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How Long Did it Take to Film the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogies?

How Long Did it Take to Film the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogies

When talking about memorable movies in Hollywood’s history one does not leave out the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit trilogy. The movies captivated audiences all around the world with their beautiful adaptations of what many consider J.R.R. Tolkien’s best work. Both trilogies combined produced roughly 20 hours of footage placing both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit among the longest movie series released in separated parts. Both trilogies depict a long quest on which the respectable main characters embark, but how long did it take to film these journeys stretching over multiple years?

The Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed during the span of 438 days from 1999 to 2001, while The Hobbit trilogy took 266 days to film.

The movies’ plot, stunning filming locations and director’s and crew’s engagement all contribute to the amazing experience while watching these movies, but not many people know that the filming process was every bit as interesting. The rest of this article will let you in on how the director Peter Jackson and his crew brought Middle-earth and it’s many stories to life on the big screens.

How long did it take to film The Lord of the Rings?

The collective footage of all 3 movies was filmed in about a year and a half (438 days). The filming took place entirely in New Zealand, starting in October of 1999 and ending in December of 2000, with additional filming taking place between 2001 and 2003. The pickup shoots produced roughly 6 weeks of filming every year.

New Zealand was perfect to bring the world of Lord of the Rings to life, but when the filming started the landscape proven itself to be more of a challenge than anticipated by the crew as chosen locations were often difficult to access.

Many locations were difficult to film at, such as Mount Ngauruhoe, an active volcano, that was chosen by the director to be Mount Doom and Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand, the location where all the scenes taking place at Mountain of Moria were filmed.

 In addition to that, the weather conditions presented a problem on its own. The best example of how this affected the moviemaking process is the unfinished battle scene at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, which could not be filmed due to heavy floods that ultimately destroyed the elaborate set. Another famous scene had to be filmed in blocks a year apart from each other because the location was destroyed by the heavy rain.

How long did it take to film The Hobbit trilogy?

The Hobbit trilogy was filmed over 266 days in 2011. Considering that it covers practically the same source material and depicts a story set with a similar time frame it seems odd that the time spent on making this trilogy is almost half of the time spent on the first 3 movies.

Unlike Lord of the Rings, most of the problems with filming this trilogy originated from the director, or better said, directors. The Hobbit was supposed to be directed by Guillermo del Toro, who was a fan of Jackson’s work.

However, del Toro’s idea for the movies was much darker in contrast to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Given the massive success of previous movies, the studio was hesitant to approve this different approach to the movie and forced del Toro to change much of his original idea, which ultimately resulted in his departure from the project as he believed he was not given enough freedom to work on the movies and was too invested in other projects he was working on at that time.

Peter Jackson replaced him in the directing position but unlike his work on the previous movies of the franchise, he did not have all that much time to prepare for the filming and flesh out his vision for this movie.

Jackson was used to filming with practical effects and forced perspective to make the characters as close as possible to what he had in mind, but this time around he had to plan his filming around what del Toro already prepared, which was heavily depending on CGI.

Now famously, Sir Ian McKellen, who plays Gandalf in both trilogies, expressed his frustration with this approach to filming admitting that it was extremely difficult working without his colleagues on the set, so much that it once reduced him to crying.

On top of that, the studio was set on the determined release date, which left Jackson chasing the set date which affected his work immensely resulting in long filming days with no clear direction. In one of his interviews, he said that he was not always sure what he was doing with the movie, often having to take long breaks from filming because of how much he was doubting himself.

Did they film Lord of the Rings all at once?

Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed all at once, with no separation between different movies. The best example of this approach to work is the scene from the Return of the King in which Frodo is sending Sam back home because he believes Sam has betrayed him.

The conversation between the two was filmed almost a year apart. Although the viewers will not notice it unless looking for it, the slight difference in the lighting is telling that the scene was filmed in blocks.

This order of filming was used because Jackson had a clear idea of what he wanted to do with the reference material and what he wanted the movies to be. The majority of the movie was filmed this way but in the end, a bit of additional filming had to be done.

 Another contributing factor was the director’s decision to film entirely in New Zealand as he felt that the locations were perfect because New Zealand is practically real-life middle earth. To make this possible, at the height of its production the movie had over two thousand four hundred people involved in the filming process.

Did they film The Hobbit all at once?

The Hobbit trilogy was filmed in 3 blocks, in New Zealand and on sets in England. The first block was filmed in March of 2011 in New Zealand, at undisclosed locations as well as at the Wellington Stone Street Studios. The second block commenced filming in July of 2011 in England, at Pinewood studios and continued in New Zealand in August.

Additional shoots were done in 2013 to create extra material for the originally unplanned, third movie and some filler scenes for the second movie. Originally unplanned shoots took place because the finished product had too much material to compress it into two movies, but not enough to make three movies that the studio was happy with.

 Although the director was the same, he could not use the same approach with this movie. As it was mentioned before, Jackson was not originally intended to take this position and was instead intended to be an assistant of a sort.

Jackson himself stated in many interviews that he did not feel confident while making the movies, due to the short amount of time he had to prepare for the filming and to adapt previous directors’ ideas into his version of the movies.

He believed that the originally much darker movie del Toro had in mind could only be made by him, hence much of the time originally intended for filming was spent adapting the script.

Additional problems with filming were caused when the International Federation of Actors, issued a Do Not Work order, due to not being able to come to acceptable terms with the producers of the movies.

This meant that it would be much harder to find New Zealand actors willing to work on the movie which further complicated the moviemaking process, forcing the studio to consider different locations for the filming of the movie and even completely moving the production out of New Zealand.

After the possibility of relocating was publicly announced fans all over New Zealand protested in an effort to keep the production in their home country.

Ultimately a resolution was reached with the International Federation of Actors and due to the director’s perseverance, the filming was resumed at the planned locations with no additional problems.

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REVIEW: The Predator (2018)

US army sniper Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) witnesses an alien spacecraft crash-land while in the field in South America. After sending an alien set of armour back home, he is promptly captured and interrogated by a secret government agency before breaking free with a team of fellow military prisoners and getting caught in a race to protect his autistic son – who now has the armour delivered to Quinn’s home, and is being hunted down by more aliens and the US military.

This is one ungodly mess. The Predator is scrappily assembled, with footage visibly missing, a strangled and limp pace, a confused narrative, and generally unlikable characters. Were it not a high profile studio sequel it would not have hit anybody’s radar at all. I generally approach a new film with three questions: what is the filmmaker attempting to do? Do they succeed in that goal? Finally, is the film actually any good? Well if the answer to the first question is ‘a Predator sequel’, then the answer to the second is clearly a technical ‘yes’ given that the titular alien beast does appear – but as for the third? The Predator is jaw-droppingly risible. More than that, it is a multi-faceted disaster: it fails on so many different angles and layers.

