Reports continue to show Chinese investors increasingly investing in bitcoin as the yuan devalues; over 90% of bitcoin trading has been reported by Chinese investors and the cryptocurrency's price is showing close correlation with the value of the yuan; Chinese regulation limiting foreign investment to $50,000 per year in order to stabilize the currency appears to be a factor as wealthy Chinese investors use bitcoin investment to evade the regulation since it is considered a borderless investment; while China appears to be a driving force for the currency's gains, experts also believe improved trading efficiencies and solutions for bitcoin are also factors for its recent appreciation. Source
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On Friday last week Capital Float struck a major deal with Amazon India to provide working capital solutions to Amazon's sellers. Amazon India is tied for largest e-commerce market share in India (with Flipkart) and Amazon relies exclusively on third party merchants in India. This partnership launched in October 2016 and has already successfully disbursed thousands of loans to businesses in the Amazon network. They will provide financing to companies in the smartphone, consumer electronics, consumer durables and fashion verticals to start with and they will add new verticals over time.
We are big fans of Gaurav and Sashank, the founders of Capital Float, and their mission in India. Capital Float is the largest digital lending platform to small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in India with a specific focus on working capital management. They cater to over 5,000 SMEs and they have originated over $120 million in loans since their inception in 2013. They are one of the best funded fintech companies in India having raised over $40 million in venture capital from SAIF, Sequoia, Aspada and Creation Investments Capital Management. Most importantly, the founders come from large enterprises where they managed SME supply chain finance for years, so they know the pain points for SMEs that must deal with working capital cash flow management.
The Indian SME market is about $250 billion and it is ripe for disruption. Companies like Capital Float are well positioned to use technology to solve financial service infrastructure problems and to provide much needed access to capital to high quality companies. The best way to reach these companies is through established digital networks like the one Amazon India provides. We expect to see many similar deals with additional e-commerce marketplaces, travel portals, taxi aggregators and other online marketplaces. Capital Float already has similar deals with other leading Indian e-commerce players including Flipkart, Snapdeal and Shopclues.
For more information on the Indian fintech market you can watch the video from LendIt USA 2017 featuring Capital Float as well as Lendingkart, Finomena, Indifi, IndiaLends (PitchIt China winner 2016) and Quona Capital.
CB Insights outlines five tech giants' notable investments, partnerships and M&A moves in the Southeast Asia region; the five tech giants included in the article are Alibaba, Ant Financial, Tencent, Didi Chuxing and JD.com; the article highlights Ant Financial's investments in Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia, as well as its strategic partnerships throughout Southeast Asia. Source