Australia weathers fintech slump
Global investment in fintech companies almost halved last year as “froth” comes out of the burgeoning industry and investors wait to see if they can successfully disrupt incumbents such as banks and insurers, according to a new report. Fintech investment funding declined to $US24.7 billion ($32.17bn) last year from a bumper $US46.7bn in 2015, driven by fewer merger and acquisitions, and private equity investments, KPMG found. However, the less mature Australian fintech industry bucked the trend as investment soared to a record high of $626 million last year, up from $185m in 2015 and $461m in 2014. The increase was powered by Champ Private Equity’s acquisition of Pepperstone, Stirling Products’ […]
LandlordInvest’s Innovative Finance ISA is now flexible
LandlordInvest, having recently launched the first residential mortgage-backed IFISA, has made its IFISA flexible. Flexible ISA means that an investor can replace, in whole or in part, cash the investor has withdrawn, without the replacement counting towards the investor’s subscription limit for a tax year. The flexible ISA was only introduced in the current year and offers savers the ability to move cash between all types of ISAs (cash, stocks & shares and the IFISA). LandlordInvest’s property-backed flexible IFISA lets savers invest up to £15,240 in the current tax year (rising to £20,000 in the next tax year) in peer-to-peer loans secured by residential mortgages, and with the ability to […]
Ant Financial invests $200 million in Kakao Pay to expand into South Korea
Alibaba’s financial services affiliate Ant Financial is aggressively pushing to expand its presence across the globe. Today, the company is making their way into Korea by driving a massive $200 million investment in Kakao Pay, the soon-to-launch fin-tech subsidiary of widely popular messaging service Kakao Talk. This capital infusion, as rightly put in the blog post, is part of the company’s larger strategic partnership across the globe. Ant Financial leads digital payments wallet AliPay and Alibaba’s digital banking services and boasts of over 450 million users on its platform. Now, it plans to expand its digital banking services to South Korea by merging them with this upcoming fin-tech entity at […]
Funding Circle hits £2bn milestone
Funding Circle became the second UK peer-to-peer lender to hit the £2bn milestone yesterday, as research showed that the sector had a strong start to the year. Funding Circle’s UK division has now lent £2bn to small businesses, the platform said on its Twitter account on Monday. The platform, which also has operations in the US, Germany and the Netherlands, has experienced stratospheric growth over the past year, lending out £820m in the UK in 2016. Globally, its investors lent more than £1.1bn in 2016, with approximately £400m lent in the fourth quarter alone, a record amount for any small-and medium-sized enterprise (SME) direct lending platform. The platform announced in […]
This FinTech CEO is making money instantly available anywhere in the World
The consumer financial services industry currently boasts a $33.5 billion market cap globally, supplying consumers with various loans and lines of credit. For years, the most common and accurate way of indicating whether consumers qualify for an approved loan or credit line was by analyzing general online data and traditional credit intelligence metrics. Today, with real-time consumer data becoming easily accessible and more emphasis is placed on creating cutting edge banking solutions for a mobile generation, financial technology companies have risen and claimed a reputation for actively disrupting the traditional banking infrastructure. Consequently, the existing challenge for FinTech startups and their big bank counterparts is whether to continue operating independently, […]
Mundi Ventures invests 1.5 Million CHF in Qumram to fuel global growth
Qumram, a leading global RegTech firm, providing digital compliance and risk management solutions, has announced further investment of 1.5 million Swiss Francs, from the technology-focused venture capital firm, Mundi Ventures. Headquartered in Madrid, Mundi Ventures has operational presence in Barcelona, London and Seattle. In addition to providing due diligence support, Mundi Ventures will boost Qumram’s growth strategy by facilitating access to corporate executives, new markets, and new customers. Through this investment partnership, Qumram will gain access to the Mundi Club, a global network of more than 500 renowned Spanish business leaders, located in 41 cities worldwide, including board members of Havas, Kering, Merck, Bertelsmann and Nestle, as well as the […]
Asian Fintech Startups see a record $5.4 Billion VC Funding in 2016, driven by China
Fintech startups in Asia gained a record $5.4 billion in venture-capital funding last year, up from $4.8 billion in 2015. According to data from venture capital research firm CBInsights, Asia accounted for nearly 20 percent in the number of Fintech investments worldwide. Notably, however, the deals are far more substantial in the region with 43% of the global funding taking place in Asia, in 2016. A driving factor towards the increase in the volume and value of investments is the money poured into the Asian Fintech sector by major Chinese companies. The $5.4 billion is recorded across 165 transactions or funding deals in 2016, up from 162 in 2015. On […]
Breaking Paytm’s monopoly, Reliance Jio announces strategic partnership with Uber
If you were taking the suite of services Reliance launched with Jio, lightly — here is a wake up call for you. Reliance Jio Infocomm has announced a a strategic partnership with Uber that will enable users to pay for rides, through their Jio Money wallets. This breaks Paytm’s monopoly, which until now was the only third-party wallet that could be used to directly pay for cabs hailed using the Uber platform. Speaking on the topic, Madhu Kannan, Chief Business Officer for India and Emerging Markets at Uber, said: Digital payments have become part of our everyday lives and by integrating JioMoney as a payment option, our riders will have […]
