Asia

July 9, 2020 @ 11:26 am By JD Alois  |  

  Ant Financial, part of the mega-tech group Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), is planning an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong that will value the firm at a massive $200+ billion valuation, according to a report. Earlier this year, the company changed its legal name in… Read More

July 9, 2020 @ 7:49 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The Fintech Abu Dhabi Innovation and startups team is reportedly planning to “digitally visit” 23 different countries throughout the world between July and November 2020, The Fintech group aims to meet and potentially work with the founders of high-potential early-stage financial technology companies. The best… Read More

July 8, 2020 @ 8:10 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas), the central bank of the Philippines, is working on a new set of guidelines for digital banks that plan on establishing operations in the country. The BSP confirmed that foreign individuals or business entities will be able to own… Read More

July 8, 2020 @ 10:55 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The global digital banking platform industry reportedly managed to generate $3.95 billion in revenue last year. It’s expected to reach $10.87 billion by 2027, which means it’s projected to expand at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.6% from 2020 to 2027. This, according… Read More

July 7, 2020 @ 11:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The ongoing U.S.-China trade wars and the COVID-19 outbreak have negatively impacted China’s $11-$13 trillion economy, however, the nation’s technology sector continues to develop rapidly. The country’s tech industry is supported by $616 billion in research and development (R&D) resources. In addition to investing in… Read More

July 7, 2020 @ 12:39 am By Omar Faridi  |  

United Arab Emirates (UAE) based “Shop Now, Pay Later” Fintech Spotii announced on July 5, 2020 that Daman Investments had invested in its operations. Daman Investments is a non-banking financial services company that’s known for its involvement in the MENA region business sector. Spotii is… Read More

July 6, 2020 @ 10:32 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

South Korea’s ICONLOOP, a company that developed its own blockchain-powered engine, loopchain, which is used for various Internet services, has reportedly acquired KRW 6 billion (appr. $5 million) in additional investments.  The company has secured a total of KRW 16 billion (appr. $13.4 million) in… Read More

July 6, 2020 @ 9:49 pm By JD Alois  |  

InstaReM, a payments Fintech that is part of Nium, has launched BizPay in Australia. The service is designed to assist SMEs by converting credit cards into working capital. The announcement comes soon after the same product launched in Singapore in June. InstaReM believes that SMEs… Read More

July 6, 2020 @ 9:31 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), a leading UAE-based financial institution, reports that it has experienced significantly increased levels of digital banking adoption across its retail and corporate services during H1 2020. As noted in a release, almost 60% of ADIB’s retail clients have been using… Read More

July 6, 2020 @ 7:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Several Singapore-based organizations recently teamed up to create a map of what the city-state’s blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) sector looks like, and how it has grown considerably this year when compared to 2019. Many major DLT initiatives in the country are supported in… Read More

July 6, 2020 @ 11:51 am By JD Alois  |  

China’s crackdown of the peer to peer lending industry appears to be ongoing with a report today that Weidai, (NYSE:WEI) a P2P platform that raised $45 million in an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange, is said to be under investigation…. Read More

July 6, 2020 @ 8:13 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Payments platform Adyen (AMS: ADYEN) announced on Monday it is expanding its acquiring capabilities to Malaysia. According to Adyen, the expansion helps businesses achieve higher authorization rates, better customer experience, and deeper data insights as the Malaysian market transitions to online payments. “Adyen acquiring complements… Read More

July 5, 2020 @ 10:47 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

PAYFAZZ, an Indonesia-based fintech startup, has reportedly secured $53 million through its Series B funding round, which was led by B Capital Group and Insignia Ventures Partners with participation from Tiger Global Management, Y Combinator, ACE & Company, BRI Ventures, and Quiet Capital. Founded in… Read More

July 5, 2020 @ 10:09 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

FInD, a government of Maharashtra initiative that aims to match suitable investors and startups in India, confirmed on July 2, 2020, that Yuva Pay, which is part of FInD’s curated Fintech cohort, has teamed up with Yes Bank to introduce an integrated digital wallet platform…. Read More

July 5, 2020 @ 8:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Hong Kong as jurisdiction was slow out of the gate when it came to Fintech innovation. But this initial hesitancy was soon made up by a dedicated public-private partnership determined to establish Hong Kong as a top Fintech hub – a successful move. InvestHK, a… Read More

July 5, 2020 @ 12:19 pm By Xu Gao  |  

2020 CB Insights China Fintech 50 List Released On June 29th, CB Insights China announced the first CB Insights China Fintech List (the List) at the “Future of Fintech China” summit in Shanghai. Fintech companies were evaluated based on a unique DPTC system, namely Depth,… Read More

July 4, 2020 @ 5:53 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Dr. Deep Datta Ray, a  Visiting Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, writes that Qatar’s opportunity creation in the “new normal” (following the COVID-19 outbreak) is in Fintech, aviation, and digitization. He notes that Qatar’s… Read More

July 4, 2020 @ 4:34 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Borrowers that use Indonesia’s peer to peer (P2P) lending platform Investree, which mainly includes local SMEs, had reported a considerable increase in their earnings. They were also able to better scale their business operations after obtaining loans from Investree, according to a recent study conducted… Read More

July 4, 2020 @ 2:41 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Indonesia-based Amar Bank, which is part of the Tolaram Group and reportedly became the first Fintech bank in the country with the launch of its digital product, Tunaiku, has introduced an app-only banking service that resides completely in Google Cloud. The app-only service uses proprietary… Read More

July 3, 2020 @ 1:54 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

JD Digits, the Fintech-focused division of Chinese online marketplace JD.com, is reportedly planning to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) at China’s STAR Market, which is based in Shanghai. This, according to a filing submitted by several securities companies. As first reported by TechNode, the… Read More