Australian robo advisor SuperEd is seeking AUS$6 million (USD$4.53 million) to expand its services; the founders expect to use the funds to provide white label robo advisory services for Australian superannuation funds; the robo advisor is also developing tools for analyzing retirement income from the funds. Source
BBVA has invested in Sinovation Ventures as the fund can help to strike partnerships for the bank and they see the potential for strong return on investment; the focus on AI is helping the bank to keep innovating and offer mor potential services across their different regions. Source.
Scott Morrison, Australia's treasurer, spoke about regtech at the Fintech Australia Summit; the treasurer discussed a regtech collision occurring in fintech where both crowdfunding firms and traditional banks are benefiting from increased technological innovation around regulation; likely that the marketplace lending ecosystem could see expansion in regulatory technology innovation. Source
Proptech is beginning to become a buzzword in real estate markets as the industry looks to change how real estate...
India has become one of the fastest and most diverse fintech markets in the world; at LendIt USA 2017 we hosted a panel featuring leading India fintech firms; panelists talk about what makes the India market unique and what is the size of the opportunity right now; banks have helped to serve the top of the credit pyramid and micro lending has helped to serve the bottom of the credit pyramid, there is a big opportunity in serving the missing middle; panelists focused on how their lending models differ, the differences in the small business and consumer markets and how India has gone from a data scarce country to a data rich country; Aadhaar has also played a key role in helping to get more people and businesses into the financial system; other areas discussed include borrower acquisition channels and leveraging third party data sources. Source
Southeast Asia reported 71 fintech deals in 2016, an increase of 29% from 2015; total deal value was down from $177 million at $158 million; angel and seed investments led for the year with 62% of total financings; in 2016, Singapore continued to be the region's most active fintech innovator with 52% of the year's total deals; the top three venture capital investors since 2012 are East Ventures, 500 Startups and Golden Gate Ventures. Source
India was one of the fastest growing digital payments markets before the pandemic hit and now many of the companies...
The Series A fundraising included both debt and equity capital; investment was led by K2 Venture Capital with participation from STI Financial Group and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper who made his first investment in an Indonesian startup; firm will use the funds to expand its lending and build its technology with plans for adding new research and development centers for machine learning and algorithm design; platform provides short term micro-loans of between US$75 and US$350 for a maximum of 30 days. Source
CredEX has created an intermediary peer-to-peer lending technology solution which allows banks to facilitate peer-to-peer loans; the company participated in a roundtable forum at LendIt USA 2017 with Peter Renton, founder of LendIt and Jo Ann Barefoot, former deputy comptroller of the currency and Harvard professor; in comments regarding CredEX, Peter says: "Their instant credit decisions and the robust underwriting platform they have built has allowed them to become a leading fintech company in China in a very short time. Unlike most fintech companies they are 100% app-based, they are funded by banks and they are doing more than US$1 billion in loans annually. They represent the future of lending." Source
Russia's Sberbank will integrate new artificial intelligence (AI) to replace 3,000 employees in its legal department; the AI solution follows comments from CEO Herman Gref in September 2016 which forecasted that 80% of the bank's decisions would soon be attributed to AI systems; as AI solutions evolve, regulators are considering industry standards and frameworks for changing labor markets. Source