Insturech platform Hippo provides home insurance; it has now announced a new partnership with Elafris to help it develop a virtual agent chatbot powered by artificial intelligence to provide virtual customer service for its clients; in comments regarding the partnership Jake Diner, founder and CEO of Elafris, said, "Our virtual agent technology allows insurance providers to radically transform the way they acquire new customers, boost their customer reach and engagement, increase conversion rate and customer satisfaction, and ultimately grow their business faster and more efficiently."; Elafris is a leading provider of artificial intelligence solutions for insurance companies and is currently working with major national insurance providers. Source
PayPal has announced the acquisition of TIO Networks for $233 million; TIO Networks is a bill payment management company and PayPal plans to integrate with its kiosks for bill payment at local merchants; the integration is part of an initiative to reach more underserved bank customers. Source
The LendIt Insurtech Forum was a lively discussion featuring Lemonade CEO Daniel Schreiber and Adam Kerns of the American Insurance Association, moderated by Thalia Smith of Deloitte; the discussion centered around insurance innovation, the effect of insurtech on traditional insurers and the current regulatory environment; panelists also answered audience questions and discussed a range of technological advancements that incumbents and insurtech startups are using to improve the customer experience; to download the recording of this interesting discussion please click here.
China has developed a new Chinese village called Yuhuang Shannan which it has designed for the hedge fund community; a quiet village an hour from Shanghai offers a newly designed community tailored to the hedge fund industry with local office space, an elementary and an after work club for financiers; the number of hedge funds has been increasing in China and 1,000 hedge funds and private equity funds are registered in the village with assets under management of approximately 580 billion yuan ($84 billion); it's likely that hedge funds could become more prevalent in China and the village is receiving ongoing support from the government which currently includes a 30% tax bill subsidy. Source
SoftBank is a telecommunications and internet focused business with its headquarters in Japan; the firm has announced it will be acquiring asset manager Fortress Investment Group for $3.3 billion; SoftBank owns and invests in a range of internet and digital businesses; the acquisition follows a previous collaboration between SoftBank and Fortress on a new $100 billion Vision Fund; Fortress will be run independently from SoftBank after the acquisition and will be led by existing Fortress principals Pete Briger, Wes Edens and Randy Nardone with close collaboration on the Vision Fund. Source
Former Merrill Lynch advisor Carlos Garcia is leading the launch of a new robo advisor, Finhabits, targeting Latin Americans; the platform offers investing and advice through investment accounts and Roth IRAs with low minimums of only $5; targeting the Latin American community the service will be available in both English and Spanish; fees are slightly higher due to the customized target demographic with a $1 per month fee for accounts under $2,500 and a 50 basis point annual fee for accounts over $2,500. Source
Neo Capital provides details on their business services in their featured blog posts; the firm provides a range of services for wealth management, inclusive finance, consumer finance and investment management with a specific focus on data management and anti-fraud solutions for financial inclusion initiatives; their white paper, "How Big Data Risk Management Helps to Build the Value of Inclusive Finance Rapidly" offers insight on financial inclusion solutions and fintech for financial enterprises. Sponsored Blog Post
Singapore software-as-a-service company Lenddo has announced a new data partnership with Experian to support financial inclusion in Indonesia and Vietnam; the partnership will provide data analytics technology for Experian's Consumer Financial Inclusion Indexing platform; through the combined services of Lenddo and Experian, underserved banking consumers will gain access to financial services including remittances, savings, credit and wealth management services. Source
blooom has developed a digital advice platform for defined contribution employer benefit plans; it seeks to provide automation, transparency and simplicity around retirement investing; the platform currently offers both automated and personal financial advice through online chats with human advisors; it recently raised $9 million and plans to expand its client base from 6,000 to 50,000 by the end of 2017. Source
CNBC profiles three companies emerging in the banking industry with solutions built from machine learning technology; Digit has created a solution that integrates with a user's bank account to automate savings based on account balances and spending patterns; Zest Finance is offering credit scoring technology based on AI algorithms using alternative credit data; Adyen is also using machine learning for fraud prevention; overall machine learning solutions are evolving rapidly and speculators believe they will revolutionize the workforce; Goldman Sachs says machine learning and AI will enable $34 billion to $43 billion in annual cost savings and new revenue opportunities for the financial sector by 2025; it's also expected that AI and machine learning will begin to replace jobs that can be easily automated while also creating greater opportunities for software developers and data scientists. Source