Alibaba is picking up 33% of Ant Financial, its fintech affiliate that’s valued at over $60B
Alibaba has added an additional angle to the announcement of its latest financial report today with news that it is taking a 33 percent stake in Ant Financial, its fintech affiliate that operates Alipay and other financial services. The deal, which both parties said stems from an agreement made in 2014, will see Alibaba pick up newly issued shares in Ant, seemingly paving the way for a public listing. It will also mark an end to a profit-share agreement which saw Ant give Alibaba “royalty and technology service fees” equal to 37.5 percent of its pre-tax profits each quarter. The agreement will give Alibaba direct ownership of Ant, which is […]
Paris is city of Fintech love for startups seeking hookups
The fintech dating game is on in Paris. Entrepreneurs in Europe’s financial-technology sector are pushing low-cost payments solutions to steal market share from banks, hoping the challenge they pose will spur the lenders to buy them or seek partnerships with them. Many startups are eyeing deals or potential backing as they converge on Paris this week to meet with the top executives of French finance, from BNP Paribas SA’s Jean-Laurent Bonnafe to Societe Generale SA’s Frederic Oudea, at the city’s annual Fintech Forum. How fintechs defy incumbents is a prime theme of discussion there, with payments an area of focus, as banking alternatives from Alipay to M-Pesa already dominate in […]
Israel’s OurCrowd to hit $1 bln in assets from crowdfunding in ’18
Israel’s equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd said on Wednesday it expects to surpass $1 billion in assets under management in funds raised through equity crowdfunding in 2018. Since its inception in 2013, OurCrowd has raised $650 million for 145 startup companies and 12 funds, it said at the outset of its annual investor summit. In 2017, its investor base grew to more than 25,000 from 112 countries. OurCrowd’s primary investor base is the United States, with 49 percent of funding, followed by Asia at 26 percent. The company also said its seed stage incubator will invest in 100 early stage companies in the next 10 years, focused on technologies such as […]
India’s flourishing fintech sector is craving the finance minister’s attention
While most industries have long lists of demands from finance minister Arun Jaitley leading up to the budget on Feb. 01, India’s booming fintech sector primarily has just one wish—that its presence be acknowledged. While the Narendra Modi government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have already laid down regulations for certain segments, such as peer-to-peer lending, others like cryptocurrencies and online lending startups are yet to be regulated. Such regulation may mean stricter compliance, but the management at these firms believe it will lend legitimacy to the industry, which is expected to be worth $2.4 billion by 2020. That, in turn, will help them grow faster. “Given the […]
Dublin fintech community ready for post-Brexit opportunities
Dublin has been a hub for American financial firms to base themselves for their European operations and following Brexit, Dublin is even better positioned to fulfil this status and the fintech community will be looking to join this focus. These were some of the sentiments expressed by Chris Skinner, the world-renowned fintech and financial services expert and commentator, who was discussing the opportunities for Ireland in the global fintech sector at Enterprise Ireland’s Future of Fintech event at Dogpatch Labs, Dublin today. More than 100 leaders, collaborators and disruptors from international banking and fintech hubs such as New York, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto and Mumbai, convened in Dublin today for Enterprise Ireland’s […]
New alliance launched in Hong Kong to help support local FinTech startups
FinTech was identified as one of the key areas to generate momentum for Hong Kong’s economic development, under ‘Smart Economy’ in the city’s Smart City Blueprint released last December. FinTech initiatives will also have an impact in the ‘Smart Living’ area of the Blueprint. On January 24, a new alliance was launched in Hong Kong to help support local start-ups in the financial technology (FinTech) sector. The CSI Alliance has Cyberport, the Smart City Consortium (SCC) and IBM China/Hong Kong Ltd as its core members. It aims to foster collaboration between technology, academic and commercial stakeholders to address issues faced by FinTech start-ups and help accelerate their growth. Cyberport is […]
Indonesia’s fintech lending boom exploits shortfall in bank loans
Fintech firms, offering loans of as little as a few hundred dollars, are seeing a spike in lending in Indonesia where tens of millions of people have little or no access to bank credit – helping alleviate a financing shortfall estimated at more than $73 billion. The emergence of these peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms has so far been welcomed by Indonesia’s financial regulators which see them as offering a much needed service to cash-strapped businesses and consumers at a time when Southeast Asia’s biggest economy has been hobbled by sluggish bank lending. Wimboh Santoso, head of Indonesia’s financial regulator (OJK), said while the trend was still a drop in the […]
Hong Kong–based investment firm acquires pioneering Bitcoin exchange BTCC
BTCC is exiting the Chinese market to focus on making digital currencies accessible to everyone globally. This acquisition by a Hong Kong–based blockchain investment fund is a milestone for BTCC and will allow BTCC to focus on global digital currency adoption. BTCC, located in China and founded in 2011, was the world’s oldest bitcoin exchange until it closed in September 2017 under pressure from the Chinese government. It changed business focus to its international pool, wallet and exchange markets. “Today’s acquisition is an incredible milestone for BTCC that validates all of our hard work over the past few years,” said Bobby Lee, CEO and co-founder of BTCC, in a statement. […]