Here is the essential problem with Predator, a science fiction movie franchise now up to four instalments – six if you include the two Alien vs Predator films from 2004 and 2007: it is a piece of production design looking for a good story. Easily the most memorable aspect of the original film, which featured Arnold Schwarzenegger and a team of special ops soldiers being stalked and killed by an alien hunter, was the design of the alien itself. It was tall and muscular, lizard-like, and featured a bizarrely off-putting face with mandibles, pin-sized eyes, and a rattling sort of insect-like chattering whenever it got excited. It looked, sounded, and moved brilliantly. It immediately attracted a fan-base, and led 20th Century Fox to attempt three times to kickstart it as a proper ongoing franchise. The first sequel saw the studio drop Schwarzenegger – they were unwillingly to wait until he had completed Terminator 2 before shooting – and replace him with an urban-set Danny Glover, and an all-round underwhelming story. The second, which came years later, went for a pulp route – kidnapping a range of human killers and throwing onto an alien planet to be hunted. It was arguably a less interesting film than Predator II, even though it produced more in-the-minute thrills and action beats. Personally I find the best Predator sequel to be Paul W.S. Anderson’s Alien vs Predator, since it makes no attempt to be another other than fast-paced pulp action-horror. It does exactly what it says on the tin, and clearly has a ball doing it.

With The Predator, writer/director Shane Black (Iron Man 3, The Nice Guys – he also acted in the original Predator) makes the critical mistake of making things too complicated. The appeal of an alien monster sneaking around murdering humans gets buried beneath a confused and poorly explained story of rival alien clans, genetic manipulation, government cover-ups, and broken families. There is simply too much going on to make any sort of impact, and a studio-mandated series of edits and reshoots has rendered the bulk of it nonsensical. More than any of its predecessors, The Predator is also actively franchise-building. It keeps one eye on whatever is going to happen next, and that is to the severe detriment of the film actually being made.

The characters are resoundingly weak, either underdeveloped – as is the cast with Olivia Munn’s earnest Dr Casey Brackett – or actively unlikable – like Boyd Holbrook’s smug Quinn McKenna and, indeed, his entire team of mercenaries. Jacob Tremblay is bizarrely inconsistent as McKenna’s autistic son Rory. One has to assume the varying symptoms of his autism are the result of reshoots, because the alternative is shockingly bad filmmaking on Shane Black’s part. The use of Rory’s nature is crude and unpleasant: using him as a ‘magical disabled’ trope and giving him an innate connection with the Predators through the equipment his father sent back from South America. The film also uses one of the mercenaries (played in this case by Thomas Jane) for comic relief by giving his character Tourette’s Syndrome. It is crude, inaccurate, and creatively lazy.

The plot, which is unnecessarily complicated – not to mention obfuscated – makes a critical error in assuming ‘bigger is better’. The film’s original Predator is superceded by an even taller, more destructive iteration, and rather than up the ante it disrupts the film’s narrative flow. By the film’s dreadful denoument, which promises a sequel I guarantee half the audience do not want to see, things have moved from disruptive to utterly ridiculous. The Predator is still a masterpiece of science fiction design, and we shall always have John McTiernan’s tight, aggressive 1987 original. From here on in, however, I really think it is time to let this franchise die.

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text: #title Wilson’s Green Alchemy & Magick Poetry #subtitle Review #author Anu Bonobo #SORTauthors Anu Bonobo; #SORTtopics Fifth Estate #371, Winter 2006; #sku FE-0371-00004721-0038-00004802 #source [[https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/371-winter-2006/wilsons-green-alchemy-magick-poetry]] #lang en #pubdate 2015-05-12T22:00:00 #notes Fifth Estate #371, Winter 2006 a review of Gothick Institutions by Peter Lamborn Wilson. Xexoxial Editions. Dreamtime Village, 2005. 76 pages, $10. http://www.xexoxial.org. Available from the Barn. A new Peter Wilson book is already a cause for celebration, but this lush collaboration exceeds even my already high expectations. Made beautiful by the production team of Miekal And Zon Wakest team at Dreamtime Village, our wise and playful rebel wields his waking fantasy to distill wild speculation in a dense and delirious brew of brave meditation. Ostensibly a volume of poems, this dense glossary packs the deep gratification of his best prose. But at its best, Gothick Institutions is neither poetry nor prose while obviously both--because buried in these pages we find wrinkled love letters from our spiritual ancestors reincarnated as the crinkly cartography of our future utopia. In this collection, Wilson digs in your great-grandmother’s backyard with a giant shovel made of peppermint candy and a psychedelic microscope framed in gold. Looking in places that time and history have forgotten, he uncovers mystery and recovers madness--these pagan pathways pry open imaginal possibilities, hints for further reading and radical fantasy. Of course, since Wilson is a colleague and frequent collaborator with this magazine, since Dreamtime offered a model a decade ago when we founded Pumpkin Hollow, this review revels in its own disclaimer dance, bridled with a brazen and incestuous hope for more volumes by Wilson coming from that Wisconsin enclave of autonomous art.


text:
Aquatics 50p

Issue date: 2011

Quantity minted: 2,179,000

Approximate values:
Circulated average condition: 75p
Circulated excellent condition: £5.00
Uncirculated: £10.50

Out of stock

Front Design:
A swimmer submerged in water. Designed by Jonathan Olliffe.

Obverse Design:
Queen Elizabeth II portrait by Ian Rank-Broadley.

More about the Aquatics 50p

Issued as one of the 29 Olympic 50p designs to commemorate the games in London 2012. Each 50p features a different Olympic sport.

The winning designer for the Aquatics 50p was by Jonathan Olliffe from Oxford, who also designed the Gymnastics 50p.

Swimming dates back to the inaugural Games in Athens in 1896, and nowadays men and women compete in a wide range of disciplines between 50m and 1500m. In 2012, team GB picked up a total of 3 medals in the swimming pool – 2 silver and 1 gold.

The Aquatics Error Coin

The original design by Jonathan Olliffe featured water flowing across the swimmer’s face. This was re-worked by the Royal Mint, showing less water and making the swimmer’s face clearer.

A small number of coins were accidentally released into circulation with the original design. It remains unknown as to exactly how many of these error coins were mistakenly made, which makes them even more valuable to a collector.

Aquatics 50p Error Coin

Buy One!

We currently have 0x surplus Aquatics 50p coins for sale.

