China's internet giant Sina has established a $500 million fund (Online Finance Fund) to invest in Chinese fintech companies that sell wealth management products and insurance services; the fund will cooperate with startups as well as established financial institutions, such as banks and insurance companies, Sina CEO Cao Guofeng says. Source (Chinese)
Global Times recently comments on China's unregulated internet finance sector, stating that the online finance market requires cooling through tighter regulation after years of explosive but unruly growth; due to the lack of regulation, internet finance is often associated with financial irregularities, with many players operating without obtaining any license, for one; Global Times believes only a regulated internet finance industry can serve the real economy, and that chaotic development of internet finance will only pose risks to the country's financial stability. Source
AT Zuche is a Shanghai-based peer-to-peer car rental platform with over five million users and 200,000 vehicles; it has announced a $58 million Series C financing round from investors including Matrix Partners China; Matrix Partners China also recently invested in insurtech app Anxin Doctor which raised RMB200 million ($28 million) for a healthcare service focused on women and children; CreditEase Insurance Agency, a CreditEase affiliate, has also added new capital of RMB80 million ($11 million) for its insurance platform. Source
Speaking at StartCon in Sydney, Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of Atlassian, shared his thoughts on the inefficient banking industry in Australia; some of the major problems are the lack of ability to access the data and the ease of being able to switch banks; Cannon-Brookes stated, "The lack of a banking API in Australia is crazy."; Australian banks make approximately AU$1,000 in profit per person, per year and their profits equate to 2.9% of GDP; this is due to the lack of competition and heavy regulations in the banking sector, according to Cannon-Brookes. Source
Indian online multi-lender Indifi has raised $10 million in a Series B funding round led by Omidyar Network; the multi-lender specializes in connecting micro, small and medium-sized businesses with a network of lending institutions; the firm intends to use the funds for expanding and improving its products and technology. Source
China-based, QuantGroup, has raised $73 million in a Series C funding round led by Sunshine Insurance Group Corporation, Fosun Capital, Guosen Hongsheng Investment Co., Ltd. and other undisclosed investors; QuantGroup is an online financial services platform offering credit products; it evolved from the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator and is led by Zhou Hao with experience at Morgan Stanley, Capital One and Barclays. Source
Singapore based fintech company Trade Finance Market (TFM) recently launched their Invoice Check solution to cut down on trade finance fraud; the new blockchain based registry will help stop invoices from being paid more than once; they built the solution in the past year on the ethereum blockchain and it uses smart contracts; "Our system is in public beta and provides a manual method of entering invoices and having them checked against a blockchain-hosted database. This data is stored on the blockchain and funders are alerted if there is a potential risk of double financing," Raj Uttamchandani, the company's executive director, tells Global Trade Review. Source
Hong Kong Fintech Week began with an announcement from SuperCharger Fintech Accelerator of eight finalists; the companies provide a range of services including solutions for wealth management, regulatory technology, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and blockchain; the eight companies will participate in a 12-week program which includes access to SuperChargers corporate partners and mentors. Source
TruePillars, an Australian SME lender that focuses on individual investors, raised $3.9 million in a series A round; the round was led by a Melbourne-based private investor; "This investment will give us the means to further innovate and build on our service, including our ground-breaking secondary marketplace which allows investors to liquidate their investments ahead of schedule by selling to another investor in real time," says John Baini, TruePillars co-founder and CEO; the company allows for individual investors to fund loans with a $50 minimum commitment per loan. Source
CredEX has created an intermediary peer-to-peer lending technology solution which allows banks to facilitate peer-to-peer loans; the company participated in a roundtable forum at LendIt USA 2017 with Peter Renton, founder of LendIt and Jo Ann Barefoot, former deputy comptroller of the currency and Harvard professor; in comments regarding CredEX, Peter says: "Their instant credit decisions and the robust underwriting platform they have built has allowed them to become a leading fintech company in China in a very short time. Unlike most fintech companies they are 100% app-based, they are funded by banks and they are doing more than US$1 billion in loans annually. They represent the future of lending." Source