Ping An is investing 7.77 billion yuan ($1.16 billion) in technology research and development this year with artificial intelligence as the focus; the firm's Ping An Technology division is supporting the efforts; the group has been focusing on solutions for finance and healthcare with plans to expand to other industries; the company's goals are also in line with a government initiative announced by China's State Council; current efforts for Ping An have been centered around recognition software for identity and claims management. Source
A WeBank employee wrote a post in WeChat Moment, announcing that the loan amount of Weilidai (WeBank's micro loan product) is over RMB100 billion ($14.92 billion); Weilidai's loan amount has increased almost 300% over the past seven months; according to its financial results, WeBank lost RMB583 million ($86.97 million) in the first year (2015); but in 2016, it made a profit of RMB401 million ($59.82 million); in the first four months of 2017, WeBank made a profit of RMB500 million ($74.59 million); in terms of product, WeBank has launched an enterprise-grade product, "Weiyedai"; Weiyedai provides unsecured loans of up to RMB3 million ($447,507) to enterprises, with annual percentage rates ranging from 10.95% to 16.43%. Source (Chinese)
The People's Bank of China says in a report that it is considering expanding its risk-assessment system beyond banks to include major online financial businesses; the Wall Street Journal comments that China's central bank is increasing its monitoring of the loosely regulated fintech sector. Source
The Series A fundraising included both debt and equity capital; investment was led by K2 Venture Capital with participation from STI Financial Group and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper who made his first investment in an Indonesian startup; firm will use the funds to expand its lending and build its technology with plans for adding new research and development centers for machine learning and algorithm design; platform provides short term micro-loans of between US$75 and US$350 for a maximum of 30 days. Source
Tencent has launched its credit scoring service, Tencent Credit Score, Tencent's counterpart to Ant Financial's Sesame Credit; for now, only QQ Vips can have access to their score (QQ is a social network tool developed by Tencent, popular among teenagers); credit scores range from 300 to 850; the score measures a person on five different aspects including credit history, security, wealth, consuming habits and social network. Source (Chinese)
TNG FinTech Group Inc. is close to closing a Series A funding deal that will add $60 million in new capital for the firm and bring its valuation to $500 million; the firm offers global money transfers, foreign-exchange transactions and bill payments; following the funding round it will be one of the highest valued fintechs in Hong Kong; it plans to use the funding to expand its business internationally through acquisition of companies with remittance licenses in Singapore, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia and the UK. Source
Lend Academy talks with Jeffrey Chen, CEO of ZhongAn Insurance; firm has seen great success in insurtech in China, issuing billions of small dollar value insurance policies through the internet; Chen talks about the insurance products offered through the platform, how they have scaled the business, some of the innovative technologies they are using and their goals for the future. Source
At LendIt USA 2017, Lang Di CEO Gabriel Hai hosted a panel themed how fintechs are changing the way that Chinese people bank; one approach is to use big data technology to reach the individual credit market; panelists agree that China's fintech platforms are more willing to cooperate with traditional banks, as the banks have a more friendly regulatory environment and sufficient cheap money, whilst platforms are at advantages of bringing new technologies to the cooperation; however, Zhou Xinming, CEO of Hexindai, pointed out that China's fintech companies' customer base is more of individual investors rather than institutional investors, and the former are still not financially sophisticated. Source
Chinese marketplace lender Hexindai has added a payments function to its mobile app; firm has partnered with China UnionPay for Quick Pass; QuickPass allows platform investors to use funds for payments at merchants in the China UnionPay network. Source
VeChain, Viseo and Microsoft have launched a blockchain proof of concept project for the French car maker Renault; the idea is that blockchain can be used to keep record of how a car is maintained and that information from various car service providers can build a trustworthy growth history of a car; auto giants like Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Porsche have tried blockchain projects before as well. Source (Chinese)