Condition = Circulated Excellent
Price = £5.00 each

£5.00Read more

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Iran Auto Industry Recorded Growth in Spring

The auto industry has observed growth in output while automakers are still to make verified moves to improve quality
Carmakers manufactured 290,432 vehicles in the first Iranian quarter that ended on June 21.Carmakers manufactured 290,432 vehicles in the first Iranian quarter that ended on June 21.
Several models of IKCO and SAIPA products that are usually of low quality are still dominant when it comes of sales, presumably because of the low prices

Iran Vehicle Manufactures Association has released the latest statistics on local auto production which indicates that 306,545 cars, pickup trucks and heavy duty vehicles have been produced during the first quarter of the fiscal year that started in March.

The report says the industry registered 15.2% year-on-year growth during the three month period.

Local companies manufactured 290,432 vehicles, an 18.9% y/y growth while production of pickups decreased 32% compared to the same period last year, reaching 12,925.

During the three-month period, the largest automaker Iran Khodro produced  148,296 cars -- a 10.1% y/y jump.

Cars have a 98% share of the company’s output while its subsidiaries producing pickups and other utility vehicles are still lagging behind.

Several subsidiaries of IKCO, which are in charge of production of pickup trucks and heavy vehicles, have seen sharp decline during the period. Iran Khodro Diesel which produces heavy vehicles has recorded a whopping 96.4% y/y fall in output.

Furthermore, IKCO has increased the share of Chinese cars in its production by 15 times. The company produced 8,171 units of Haima S7 and Dongfeng H30. Compared to last year’s 504 units, this indicates a change in policy that does not sit well with rising public demand for quality cars.

Public opinion aside, IKCO’s love for Chinese brands also does not meet the new guidelines announced by the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran (IDRO) on collaboration with foreign private firms active in the automotive sector.

The new guidelines require carmakers to enter into partnership with “internationally reputable” firms. According to independent experts and local media reports, Chinese carmakers simply don’t meet the IDRO criterion.

During private meetings with automotive firms, officials at the IDRO have reportedly made it known that the organization does not advocate the expansion of Chinese firms in the domestic auto sector.

SAIPA outpaced its arch rival IKCO in terms of production growth  — recording a 15.4% jump in total output. During the three months the company produced 114,539 cars, 8,099 pickups, and 675 heavy vehicles.

In recent years, SAIPA has strived to reduce the yawning gap between its production and IKCO. The company is trying to claim the title of Iran’s largest automaker which has always been held by IKCO.

Although the company’s production rate has observed significant growth, the quality of SAIPA cars remains the main hurdle in expanding the company’s share in the international market.

 Low-Quality Here to Stay

Several models of IKCO and SAIPA products which have always suffered from low quality are still dominant when it comes to sales.

During the three-month period, IKCO produced 34,822 units of Peugeot 405 and 23,146 units of locally designed Samand. The two models had a 39% share of the total IKCO output.

Moreover, Pride has a 41% share of SAIPA’s total output, despite the fact that the people, environmentalists, economic experts and government officials have often demanded a halt to the production of this poor quality, but the cheapest, brand.

According to auto evaluation reports, published by Iran Standard and Quality Inspection Company, none of the models have been able to earn more than one star in the organization’s five-star ranking system.

 Foreign Deals

In recent months officials in Tehran and automakers have trumpeted the deals with foreign carmakers which are supposed to help economic growth. However, so far none of the deals have come into effect.

The only joint venture production line which has been “launched” so far is the Peugeot 2008. The model is to be produced through a JV between IKCO and the French carmaker, Peugeot.

According to reports, three months from the “official launch” of the production of Peugeot 2008, so far only four units of the model have been made!

Moreover, when the Industries Minister was asked about the delays in implementing the foreign deals, Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh requested the public to be “patient” saying “Such deals are complicated and their implementation takes time.” He did not elaborate.

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22 Apr 2014

Kennedy Hehr: Hard Work Pays Off

Kennedy Hehr: Hard Work Pays Off

To Kennedy Hehr, sports are more than just a recreational activity to take part in after school. To Kennedy, being able to play a sport is a reason to keep fighting. A volleyball player from Fontana, Wisconsin, Hehr was severely injured in a car accident in January. On January 26th, Kennedy was riding home from Illinois after watching her volleyball club’s 18U team play. It was snowing outside and they would later find out that the roads were bad. A driver coming from the opposite direction swerved over the yellow lines and changed Kennedy’s life forever.

The car made impact on the drivers’ side, toward the back of the car. Kennedy was riding on the passenger side in the backseat, but the impact was so forceful she sustained life-threatening injuries. The pain from her injuries was so excruciating that she remembers fading in and out of consciousness and telling her friends’ parents that she didn’t think she was going to make it to the hospital.

When she finally made it to the hospital, doctors told her that she was lucky to be alive. On the outside, she was completely fine, didn’t have a scratch on her. Inside, that was not the case. She had punctured her intestine and severed her stomach completely in half as a result of the blunt force trauma upon impact.  She underwent emergency surgery to repair the puncture to her intestine and staple her stomach together. The surgeon also had to add 22 staples externally, from the outside of her chest to just below her belly button. Upon awakening from the grueling surgery, she set a goal to return to the volleyball court in the JVA World Challenge, a competitive AAU Volleyball tournament in Texas that was just 67 days away. The doctors encouraged her to set goals but later told her they never believed she would be able to play volleyball again, let alone in that tournament.

She spent eleven days in the hospital and missed 30 days of school. She lost 22 pounds while recovering, but despite all of the setbacks and obstacles, she never lost sight of her goal to play in the JVA World Challenge. Although she had just joined her volleyball club, Club Fusion, everyone came together and supported her throughout her recovery. Her teammates created an eight foot long banner and put together a “Get Well Video” for her while she was in the hospital to wish her good luck and a healthy recovery.

When April 4th rolled around, Kennedy was in Texas with her teammates, ready to play. She recalls when her coach pulled her aside before their first game and told her she would be starting as the libero.

“I wasn’t really ready for that to happen,” said Kennedy. “I was so excited to play, but I never really thought it would happen. It was crazy.”

Only 67 days after her life-threatening car accident, Kennedy Hehr played an entire volleyball game at the JVA World Challenge. Her life was completely flipped upside down and instead of giving up and letting the worst happen, she overcame every obstacle that was thrown at her and dedicated herself to recovering. Kennedy said setting goals from the beginning is what really helped her keep going through everything.

“In the beginning setting small goals is what helped the most and then having an end result goal was a great idea,” she said. “Reaching it makes you feel so happy and the hard work and dedication that you put into it is insane. It helped so much to achieve that goal and to keep achieving goals throughout the whole thing.”

Kennedy gives credit to her teammates and AAU Volleyball club for her full and speedy recovery.

