A to Z

Asia/Pac

·Apr. 17, 2017

Renren has Decreased Its Position in SoFi

Renren is a publicly traded company that operates a social networking platform and also has an investment unit that invests in private US fintech companies; Lend Academy previously wrote about Renren and their private market fintech holdings in January; Renren was one of SoFi's first investors reporting 21% ownership in the company at the end of 2015; it’s now been reported that Renren has sold a portion of its share in the company, in association with a SoFi fundraising, receiving net proceeds of $91.9 million. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup Online Lending

·Mar. 24, 2017

Report on China’s Internet Finance Market

Released at the Boao Forum for Asia this week, "The Report on Internet Finance 2017" details China's internet finance market, including its experience in mobile payments and online lending; discusses the opportunity for growth through e-commerce in Asia, specifically through the Belt and Road Initiative; highlights how mobile payments, peer-to-peer lending, online insurance and other internet finance businesses are evolving within the country's economy. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Apr. 18, 2018

Revolut’s Japanese Expansion Makes Slow and Steady Progress

AltFi sat down with Revolut’s Rishi Stocker who is leading their effort to expand into Japan; Revolut has found the Japanese market to be more challenging than initially hoped; key issues include regulators want a local presence and for the fintech to hire someone with on the ground expertise; they also want to ensure their product targets the right customer in Japan. Source.

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 6, 2017

Ride-Sharing and Financial Services

Bloomberg reports on the possibility of ride-sharing companies getting into financial services; Grab is a leading ride-hailing company in Southeast Asia; app users can now start sending credits which are used to pay for rides to other users; by the end of 2017 credits will be able to be used at 1,000 restaurants and retailers, turning Grab into much more of an e-payment platform than just a taxi service; in Indonesia, the 200,000 drivers of Go-Jek can use e-wallets to store their earnings and also spend funds on a variety of services; article also shares innovation in Kenya with M-Pesa as well as China's Alibaba and WeChat. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Jan. 31, 2017

Robo Advisers Seeking to Stabilize Volatile Chinese Retail Investing

Asset allocation is an emerging concept increasingly being introduced to Chinese retail investors who have historically invested in highly volatile markets; CreditEase is one fintech company in the region seeking to educate and support more strategic investing through robo advisory services; the fintech company launched its Toumi robo adviser service in May 2016; the automated service provides advice for clients based on age, risk aversion and other preferences; it offers stable returns with low fees; with numerous cases of fraud from fintech investing in China more of the retail population is interested in safer robo advisory investment options; the country currently has approximately RMB 100 trillion ($14.5 trillion) in personal investable assets with nearly all the major banks developing new robo adviser services. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Jan. 17, 2017

Robo Advisor Developing Services for Australian Superannuation Funds

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

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Dec. 12, 2016

Robo Advisors Taking Hold in China

Investors in China are increasingly looking for an unbiased, lower cost option for managing their wealth; robo advisors are beginning to fill that void; the new firms are helping the non ultra rich access markets and helping the wealthy allocate their money without fear of a broker who is thinking of the corporate firm; though the data on robo advisors in China is currently thin, China Merchants Securities Co. believes that assets managed by robo advisors will reach over $750 billion by 2020. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Dec. 30, 2016

Russian Airline Completes Letter of Credit Deal with Bank through Blockchain

PJSC Siberia Airlines has announced the first letter of credit service payment using blockchain; the opening and executing of the letter of credit issued from Alfa-Bank was recorded with smart contracts on a distributed ledger; the subsequent payment for services will also be transacted through blockchain technology; Alfa-Bank provided members of the deal with an electronic Alfa-business online system for deal processing. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Feb. 1, 2017

Sberbank Integrating AI for 3,000 Employees

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

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 5, 2017

Sequoia Capital, IDG to Invest in Bitmain

Sequoia Capital and IDG Capital are investing in Bitmain, the world's largest bitcoin mining company; Bitmain is seeking $50 million in funding to expand its artificial intelligence capabilities, after previously focusing on developing chips for mining; Bitmain claimed in August that the company is at a $1 billion valuation, and is planning an IPO. Source

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