service providers that fail to help participants understand the mechanics behind a winning trading.

Enter, OptionsSwing, an investment research and analysis mentorship service. In the simplest way possible: OptionsSwing is a member-only Discord server.

“A lot of other companies in our space focus on call outs where they basically provide fish for people,” said marketing manager Warwick Gorman. “We’re a lot more focused on trying to teach people how to fish, and I think our emphasis on education really sets us apart from everybody else.”

UWM Releases Pre-IPO Q3 Results

What Happened: Pontiac, Michigan-based United Wholesale Mortgage, a wholesale mortgage lender, released third-quarter financial results Tuesday that show closed loan volumes of $54.2 billion, an 81% year-over-year increase.

United Heads For Public Markets: This release comes in the wake of United's September announcement that it would merge with special purpose acquisition company Gores Holdings IV Inc in a deal that would value the firm at $16.1 billion.

Other notable highlights from the report include third-quarter net income of $1.45 billion versus $198 million for the prior year period, as well as $127.8 billion in closed production year-to-date, a 20% increase from 2019.

Fintech Innovation: UWM launched Blink+, a digital loan portal, as well as InTouch, a mobile app for the origination process.

“The innovative moves we are making now to streamline our technologies and further increase speed from loan submission to clear-to-close will support the long-term growth of the broker channel and help realize our aspiration of becoming the nation’s leader in mortgage originations," CEO Mat Ishbia said.

Clair To Disrupt Payday Lending With $4.5M

What Happened: Clair, a social-impact fintech, formally announced the closure of a $4.5 million seed round led by Upfront Ventures, Founder Collective, and Walkabout Ventures to disrupt the payday lending industry.

What To Know: Clair is a holistic solution for instant pay access as a service for human capital management and the gig economy.

As part of a vision to reduce payment wait times, Clair offers emerging gig platforms and traditional workforce management systems instant payment services.

The development comes as nearly 40% of Americans say they would struggle to cover unexpected expenses as low as $250.

“We are thrilled to be one of the only sources of free capital for America’s hourly and gig workers” said Nico Simko, Clair’s Co-Founder and CEO.

“We believe that everybody should be able to freely access money they’ve already earned. There are more payday lenders than McDonald’s in the US that charge on average more than 300% annual interest on loans. So we have one simple vision: it’s time for change.”

YCharts Sold To PE Firm LLR Partners

What Happened: YCharts, a cloud-based platform for financial advisors and wealth managers, formally announced it was acquired in an all-cash deal by private equity firm LLR Partners and completed a "growth recapitalization" to support the growth of its investment analytics and communications technology.

What To Know: TechCrunch estimates the deal was worth between $135 million and $270 million.

"LLR Partners brings to YCharts deep experience within wealth management technology, a collaborative approach, and a strategic vision that aligns with our long-term objectives," said Sean Brown, President and CEO of YCharts.

“I am grateful for the support we received from our Board of Directors and early investors over the last 10 years. As we enter the next stage of YCharts’ journey, our team is excited to partner with LLR who will support our continued growth and help us drive success for RIAs, broker-dealers, and asset managers.”

The development comes at a time when investment professionals are looking to cheaper and portable cloud-based investment analytics solutions.

“YCharts helps financial advisors and wealth managers easily demonstrate their value to clients with tools that enhance communications, simplify often complex financial topics and make smarter investment decisions,” said Sam Ryder, Vice President at LLR Partners.