“The doctor did say that it was a miracle that I was alive,” Kennedy said. “I give glory to God because I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for those people that were praying for me.”

Kennedy will be playing with her Club Fusion volleyball team at the AAU Girls’ Junior National Volleyball Championship in June at ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Florida.

From everyone here at the AAU, we want to congratulate Kennedy on everything she has accomplished so far and we can’t wait to see what else her future holds!

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Anti Drug Movement

Using Technology to Strengthen Family Ties

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While it may seem like you’ve “lost” your teen to social technology, like Facebook or text messaging, a new report finds that this technology – namely the Internet and cell phones – is actually creating a “new connectedness” for American families.

In particular, parents say cell phones allow their families to stay more regularly in touch. And many parents say they are now using the Internet to view material online together.

Are you using technology to its best advantage? Before you put your trust in the latest gadgets, make sure you set a few ground rules for your family:

• Limit your teens’ time spent online and keep computers in a common area of the house;
• Monitor your teens’ digital devices regularly, checking Internet history and cell phone call logs; and
• Talk to your teens about their Web sites, profiles, blogs, etc., and ask them to show you what they’re doing online.

Take this crash course for parents on teens and technology.

Risks and Rewards

Many parents are still unaware of the risks their teens may be exposed to online or through their cell phones, many of which have Internet access. In fact, a Nielsen study conducted for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign found that in a one-month period, nearly one million teens were exposed to one or more drug-related videos online. And more than a third of teens viewing drug-related content are under the age of 16. Before your family can reap the rewards of technology, it’s important to understand the risks.

Review the latest findings on teens and online exposure.

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Anti Drug Movement News on Health & Science

Marijuana Use Shrinks Parts of Brain

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CLICK TO SEE……....().…...().………….

Long-term heavy use of marijuana may cause two important brain structures to shrink, Australian researchers said.Brain scans showed the hippocampus and amygdala were smaller in men who were heavy marijuana users compared to nonusers, the researchers said on Monday.

The men had smoked at least five marijuana cigarettes daily for on average 20 years. The hippocampus regulates memory and emotion, while the amygdala plays a critical role in fear and aggression.

The study also found the heavy cannabis users earned lower scores than the nonusers in a verbal learning task – trying to recall a list of 15 words.

The marijuana users were more likely to exhibit mild signs of psychotic disorders, but not enough to be formally diagnosed with any such disorder, the researchers said. “These findings challenge the widespread perception of cannabis as having limited or no harmful effects on (the) brain and behavior,” said Murat Yucel of ORYGEN Research Centre and the University of Melbourne, who led the study.

“Like with most things, some people will experience greater problems associated with cannabis use than others,” Yucel said. “Our findings suggest that everyone is vulnerable to changes in the brain, some memory problems and psychiatric symptoms if they use heavily enough and for long enough.”

You may click to see:->Heavy marijuana use shrinks brain parts

Sources: The Times Of India

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Anti Drug Movement

Teens Most Easily Hooked to Cocaine

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Researchers have made a breakthrough in uncovering the mystery behind why teens get hooked on cocaine more easily than adults by finding that developing brains are more powerfully motivated by drug-related cues.

The study found that adolescent rats given cocaine were more likely than adults to prefer the place where they got it.
Epidemiological studies confirm that of people in various age groups who experiment with drugs, teens are by far the most likely to become addicted as they are driven by drug related cues.
During the study psychologists Heather Brenhouse, PhD, and Susan Andersen, from McLean’s Developmental Psychopharmacology Laboratory introduced rats that were 38 or 77 days old which is equivalent to 13 or 20 human years, to an apparatus with one central and two larger side chambers that had different flooring, wall colours and lighting.
The injected the rats with saline solution in the morning for three days in a row and placed them in one side chamber for an hour.
Four hours later, they injected them with a preference-forming dose of cocaine and placed them in the opposite-side chamber for an hour.
To test the “conditioned place preference” for the chamber where they got cocaine, the rats were let free to explore the entire apparatus in a drug-free state for 30 minutes on the 4th day
Brenhouse and Andersen calculated how long each rat spent in the drug-paired side relative to total time spent on either side. They repeated the procedure every 24 hours until each animal’s place preference was extinguished, when the time they spent in the drug-paired chamber was cut in half – suggesting no lingering preference for either side.
Relative to adults, adolescent rats required around 75 percent more trials to extinguish a preference for the place where they were given the drug.
After each rat’s last extinction trial, the researchers waited 24 hours, injected a low 5 mg/kg “priming” dose of cocaine, and put it back in the apparatus to test for place preference.
During this test for “reinstatement” of extinguished preferences, adolescent rats showed a significantly greater renewed preference than did adults for the drug-paired chamber. Those that had originally learned on a 10 mg/kg dose of cocaine showed 40 percent greater reinstatement than the few adult rats that showed a place preference at the lower dose.
Brenhouse and Andersen view this as a sign that adolescents form stronger memories for even less potent rewards.
“Adolescent vulnerability to addiction involves robust memories for drug-associated cues that are difficult to extinguish.”
They believe that this is because their brains are still developing.
The researchers believe that the new findings may help in developing new treatments for youthful addiction.
The study appears in Behavioral Neuroscience, published by the American Psychological Association.

Click to see also:->Women who turn to illegal drugs in their struggle to lose weight

Researchers reverse cocaine effects in mice study

Sources:The Times Of India

Anti Drug Movement

4-20: Did You Know That This Is More Than Just a Date?

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Parents are used to hearing their teens speak in code – from the trendy catchphrase of the week to the popular acronyms used for text messaging and online chatting. But one term that might come up more frequently this time of year is “420” (pronounced “four-twenty”).

Those familiar with popular drug culture might recognize the code as a reference to the annual pot-smoking holiday on April 20 (or 4-20). There are many theories explaining the origin of the term and the date – from the supposed number of active chemicals in marijuana to an alleged police crime code for drug arrests to the time of day a group of California teens congregated to smoke up in the 1960s.

Whatever the actual origins of 420, many teens now know April 20th as the day to smoke marijuana. So parents should be especially mindful of monitoring for drug use on this day in particular.

Learn more about the risks of marijuana.

Marijuana: Then and Now

So you tried pot at some point in your life and think you’ll feel like a hypocrite telling your teen not to use? Get over it. It’s important to talk about your experiences to help your children learn from them. Be honest and emphasize that this discussion is about your child’s future and not about your past. Marijuana today is more potent than it was a generation ago and more kids are using it at a younger age, when their bodies and minds are still developing. Talk to your teens. Kids who learn about marijuana and other drugs from their parents are less likely to use them.

Tell your teens how to say no, even if you didn’t.

