The new head of Ant Financial's international operations, Douglas Feagin, helped ink a deal with 930,000 merchants across Europe to help Chinese travelers use Alipay; Doug Feagin explained to the Financial Times why the deal was done: "120 million Chinese travelers went abroad in 2015 and that's growing at 18% a year. The vast majority of whom use Alipay."; Alipay has now expanded into India, Europe and Southeast Asia; it is still looking to go public in the near future. Source
According to a report from Reuters, more large businesses in China are increasing their internal mergers and acquisitions teams and relying less on investment banks for intermediary deal support; Fosun, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. are examples, with all three reportedly expanding their in-house mergers and acquisitions teams. Source
A study by Ernst and Young and DBS Bank finds Chinese fintech companies are advanced in their financial innovation services which they are developing for a strong consumer demand; this demand is being driven by minimal access to credit, increased internet users and few regulatory barriers; success is occurring in numerous fintech markets with an increased focus on the payments industry. Source
Artificial intelligence company, Flamingo, has listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and partnered with online lender, DirectMoney; the company seeks to help increase the sales conversion rate of online customers through web chat, web forms and artificial intelligence that guides customers through an online purchase. Source
Innovate Finance is encouraging the creation of two new fintech hubs in Bahrain and the UAE; Innovate Finance's CEO Lawrence Wintermeyer spoke on the potential benefits of a fintech hub for Bahrain on Monday at the FinTech Enterprise Excellerate (E2) conference; while in Bahrain, Innovate Finance will also meet with Bahrain fintech regulators; later in the week Innovate Finance plans to meet with fintech supporters in the UAE. Source
A partnership with DomaCom has helped ThinCats Australia offer its first mortgage loan on residential property; the funder of the firm's first mortgage-backed loan requested a loan-to-value ratio of 36% resulting in a A$212,000 interest-only loan with a term of 24 months and interest rate of 6.5%; prior to the residential property lending expansion, ThinCats has primarily been focused on small business loans. Source
Online lending platform, Capital Float, received the Fintech Startup of the Year award at the India Fintech Awards 2016, demonstrating its kirana loan app which it says gives instant approval with no paperwork; the award provides Capital Float with INR 500,000 along with many event partner benefits; within the industry the company has also been focusing on the country's demonetization which has been helping business growth for fintech firms. 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
SmartFunding has raised S$700,000 in a seed funding round led by Fintech Asia Group; the firm is marketing 20% to 30% annual returns for invoice financing investors; the invoice financing business seeks to capitalize on the Singapore market's small and medium-enterprise businesses which account for half of Singapore's GDP and approximately 70% of the country's jobs. 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