Underserved fintech fund raises $141 million
US non-profit group Accion International and VC Quona Capital have raised $141 million from an array of institutional investors to support fintech startups that improve the quality and availability of financial services for the underserved. The Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund will focus on emerging markets in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Asia that have demonstrated the greatest potential for inclusive fintech. Michael Schlein, CEO and resident of Accion, says: “The Fund will support innovators using new technologies to help create a financial system that works for everyone. By focusing on both social impact and financial returns, we believe the Fund shows the importance of harnessing the capital markets to solve […]
Law firms cosy up to UK fintech community
Top law firm Slaughter and May is to give five fintech startups free legal services worth tens of thousands of pounds. Meanwhile, another law firm, Simmons & Simmons, is launching a fintech and regtech student support programme with London’s Queen Mary University. Simmons & Simmons and Slaughter and May are both keen to woo members of London’s vibrant fintech scene, building relationships that could one day yield valuable business. Late last year Slaughter and May opened the doors to its first Fintech Fast Forward programme, inviting applications from startups in areas such as insurtech, regtech, datatech and distributed ledger technology. Over 25 firms applied, seeking £30,000 of value add services […]
China & Japan lead Asian interest in FinTech
Asia is continuing to demonstrate its commitment to FinTech and is helping to fuel global investment in the sector, according to a report from Accenture. In 2016, the amount of venture capital funding increased 10 percent to $23.2 billion, which was largely assisted by investments in China and Japan, reports Fortune. Over the last year, China’s FinTech investment is reported to have more than tripled to $10 billion from 55 deals. Japan has also been flexing its FinTech muscles. Over the last twelve months, FinTech investment increased to $154 million from 14 deals. This is compared to the $65 million from the previous year. China’s Increase in FinTech FinTech has […]
Prominent British entrepreneur Eric van der Kleij says Australian fintech companies are “world-class”
Leading British entrepreneur Eric van der Kleij says he is impressed with the “serious solutions” being built by founders in the local fintech sector, which he believes is on par with the rest of the world. “The quality of companies that we’ve met here are world-class,” he tells StartupSmart. Van der Kleij, who founded London’s largest fintech hub Level39, is in Australia this week for the UK government’s Australian Hunger Games-inspired event held in Sydney. Van der Kleij is a special adviser in fintech and blockchain for UK’s Department for International Trade, and is on a mission to help promising Australian startups with a “soft and accelerated landing into the […]
Everything you need to know about FinTech
The term “Fintech” is an extremely broad term, as the field has exploded as of recent times. And the following infographic was meant to cover the field in a broad sense, there are many topics within Fintech that could each be discussed in much greater detail than we are able to do with the limited time and space we have available, or that you would probably have time for. In short, Fintech stands for “Financial Technology” and it speaks to technology which deals specifically with financial services & financial products. You want to talk about digital cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin & Ether… Fintech. You want to talk about the blockchains that […]
China primed to push advances in blockchain and 5G development
Financial services, particularly digital currency, payment processing, and market trading and settlement leading blockchain usage. Mainland China is primed to become a global leader in the implementation of blockchain, the distributed ledger technology behind cryptocurrency bitcoin, as the central government reinforces the creation of digital intelligent services in the country, according to industry experts. That development is expected to run in parallel with preparations being made by the mainland’s telecommunications industry to roll out advanced 5G mobile services by 2020. “When 5G, the Internet of Things and autonomous driving start to get more prevalent then blockchain could potentially become the underlying ledger to record transactions and maintain trust in those […]
Japan’s largest bank is testing digitized checks on a Blockchain in Singapore
The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Japan’s largest bank, has chosen blockchain technology as the core infrastructure toward testing the digitization of checks using Singapore’s Fintech-friendly regulatory sandbox installed by the country’s central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore. First announced last year, the Proof of Concept (PoC) testing is the result of a joint endeavor between the bank and major Japanese conglomerate Hitachi. The two companies developed a blockchain-based infrastructure to issue, transfer and collect electronic checks. With the PoC testing, the bank issued and settled checks while the Hitachi Group’s companies in Singapore received the electronic checks and then deposited the funds. “The project is to digitalize entire check […]
Traity releases micro-insurance product ‘Kevin’ in open blockchain balance sheet
Traity, a network that builds reputation standards, has collaborated with Suncorp, the largest Australian insurance conglomerate, and announced the release of a new micro-insurance product ‘Kevin’ in an open blockchain balance sheet. In an ‘Open Blockchain Balance Sheet,’ for every new transaction that Kevin approves, it buys $10 worth of bitcoin. When a transaction ends positively, Kevin sells $10 worth of bitcoin and on negative grounds, it needs to pay the guarantee, an additional $100 into Kevin’s Open Balance Sheet. This indicates that there is a 10x liability leverage that is reasonable. “$100 may not sound like much, but it covers most of the transactions online. Furthermore, we think that […]