How can you monitor for marijuana use? Follow these four easy steps:

1. Look online. Talk to your teen about pro-drug messages they might find on sites like Facebook and YouTube. Many teens form groups and recruit members online who are proponents of certain drugs or risky behaviors .

2. Listen for slang and look out for paraphernalia. If you hear terms like 420, bake, Mary, bud, blunt, etc., or see them in text messages, call your teen on it. Likewise if you see makeshift pipes or bongs disguised to look like harmless trinkets, it’s time for a larger discussion about drug use.

3. Ask who, what, where, and when. You should always know the details about your teen’s whereabouts, but pay special attention on April 20 as many teens plan to meet for the “holiday celebration.”

4. Watch and smell for signs of use. Red and bloodshot eyes are a symptom of marijuana use, so be on the lookout for recently opened eye drops. A distinct odor is another sign – even if your teen was just hanging out with other people who were smoking. If you detect smoke, alcohol, etc., on your teen’s breath or clothes, it’s time to talk about the dangers of such risky behaviors

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Anti Drug Movement

Growth Hormones Don’t Boost Performance

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Athletes who take human growth hormone may not be getting the boost they expected. While growth hormone adds some muscle, it doesn’t appear to improve strength or exercise capacity, according to a review of studies that tested the hormone in mostly athletic young men.

“It doesn’t look like it helps and there’s a hint of evidence it may worsen athletic performance,” said Dr. Hau Liu, of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif., who was lead author of the review.

Growth hormone, or HGH, is among the performance enhancers baseball stars Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte were accused of taking in the blockbuster Mitchell Report. Clemens denies using the hormone, while Pettitte admits using it.

But the new research has some limitations and sheds no light on long-term use of HGH. The scientists note their analysis included few studies that measured performance. The tests also probably don’t reflect the dose and frequency practiced by athletes illegally using the hormone. Experiments like that aren’t likely to be conducted.

“It’s dangerous, unethical and it’s never going to be done,” said Dr. Gary I. Wadler, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency and a spokesman for the American College of Sports Medicine.

Consequently, those in the field have to depend on such reviews or “what we hear on the ground,” he added.

Human growth hormone is made by the pituitary gland and promotes growth. A synthetic version has been available since the 1980s and its use is restricted for certain conditions in children and adults, including short stature, growth hormone deficiency and wasting from AIDS.

Although banned for other uses, growth hormone has been used by a variety of athletes and was cited along with steroids as one of the performance-enhancing drugs abused by baseball players in the report in December by former Senate majority leader George Mitchell. Several athletes, including Pettitte, have said they used HGH while recovering from an injury, an issue not covered in the review.

“There are a lot of claims that it’s this wonder drug,” said Liu.

Wadler said one of the appeals of growth hormone for athletes is that it can’t be detected in a urine test. A blood test will be available soon, and another is in development, he said.

“They think they are getting a free ride â€” they aren’t getting a drug test,” he said. “They believe they are stronger and bigger.”

Liu and his colleagues at Stanford University sought to find out if growth hormone really could improve performance. They looked for the best published tests, those comparing participants who got the hormone to those who didn’t get the treatment.

They analyzed 27 studies involving 440 participants. The results were released Monday by the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Researchers found that those who got the hormone put on about 5 pounds more of muscle, and lost about 2 pounds more of fat, although the fat loss wasn’t statistically different. The researchers said some of the extra body mass could just be fluid buildup.

There was no difference found in strength or exercise stamina between the two groups, but there were only two strength studies and eight that measured exercise. Those who got the hormone had more side effects including swelling and fatigue.

The review couldn’t consider long-term effects, since the longest study was three months, and most were much shorter.

The researchers also said the doses used in the research may be lower than those used by athletes, who may be combining growth hormone with other performance-enhancing drugs.

Dr. Alan Rogol of the University of Virginia and the Indiana University School of Medicine, said the work was a good review but had to rely on inadequate research.

“There are just tons of things we don’t know,” said Rogol.

The California researchers had support from Stanford, government agencies and Genentech Inc., which makes growth hormone; none of the groups had a role in the study. Two researchers also have been consultants or received grants from Genentech and other drugmakers.


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Apply Today! Now accepting applications for the Accelerator’s 2021 Challenge: Financial Resilience and Growth. Learn More

Financial Solutions Lab Launches Year-Five Competition to Support Workplace Financial Health Tech Solutions as Part of Multiyear, $30 Million Initiative

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Competition to focus on fintechs and employers that offer a diverse range of workplace financial wellness programs and solutions for underserved workers

08:00 AM CT

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today the Financial Solutions Lab (FinLab) at the Financial Health Network with founding Financial Solutions Lab partner JPMorgan Chase & Co. officially launched its Fifth Annual Challenge (Challenge), focused exclusively on identifying employee financial health solutions that serve both employees and employers, and can cater to the needs of the diverse American workforce with a focus on low- to moderate-income (LMI) workers.

Over the course of the program, the Financial Solutions Lab will help augment and gather critical evidence of the role that financial health solutions play in the workplace, raising awareness for workplace financial health programs and developing best practices for the use of technology to promote financial health at work.

A recent PwC survey found that nearly half (47%) of workers report being financially stressed. Not only does this create personal challenges for employees, but it also affects their productivity. A Financial Finesse report found that employees with a low level of financial wellness can cost employers up to $198 annually in absenteeism, payroll taxes, and more. As a result, employers increasingly seek to offer more robust workplace financial health services for employees.

“Much like physical wellness and healthy eating have been human resource points of emphasis in recent years, building an ecosystem of proven and effective financial health programs for employees will define the successful workplace of the future,” said Garry Reeder, VP of innovation and policy at the Financial Health Network. “The Lab will focus its efforts on creating replicable best practices for rolling out and measuring the success of these programs while helping refine individual offerings from Challenge winners.”

Traditional workplace financial health tools have primarily focused on retirement benefits. Today’s employers are seeking to offer a broader range of services that can address the diversity of their employees’ financial needs, including short-term savings programs, income smoothing and instant pay tools, small-dollar loans, student loan repayment assistance, and more.

“As a large employer, JPMorgan Chase knows first-hand that prioritizing employees’ financial, mental, and physical wellbeing is a critical component of helping them bring their best self to work every day,” said Robin Leopold, head of Human Resources for JPMorgan Chase. “It’s good for our employees and it’s good for business.”

This year’s Challenge will focus on identifying promising innovations and help measure their impact and performance to ensure effectiveness and usage within diverse work environments. Currently, a lack of clarity both about the effectiveness and the impact of these services on an employer’s bottom line have prevented more widespread adoption.

