One of China's e-commerce giants, Baidu, has obtained regulatory approval for Baixin Bank; follows banking sector business activity from competitors Alibaba and Tencent; the banking unit will be digital only, offering online banking, telephone banking, ATM and mobile banking services; Baidu owns 30% of Baixin Bank and will work in partnership with China CITIC Bank which currently owns 70% of the bank. Source
The website for the new platform is chain.baidu.com; it is a project from the firm’s research on blockchain; they see early applications of the platform in asset securitization and asset exchanges; registration on the website is open to the public and users can deploy custom blockchain nodes. Source
Baidu is active in artificial intelligence (AI) development and could provide an investment channel for investors seeking to gain from the innovative technology; the company is integrating AI into nearly all aspects of its business and in September launched artificial intelligence platform "Baidu Brain" which integrates AI in search, news feeds, maps, Nuomi and PostBar; the firm is also evolving AI for healthcare and actively developing autonomous driving solutions powered by AI; overall, its business model can easily integrate AI while it also provides products for AI entrance in other markets. Source
TPG, Carlyle Group and other investors participated in the newly spun off division; the new company will be called “Du...
Digital asset services fintech Bakkt has raised a $300mn series B from Microsoft’s venture capital arm M12 and fintech PayU;...
Balderton Capital is best known for their fintech investments in Nutmeg, Revolut, Crowdcuve and Prodigy Finance; the firm has now launched their sixth fund totaling $375 million from investors in Europe, Asia and the US; they have made 10 investments across five countries since March. Source
Martins Sulte founded Mintos in 2015, a platform which is leading the way in the EU; they focus largely on...
The new alliance between Banca Afirme and Clara guarantees the investment of $55 million throughout 2023 for 200 businesses in LatAm.
The Portuguese bank announced it will invest in notes issued by CrossLend; CrossLend is a European marketplace lending platform that operates across many European countries; Banco BNI Europa views the investment as a diversification play. Source
Creditshelf is a German marketplace focused on SME financing and they just received a $17.7 million infusion from Banco BNI Europea; the bank will initially invest in the existing loan portfolio then increase that by $2.4 million a month; Pedro Coelho, executive chairman of BNI Europa, stated, "With the Creditshelf team, we have identified a highly professional partner, whose credit analysis process has proven totally convincing to us."; Creditshelf's managing director, Dr. Daniel Bartsch, explained, "We are delighted at finding another institutional investor for our platform, who is totally persuaded by the attractive risk-return profile of our product." Source