After the Bust, Are Bitcoins More Like Tulip Mania or the Internet? Google’s Ulku Rowe on how innovative financial services...
Andy Taylor previously co-founded marketplace lending platform SocietyOne; his new venture Douugh is a personal financial app; it uses a virtual assistant called Sophie to help users manage their finances; much like other apps, users input their financial accounts; users can interact with Sophie, asking questions like "How much did I spend on food this week?"; the app will also provide context around whether the amount spent is higher than usual and also aid users in setting up spending targets; the company is in beta for the rest of the year and will officially launch in February of next year; they hope to eventually make Sophie accessible via Alexa and Siri. Source

The Asset provides details on recent decreases in China's P2P lending market; the chart above notes a significant decrease in transaction volume for P2P lenders in China since December 2016; the publication also reports on the number of Chinese P2P platforms and the number of problematic P2P platforms from January 2014 through February 2017. Source
In an opinion article, one investor shares emails that have been leaked at Chinese marketplace lender Yirendai (NYSE: YRD); leaked emails show the company's chairman requiring parent company employees at CreditEase to invest in a fund to purchase undisclosed US equities; the author states the fund is likely purchasing shares of YRD and presents his case for shorting the stock; the stock recently saw volatility following China's new regulatory guidance for P2P lenders. Source
Australian online lender SocietyOne is celebrating its fifth year in business with its first loan issued in August 2012; in June 2017 the platform reported cumulative originations of $300 million and since inception has helped over 13,000 customers; the firm says it has plans for expanding to new areas of lending over the long-term and will seek to obtain a 2% to 3% share of the $100 billion consumer finance market. Source
A new report predicts digital asset tokenization will be a $16.1-trillion business opportunity by 2030.
Ning Tang, founder and CEO of CreditEase, has received the China Financial Literacy Distinguished Contribution Award; the honor was awarded at the 2nd China Financial Literacy Annual Conference; as an institution, CreditEase was also honored with the China Financial Literacy Distinguished Contribution Award; the awards recognize Ning Tang and CreditEase for their broad commitment and contribution to financial inclusion, wealth management, fintech innovation and public financial education. Source
China has developed a new Chinese village called Yuhuang Shannan which it has designed for the hedge fund community; a quiet village an hour from Shanghai offers a newly designed community tailored to the hedge fund industry with local office space, an elementary and an after work club for financiers; the number of hedge funds has been increasing in China and 1,000 hedge funds and private equity funds are registered in the village with assets under management of approximately 580 billion yuan ($84 billion); it's likely that hedge funds could become more prevalent in China and the village is receiving ongoing support from the government which currently includes a 30% tax bill subsidy. Source
India has fast become one of the world's most interesting fintech markets; at LendIt USA 2017 we hosted a fireside chat focused on digital credit for the India population and how their biometric Aadhaar system plays a key role; a few key developments have helped the India population, the ease of acquiring a smartphone and the Aadhaar system; Aadhaar started with an investment by the India government eight years ago and today there is one billion Indians who have an Aadhaar number with key identifiable pieces of information; the government then began linking Aadhaar with the banking system and enlisted fintech firms to begin extending microloans to individuals and SMEs; Aadhaar helps to solve the biggest issue with lending, KYC, by using a retina scan or biometric signature to verify the borrower; the fireside chat also talked through how the lending process worked with Aadhaar and how it has helped to extend credit to a segment of the population that only a few years ago was unable to access capital. Source
Viva Republica is the operator of Toss; firm has announced a $48 million funding round for the payment app from PayPal, Goodwater Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Altos Ventures and Partech Ventures; Toss has reported significant market share in Korea with over six million app downloads and payment transactions of over $3 billion; Viva Republica has also partnered with 18 of Korea's 19 major banks and now provides payment services to 98% of Korea's banking customers; for PayPal the investment builds out its payment services portfolio which includes mobile payment processor Venmo. Source


