Lemonade provides part two of its 2016 Transparency Chronicles with statistics on its first quarter in the market; notes some positives and negatives including confusion around marketing the firm as a peer-to-peer insurance provider; says they are an artificial intelligence and behavioral economics company or a tech company doing insurance; highlights from the first quarter include: average homeowners and renters premiums of $165.5; 123 homeowners policies; 63% of customers 25 to 34 years old; males accounting for the majority of customers at 76.5%; a claim managed in three seconds by artificial intelligence. Source
TrustPilot, a Denmark multi-language online merchant review platform, has raised 5.5 million British pounds ($6.9 million); platform allows for communication between merchants and consumers; funding was provided by Draper Esprit which now doubles its equity stake in the company to 11 million British pounds ($13.71 million). Source
Over $300 million has been invested on RealtyShares into residential and commercial real estate projects; the company crossed $200 million in September 2016; individual investors can invest a minimum of $5,000 per project; the company also has multi-billion dollar institutions participating on the platform; to date 550 real estate deals have been done across 1,000 properties, spanning 35 states; RealtyShares has a network of 38,000 accredited investors. Source
Aviva, Hillhouse Capital and Tencent have announced plans for a new digital insurer, Aviva Hong Kong; Aviva and Hillhouse will own 40% with Tencent owning the remaining 20%; the new platform will focus on selling digital life insurance in Hong Kong and will also offer additional investment products. Source
Investment in regtech companies has reported a 38.5% compound annual growth rate over the past five years with a record $678 million invested in 70 companies in 2016; globally London has taken the lead reporting the greatest number of investment deals from 2012 to 2016 at 39; anti-fraud companies have been increasingly receiving greater investment with $334.8 million in 2016 accounting for 49.4% of total regtech investment. Source
A study by Citigroup shows China as the world's investment leader in fintech; says investment is being led by success from "Chinese dragons" including Ant Financial, Lu.com, JD Finance and Qufenqi; in the first nine months of 2016 fintech venture capital investment increased to 46% of the global total; the full Citi report can be found here. Source
In an opinion piece, William Mougayar who wrote, "The Business Blockchain" provides thoughts on initial coin offerings (ICOs); dozens of startups are planning ICOs and funds are also feeding an investment and speculation frenzy according to Mougayar; he notes that ICOs are a good alternative funding model but warns of potential issues outlined in the article. Source
Bitcoin exchanges BTCC, Huobi and OKCoin have implemented a 0.2% trading fee for both buying and selling; according to CoinDesk, volume has decreased after the fees were put in place but prices remain stable thus far; fees were put in place to help curb market manipulation and volatility. Source
Open banking is a significant factor for fintech industry growth; it allows fintech companies to access customer data for fintech services; the Consumer Financial Data Rights (CFDR) coalition has been established to focus primarily on this issue; there initiatives include: lobbying regulators for open access to data, promoting fintech's rights to use data and serving as a resource center for open access regulation; Business Insider also suggests considering the UK's open access and regulatory examples and has published a report entitled, "The Fintech Regulation Report." Source
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are becoming increasingly relied upon by financial services companies and the credit sector; the algorithms powering these solutions have also advanced the use of AI and machine learning; while these advancements have helped new solutions they have also created new risks; these risks are primarily focused in three phases: input, training and programming; risks can also be higher when using nontraditional data; a report from White and Case titled, "Algorithms and Bias: What Lenders Need to Know" provides details on the evolution of algorithms in artificial intelligence and machine learning and explains important factors to consider for credit providers. Source