“Over the past four years, we have been delighted to see Financial Solutions Lab companies address the unique financial needs of over 2.8 million people in the U.S.,” said Janis Bowdler, president of the JPMorgan Chase Foundation. “We are excited to identify fintech solutions that cater to underserved workers and can help them reach their potential both at work and at home.”

Each winning organization will receive $125,000 in capital, in addition to professional services assistance from industry leaders such as ideas42 and Google, strategic guidance from the Financial Solutions Lab’s industry-leading advisory council, and resources from founding partners the Financial Health Network and JPMorgan Chase, including the JPMorgan Chase employee mentorship program.

Applying for the Challenge

Innovators interested in joining the Financial Solutions Lab’s fifth year class can now complete and submit an application at Ideal participants will be working with an employer willing to share information as part of the impact evaluation process. The deadline to apply is November 9, 2018. Winners will be announced in mid-January 2019.

A History of Success

In June, the Financial Solutions Lab introduced its fourth cohort of fintech innovators. Financial Solutions Lab companies have represented a wide swath of consumer-focused fintech companies, and inform the Financial Solutions Lab’s perspective on the developments in, and state of, the overall market.

To date, the Financial Solutions Lab has supported 34 financial technology companies offering innovative financial products that reach over 2.8 million Americans. Collectively, Financial Solutions Lab companies have raised over $340 million in capital.

About the Financial Solutions Lab

The Financial Solutions Lab is a $30 million, five-year initiative managed by the Financial Health Network with founding Lab partner JPMorgan Chase & Co. to identify, test, and expand the availability of promising innovations that help Americans increase savings, improve credit, and build assets. The Financial Solutions Lab launches a series of competitions to identify solutions to specific consumer financial challenges. It provides incentives for entrepreneurs, businesses, and nonprofits to enhance financial products and services that address these challenges and improve consumers’ financial health. For more information, visit

About the Financial Health Network

The Financial Health Network is the nation’s authority on consumer financial health. The Financial Health Network leads a network of financial services innovators committed to building a more robust financial services marketplace with higher quality products and services. Through its Compass Principles and a lineup of proprietary research, insights, and events, the Financial Health Network informs, advises, and connects members of its network to seed the innovation that will transform the financial services landscape. For more on the Financial Health Network, go to and follow on Twitter at @finhealthnet.

About JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $2.6 trillion and operations worldwide. The Firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing, and asset management. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, JPMorgan Chase & Co. serves millions of customers in the United States and many of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients under its JPMorgan and Chase brands. Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at

Naomi Adams Bata,
Financial Health Network,
Amalia Kontesi,
JPMorgan Chase & Co.,

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Tech Talk: The three stimulus packages summed up

Tech Talk: The three stimulus packages summed up

  • On Monday 23 March 2020, the Australian Federal Parliament passed two coronavirus economic stimulus packages, worth $17.6 billion and $66 billion.
  • Subsequently on 30 March 2020 the Government announced the JobKeeker package, a new wage subsidy plan, and on 2 April 2020 a package to support early childhood education and care. The Treasurer announced on 5 April 2020 a reduced threshold for certain charities for JobKeeper eligibility.
  • These measures were passed in a special sitting of Parliament on 8 April 2020. On 9 April 2020, a legislative instrument was registered containing rules for the JobKeeper payment.
  • The stimulus packages include a range of important support measures for individuals and small businesses, we unpack them in a summary for you below.

1. Support for individuals and households

Temporarily reducing superannuation minimum drawdown rates

The Australian Government is temporarily reducing superannuation minimum drawdown requirements for account-based pensions and similar products by 50 per cent for 2019-20 and 2020-21. This measure will benefit retirees holding these products by reducing the need to sell investment assets to fund minimum drawdown requirements.

The reduction applies for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 income years.

Example: Mike is a 66 year old retiree with a superannuation account-based pension

The value of Mike’s account-based pension at 1 July 2019 was $200,000. Under current minimum drawdown requirements, Mike is required by legislation to drawdown 5 per cent of his account balance over the course of the 2019-20 and 2020-21 income years.

This means Mike has to drawdown $10,000 by 30 June 2020 to comply with the minimum drawdown requirements.

Following the temporary reduction in minimum drawdown requirements, Mike will now only be required to drawdown 2.5 per cent of his account balance, that is, $5,000, by 30 June 2020. If Mike has already withdrawn over $5,000 for 2019-20, he is not able to put the amount above $5,000 back into his superannuation account.

Australian Government Fact Sheet: Providing support for retirees

Temporary early release of superannuation

The Australian Government is allowing individuals affected by the coronavirus to access up to $10,000 of their superannuation in 2019-20 and a further $10,000 in 2020-21. Individuals will not need to pay tax on amounts released and the money they withdraw will not affect Centrelink or Veterans’ Affairs payments.

To apply for early release, you must satisfy any one or more of the following requirements:

  • you are unemployed; or
  • you are eligible to receive a JobSeeker payment, Youth Allowance for jobseekers, Parenting Payment (which includes the single and partnered payments), Special Benefit or Farm Household Allowance; or
  • on or after 1 January 2020:
    • you were made redundant; or
    • your working hours were reduced by 20 per cent or more; or
    • if you are a sole trader — your business was suspended or there was a reduction in your turnover of 20 per cent or more.

This condition of release is not available to market linked or transition to retirement income streams. However, those in transition to retirement income streams may partially commute to an accumulation account and use this condition of release  to access benefits from the new accumulation account.

People accessing their superannuation will not need to pay tax on amounts released and the money they withdraw will not affect Centrelink or Veterans’ Affairs payments.

How to apply

If you are eligible for this new ground of early release, you can apply directly to the ATO through the myGov website: You will need to certify that you meet the above eligibility criteria.

Australian Government Fact Sheet: Temporary Early Access to Superannuation

Social security deeming rates changes

As of 1 May 2020, the upper deeming rate will be 2.25 per cent and the lower deeming rate will be 0.25 per cent. The reductions reflect the low interest rate environment and its impact on the income from savings.

The change will benefit around 900,000 income support recipients, including around 565,000 people on the Age Pension who will, on average, receive around $105 more from the Age Pension in the first full year that the reduced rates apply.

Australian Government Fact Sheet: Providing support for retirees

Coronavirus supplement

Over the next six months, the Australian Government is temporarily expanding eligibility to income support payments and establishing a new, time-limited coronavirus supplement to be paid at a rate of $550 per fortnight. This will be paid to both existing and new recipients of JobSeeker Payment, Youth Allowance Jobseeker, Parenting Payment, Farm Household Allowance and Special Benefit.

The coronavirus supplement and expanded access for payments will commence from 27 April 2020.

