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)
SenseTime has raised $60 million to support artificial intelligence technology development for the firm; SenseTime provides face recognition technology services to over 300 companies and also offers text, vehicle and image recognition; the firm's recent $60 million funding round was led by Shanghai-based Sailing Capital International. 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
European online lender Spotcap has received A$20 million (USD$15.15 million) from New Zealand Bank, Heartland; Spotcap has also launched its platform in New Zealand and will be accelerating growth in Australia, helping to expand its business in the Asia Pacific region; Spotcap's lending targets small and medium enterprises with credit lines and loans of up to $250,000. Source
A report on China's consumer credit finds that consumers are increasing their use of debt with 94% of consumers using credit or a loan in the past year; consumers are borrowing more from internet-based sources with consumers increasing their borrowing from P2P loan providers while also borrowing more for car loans and mortgages; consumers in their 20s appear to be the leading borrowers as a trend towards living in the moment is motivating their spending habits; the report expects the rise in debt to continue, projecting household loans to increase at a rate of 14% for the next five years. Source
Credy was founded in 2016 and has been gaining some ground in India's P2P lending market; the firm is emerging from the Y Combinator Winter 2017 program and seeks to capitalize on two factors supporting the growth of P2P in India: 1) the use of the Aadhaar ID system and 2) the country's demonetization which eliminated 85% of the country's currency and shifted the economy towards a focus on digital transactions; using digital IDs and a technology platform for underwriting and instant approvals will allow the firm to capitalize on a $50 billion personal lending market; the firm's average loan size varies from $500 to $1,000 with repayment terms up to nine months; led by former Goldman Sachs bankers, the P2P platform has already processed approximately $3 million in loans. Source
Capital Float will partner with Amazon India to provide loans for e-sellers; Capital Float will provide the loans through a credit facility called Pay Later which it is already using with e-commerce clients PayTM, Snapdeal and Shopclues; with the Pay Later solution, Capital Float is well positioned to service a fast growing e-commerce market which is expected to grow revenues from $30 billion in 2016 to $120 billion in 2020. Source
Regulators are inspecting Chinese P2P lenders for compliance with new rules issued last year; specifically lenders must partner with a custodian and limit loans to RMB 1 million ($144,200) for individuals and RMB 5 million ($721,001) for companies; they are also not permitted to guarantee principal or interest; the country currently has more than 2,400 P2P lenders; experts expect the new rules will likely change the nation's P2P lending landscape significantly; Roger Ying, founder and chief executive of P2P lender Pandai stated: "[There] will be shakeouts, though good for those which are compliant. It will take time for P2Ps to move to custodian banks. Presumably the most risk for investors is with P2Ps who do not have escrow [or] custodian bank accounts as retail investor sentiment is low." Source
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Recently, local governments in China have launched pilot programs for foreign investments; Qualified Domestic Limited Partner (QDLP) was launched in 2013 in Shanghai which has since expanded to other cities; the Qualified Domestic Investment Enterprises (QDIE) launched in Shenzhen; both require a formation of an onshore fund in one of the pilot cities; Mondaq outlines more details of these programs including differences of the programs and other requirements in their recent article. Source