China International Capital Corporation (CICC), China’s HK-listed tier 1 investment bank, announced on Wednesday that it will introduce Tencent as a strategic shareholder (4.95%); CICC says the company will be able to provide more customized wealth management products and services through its cooperation with Tencent in terms of targeted marketing and big data analysis; the two parties will establish a “strategic cooperation committee” that composed of executives from both companies to facilitate the cooperation; the deal is pending regulatory approval. Source (Chinese)
Deposit marketplace Raisin moved into the UK market by acquiring Manchester-based fintech PBF Solutions; Tamaz Georgadze, Raisin’s CEO and founder, tells AltFi “The acquisition of PBF gives us the opportunity to significantly broaden our offer to UK savers and deposit takers." Source.
TechCrunch has published the video from an interview with Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum; in the interview he talked about cryptocurrencies and blockchain, highlighting what makes a good use case for the technology. Source
Ellevest is an investment platform focused on women; the firm is led by Sallie Krawcheck and recently raised $34.6 mn in a Series A round; the round was led by Rethink Impact with participation from a wide variety of investors including PSP Growth, Salesforce Ventures, CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund, LH Holdings, SK Impact Fund, Morningstar, Khosla Ventures, Mellody Hobson, Ulu Ventures, Contour Venture Partners and Astia Angels. Source
PingAn Bank on Wednesday launches its robo-advisor services, which utilize black-litterman model and quantitative asset allocation methodology to customize users’ investment portfolio based on their risk preferences. Source (Chinese)
While the crackdown on bitcoin in China has hurt the value of the digital currency, prices have stabilized and traders are confident this is a blip on the radar; what traders are more focused on is the technology behind the currency and the blockchain protocol has not been affected; there are also reports that say the crackdown is temporary and China has become less central as overall volume has dropped. Source.
Real estate alternative investment platform AlphaFlow raised $4.1mn led by Resolute Ventures and Point72 Ventures; they plan to use the funds to scale partnerships with lenders and investors, accredited individual investors and investment managers; they also plan to hire more individuals for the data science and engineering division and potentially look at more asset classes int the future. Source.
Nathaniel Hoopes, head of the Marketplace Lending Association shares how the Madden v. Midland decision is having an adverse impact on borrowers in an American Banker opinion article. Source