Australian Government Fact Sheet: Income support for individuals

Up to two support payments of $750

On 12 March 2020, the Australian Government announced a one-off $750 stimulus payment to pensioners, social security, veteran and other income support recipients and eligible concession card holders. Around half of those that will benefit are pensioners.

The payment will be tax free and will not count as income for Social Security, Farm Household Allowance and Veteran payments. It will be paid automatically from 31 March 2020.

The Australian Government also is providing a second payment of $750 that will be made from 13 July 2020. This payment will be made to those residing in Australia and receiving one of the payments or holding one of the concession cards that were eligible for the first payment, except for those who are eligible to receive the coronavirus supplement (that is, those eligible for JobSeeker Payment, Youth Allowance Jobseeker, Parenting Payment, Farm Household Allowance and Special Benefit).

Australian Government Fact Sheet: Payments to support households

Early childhood education and care relief package

On 5 April 2020, the Government registered legislation that temporarily changes the funding arrangements for the early childhood education sector. The Government will pay 50 per cent of a child care service’s fee revenue (or 50 per cent of the existing hourly rate cap if that is lower) calculated based on the number of children in care during the fortnight preceding 2 March 2020 (before parents began withdrawing children in large numbers). The funding is subject to a number of conditions, including that services must remain open (or closed because a health agency has advised or required the service to be closed due to the coronavirus) and that families are not charged a fee, including an out of pocket or gap fee. The funding will apply from 6 April 2020 until 28 June 2020.

The plan supports families while also ensuring as many of the sector’s 13,000 child care and early learning services as possible can keep their doors open for workers and vulnerable families who need those services.  Around one million families are set to receive free child care.

2. Business stimulus

JobKeeper Payment

The JobKeeper Payment will help businesses affected by the coronavirus cover the costs of their employees’ wages, help more people to retain their jobs and continue to earn an income. The scheme involves the Australian Government paying employers a wage subsidy at a flat rate of $1,500 per employee per fortnight for up to six months. The JobKeeper Payment will be backdated to 30 March 2020 for employers who register in April 2020. Employers who register after April 2020 will receive JobKeeper Payment on a prospective basis.

There is no cap on the number of employees eligible for the subsidy. This amount is equivalent to around 70% of the Australian median wage and in the accommodation, hospitality and retail industries, it is equivalent to the full median wage.

Eligible employers

Employers with turnover of less than $1 billion are eligible if they experience at least a 30% decline in revenue since 1 March in a month versus the prior year. Businesses with annual turnover of $1 billion or more are eligible if their turnover falls by more than 50%.

Employers must apply to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to participate in the scheme and provide supporting information demonstrating the impact felt in their business. Employers will also need to continue to report to the ATO the number of eligible employees employed by their business each month.

Self-employed individuals (businesses without employees) that meet the turnover tests that apply for employers are eligible to register one person, who is actively engaged in operating the business, for JobKeeper Payments. Eligible individuals include a sole trader, partner in a partnership, beneficiary of a trust and a director or shareholder of a company.

On 5 April 2020 the Treasurer, The Honourable Josh Frydenberg, announced that charities that are registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission will be eligible for the JobKeeper Payment if they have suffered a 15 per cent decline in turnover as a result of the coronavirus.  This measure is to support a sector which is expected to have a significant increase in demand for its services.

Eligible employees

Employers will receive the payment for each eligible employee (employed at 1 March 2020) who continue to be employed. This includes full-time and part-time employees, casuals with regular service in the 12 months prior to 1 March 2020, and stood down employees. Employees who have been stood down since 1 March can also be re-engaged and receive the wage subsidy. Self-employed business owners will be eligible to receive the JobKeeper Payment where they have suffered or expect to suffer a 30 per cent decline in turnover relative to a comparable prior period (of at least a month).

To be an eligible employee, the individual will need to be at least 16 years old on 1 March 2020 and satisfy an Australian residency requirement.

Individuals receiving parental leave pay or paid dad and partner pay will not be eligible for a JobKeeper Payment for any fortnight they are entitled to these payments.

Payments will be made to employers by the ATO after the end of the calendar month, with the first payments to be received in the first week of May.

Register via the ATO website:

Australian Government Fact Sheet: JobKeeper Payment – Information for Employers

JobKeeper Payment – Information for Employees

Boosting cash flow for employers

The Australian Government is providing up to $100,000 to eligible small and medium-sized businesses, and not for-profits (NFPs) that employ people, with a minimum payment of $20,000. These payments will help businesses and NFPs with their cash flow so they can keep operating, pay their rent, electricity and other bills and retain staff.

Small and medium-sized business entities with aggregated annual turnover under $50 million and that employ workers are eligible. NFPs, including charities, with aggregated annual turnover under $50 million and that employ workers will now also be eligible. This will support employment at a time where NFPs are facing increasing demand for services.

Under the enhanced scheme, employers will receive a payment equal to 100 per cent of their salary and wages withheld (up from 50 per cent), with the maximum payment being increased from $25,000 to $50,000. In addition, the minimum payment is being increased from $2,000 to $10,000.

The payment will be delivered by the ATO as an automatic credit in the activity statement system from 28 April 2020 upon employers lodging eligible upcoming activity statements.

An additional payment is also being introduced in the July – October 2020 period. Eligible entities will receive an additional payment equal to the total of all of the Boosting Cash Flow for Employers payments they have received. This means that eligible entities will receive at least $20,000 up to a total of $100,000 under both payments.

Australian Government Fact Sheet: Cash flow assistance for businesses

Temporary relief for financially distressed businesses

It’s vital that businesses have a safety net to ensure that when the crisis has passed, they can resume normal business operations. The Australian Government is temporarily increasing the threshold at which creditors can issue a statutory demand on a company and the time companies have to respond to statutory demands they receive.

The package also includes temporary relief for directors from any personal liability for trading while insolvent, and providing temporary flexibility in the Corporations Act 2001 to provide temporary and targeted relief from provisions of the Act to deal with unforeseen events that arise as a result of the coronavirus health crisis.

The ATO will tailor solutions for owners or directors of business that are currently struggling due to the coronavirus, including temporary reduction of payments or deferrals, or withholding enforcement actions including Director Penalty Notices and wind-ups.

Australian Government Fact Sheet: Temporary relief for financially distressed businesses

Increasing the instant asset write-off

The Australian Government is increasing the instant asset write-off threshold from $30,000 to $150,000 and expanding access to include businesses with aggregated annual turnover of less than $500 million (up from $50 million) until 30 June 2020.

In 2017-18 there were more than 360,000 businesses that benefited from the current instant asset write-off, claiming deductions to the value of over $4 billion.

