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
The People's Bank of China says in a report that it is considering expanding its risk-assessment system beyond banks to include major online financial businesses; the Wall Street Journal comments that China's central bank is increasing its monitoring of the loosely regulated fintech sector. Source
A WeBank employee wrote a post in WeChat Moment, announcing that the loan amount of Weilidai (WeBank's micro loan product) is over RMB100 billion ($14.92 billion); Weilidai's loan amount has increased almost 300% over the past seven months; according to its financial results, WeBank lost RMB583 million ($86.97 million) in the first year (2015); but in 2016, it made a profit of RMB401 million ($59.82 million); in the first four months of 2017, WeBank made a profit of RMB500 million ($74.59 million); in terms of product, WeBank has launched an enterprise-grade product, "Weiyedai"; Weiyedai provides unsecured loans of up to RMB3 million ($447,507) to enterprises, with annual percentage rates ranging from 10.95% to 16.43%. Source (Chinese)
Ping An is investing 7.77 billion yuan ($1.16 billion) in technology research and development this year with artificial intelligence as the focus; the firm's Ping An Technology division is supporting the efforts; the group has been focusing on solutions for finance and healthcare with plans to expand to other industries; the company's goals are also in line with a government initiative announced by China's State Council; current efforts for Ping An have been centered around recognition software for identity and claims management. Source
The People's Bank of China (PBoC) requires all third-party payment institutions to channel transactions through a newly established central clearing platform called Nets Union Clearing Corp. (Wanglian); the trial operations started in April and will be put to formal use on July 1, 2018; by that time, all third-party payment firms (including Alipay and TenPay), will not be able to conduct transactions, such as bank transfers, outside of regulator's supervision. Source
Timothy Li discusses the event and the interest in fintech from investors in his most recent journal entry on Crowdfund Insider; lists some of the top investors, outlines companies attending and shares some pictures from his time in China. Source
Bitcoin blockchain split on August 1, and rumors are that Bitmain CEO Wu Jihan is the man behind the split; Wu Jihan is an aggressive supporter for Bitcoin Unlimited, which believes that the size of these blocks should be increased; Wu Jihan's company, Bitmain, is the world's largest bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer; the company also runs the world's biggest mining pool, AntPool. Source
Cryptocurrency platform Omega One was this year's PitchIt @ Lang Di winner; the company operates an automated trade execution platform with trading services for traders, investors and institutions seeking to trade globally across the world's crypto exchanges; in comments on Omega One, LendIt Co-Founder Jason Jones said, "Omega One opens the market to the next wave of capital from institutional investors by providing much needed transparency and liquidity."; among the prize winnings for the firm include a RMB1 million ($150,148) investment from JadeValue, co-working space for six months and two tickets to LendIt USA 2018. Source
The report, "Payment: The Ecosystem Gateway" is the first one in Goldman Sachs' "The Rise of China FinTech" series; the report focuses on the emergence of new electronic payment methods, as payment is a crucial gateway to most other services, and this is where the innovators have gained the strongest footholds in China. Source (Chinese)
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)