Australian Government Fact Sheet: Delivering support for business investment

Backing business investment

The Australian Government is introducing a time limited 15-month investment incentive (through to 30 June 2021) to support business investment and economic growth over the short term, by accelerating depreciation deductions.

Businesses with a turnover of less than $500 million will be able to deduct 50 per cent of the cost of an eligible asset on installation, with existing depreciation rules applying to the balance of the asset’s cost.

Australian Government Fact Sheet: Delivering support for business investment

Supporting apprentices and trainees

The Australian Government is supporting small business to retain their apprentices and trainees. Eligible employers can apply for a wage subsidy of 50 per cent of the apprentice’s or trainee’s wage for 9 months from 1 January 2020 to 30 September 2020.

Where a small business is not able to retain an apprentice, the subsidy will be available to a new employer that employs that apprentice. Employers will be reimbursed up to a maximum of $21,000 per eligible apprentice or trainee ($7,000 per quarter).

Support will also be provided to the National Apprentice Employment Network, the peak national body representing Group Training Organisations, to co-ordinate the re-employment of displaced apprentices and trainees throughout their network of host employers across Australia.

Australian Government Fact Sheet: Cash flow assistance for businesses

Support for coronavirus-affected regions and communities

The Australian Government will set aside $1 billion to support regions most significantly affected by the coronavirus outbreak. These funds will be available to assist during the outbreak and the recovery. In addition, the Australian Government is assisting our airline industry by providing relief from a number of taxes and Australian Government charges estimated to total up to $715 million.

Australian Government Fact Sheet: Assistance for severely affected regions and sectors

Coronavirus Business Liaison Unit

Coronavirus Business Liaison Unit has been established within The Treasury to engage with business on a regular basis and provide updates to government on crucial issues.

3. ASIC relief to support financial advice on stimulus and other measures

On 14 April 2020, ASIC announced temporary relief measures that will assist the financial services industry in providing consumers with affordable and timely advice during the pandemic. These measures are covered by a legislative instrument registered on 14 April 2020. Important conditions apply to the relief,  these are covered in detail in the legislative instrument and explanatory statement and summarised in ASIC’s 14 April 2020 media release, and FAQs.

Subject to meeting the important conditions, the instrument provides temporary relief to:

  • allow financial advisers not to give a Statement of Advice (SOA) to a client when providing advice about the early release scheme, subject to several conditions, including:
    • clients must be provided with a record of advice (ROA), which meets certain content requirements;
    • the advice fee, if any, is capped at $300;
    • the advice provider must establish that the client is entitled to the early release of their superannuation; and
    • the client must have approached the advice provider for the advice;
  • permit registered tax agents to give advice about the early release of superannuation to their existing clients without needing to hold an Australian financial services (AFS) licence, subject to several conditions;
  • give advice providers up to 30 business days (instead of 5 business days) to give a SOA after time-critical COVID-19 advice is provided; and
  • enable a Record of Advice (ROA) to be given instead of an SOA for COVID-19 advice, in certain defined circumstances to existing clients of financial advisers.

Noting the relief is temporary, ASIC has committed to consulting with industry stakeholders and giving 30 days’ notice before implementing any decision to repeal the relief measures.

If you would like to know more, talk to Michael Sik at FinPeak Advisers on 0404 446 766 or

This article was originally produced by Macquarie (click here to view the full article).

Important information and disclaimer

The information provided in this document is general information only and does not constitute personal advice. It has been prepared without taking into account any of your individual objectives, financial solutions or needs. Before acting on this information you should consider its appropriateness, having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs. You should read the relevant Product Disclosure Statements and seek personal advice from a qualified financial adviser. From time to time we may send you informative updates and details of the range of services we can provide. If you no longer want to receive this information please contact our office to opt out.

FinPeak Advisers ABN 20 412 206 738 is a Corporate Authorised Representative No. 1249766 of Aura Wealth Pty Ltd ABN 34 122 486 935 AFSL No. 458254

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Belvo scores $10M from Founders Fund and Kaszek to scale its API for financial services

via TechCrunch

Belvo, a Latin American fintech startup which launched just 12 months ago, has already snagged funding from two of the biggest names in North and South American venture capital.

The company is aiming to expand the reach of its service that connects mobile applications in Mexico and Colombia to a customer’s banking information and now has some deep-pocketed investors to support its efforts.

If the business model sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Belvo  is borrowing a page from the Plaid playbook. It’s a strategy that ultimately netted the U.S. startup and its investors $5.3 billion when it was acquired by Visa in January of this year.

Belvo and its backers, who funneled $10 million into the year-old company, want to replicate Plaid’s success and open up an entire new range of financial services companies in Latin America.

The round was co-led by Silicon Valley’s Founders Fund and Argentina’s Kaszek. With the new arsenal of capital complimented by the Founders Fund’s network and Kaszek’s deep knowledge of the Latin American market, Belvo hopes to triple its current team of 25 that is spread across operations in Mexico City and Barcelona.

Since its initial establishment in May 2019, the company has raised a total of $13 million from Y Combinator (W20) along with some of the biggest players in Latin America’s startup scene. Those investors include David Velez, the co-founder of Brazil’s multi-billion dollar lending startup, Nubank; MAYA Capital and Venture Friends.

The company’s co-founders, Pablo Viguera and Oriol Tintoré are no stranger to startups themselves. Viguera served as COO at European payments app Verse, and is a former general manager of one of the big European neo-banks, Revolut. Tintoré is a former NASA aerospace engineer, and while working for his Stanford MBA, founded Capella Space, an information collection startup that went on to raise over $50 million.

The company said it aims to work with leading fintechs in Latin America, spanning across verticals like the neobanks, credit providers and personal finance products Latin Americans use every day.

Belvo has built a developer-first API platform that can be used to access and interpret end-user financial data to build better, more efficient and more inclusive financial products in Latin America. Developers of popular neobank apps, credit providers and personal finance tools use Belvo’s API to connect bank accounts to their apps to unlock the power of open banking.

Viguera says the capital will be used to open a new office in Sao Paulo, and invest in new product and business development hires. Notably, Belvo is only one year old, having launched in January 2020 and operative in Mexico and Colombia.

Co-founders Pablo Viguera and Oriol Tintoré are a former Revolut GM and former NASA aerospace engineer.

Belvo’s latest funding also marks another instance of a U.S.-Latin America investment teamup for a Latin American company.

Nuvocargo, a logistics startup that wants to bolster the Mexico – U.S. trade lane with its freight transportation technology, also recently raised a round co-led by Mexico’s ALLVP and Silicon Valley-based NFX. American investors may be starting to take note of the co-investment opportunity of putting capital into startups serving the Latin American market in partnership with successful new wave domestic funds like Mexico’s ALLVP and Argentina’s Kaszek.