Asia

May 28, 2020 @ 12:13 pm By JD Alois  |  

Skymind Global Ventures (SGV), the venture arm of Skymind, has announced its first spin-off – Konduit.  According to the company, Konduit offers a portfolio of open source tools that support machine learning practitioners. The company’s goal is to bridge the gap between research and enterprise… Read More

May 27, 2020 @ 10:03 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Mumbai-based Home Capital, a Fintech firm focused on supporting housing initiatives for younger people, has acquired seed funding via a round led by the Varanium NextGen Fund. Shalin Shah, Singapore Angel Network, JITO Incubation and Innovation Foundation, Venture Catalysts, and Venture Gurukool also took part… Read More

May 27, 2020 @ 8:53 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) recently noted that it has not yet provided a definite timetable on a formal or official virtual yuan launch. During a recent interview, PBoC Governor Yi Gang clarified that the institution was only performing “routine work for the research and… Read More

May 27, 2020 @ 1:05 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Fundbox, a Fintech firm focused on “disrupting” the global $21 trillion B2B commerce ecosystem with its payment and credit network for B2B transactions, confirmed on May 26, 2020, that it received a fresh equity investment from MUFG Innovation Partners Co., Ltd., the corporate VC division… Read More

May 27, 2020 @ 9:55 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

GoBear, a Singapore-based fintech, has reportedly secured $17 million through its latest investment round. The investment brings GoBear’s total funding to $97 million. Founded in 2014, GoBear claims to be Asia’s leading financial supermarket whose purpose is to improve financial health. The platform empowers consumers… Read More

May 27, 2020 @ 8:09 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Delta Exchange, an established cryptocurrency derivatives exchange that maintains offices in Singapore, has received funding from New York-headquartered blockchain investment firm, CoinFund. As mentioned in a release shared with CI, the new investment will provide Delta Exchange with the resources needed to scale its operations… Read More

May 27, 2020 @ 12:27 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Fintech adoption in Qatar is on the rise, as more consumers are making digital or online payments, instead of using cash due to COVID-19. The nation’s residents have been asked to follow safe distancing measures in order to prevent the further spread of the Coronavirus…. Read More

May 26, 2020 @ 11:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Hong Kong-based HKT Financial Services, the Fintech division of the HKT Group, has launched another Fintech project, HKT Flexi, a digital or online financing platform that allows users to make payments via the HKT Flexi App. HKT Financial Services offers mobile payments, merchant services, O2O… Read More

May 26, 2020 @ 11:44 pm By JD Alois  |  

Tencent, a massive Chinese conglomerate that also operates WeChat, is planning to invest $70 billion over the next five years. The money will go into “new infrastructure” including areas like artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, cybersecurity, big-data and more. This is according to a report in… Read More

May 26, 2020 @ 11:26 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

12CM (pronounced One-two-cee-em), the “smart” stamp software platform provider and a member company of the Born2Global Center, has partnered with Naver Business Platform (NBP). 12CM has reportedly been an active Born2Global Center member for the past couple of years. Through the partnership, 12CM will work… Read More

May 26, 2020 @ 1:16 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb announced on Monday it has appointed Back Young Heo as its new CEO. According to Bithumb, Heo joined Bithumb in 2017 as the head of compliance and prior to Bithumb, worked in traditional finance for 14 years at Citibank, CitiCapital,… Read More

May 26, 2020 @ 9:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

  CoinDCX, one of India’s largest digital asset exchanges, has secured an additional $2.5 million in funding from several major blockchain investors, including Coinbase Ventures (the investment division of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase) and Polychain Capital. The latest investment acquired by CoinDCX has come around two… Read More

May 25, 2020 @ 7:32 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Andy Mukherjee argues in a recently published Op-Ed in the Washington Post that the virtual yuan could potentially transform “the relationship between money, economic power, and geopolitical clout.” The digital renminbi has been under development since 2014. Its top-level design was recently finalized and its… Read More

May 25, 2020 @ 11:44 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s parliament and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference recently began conducting their annual sessions. Both government bodies are considered the most powerful or influential political groups in the country. These meetings are commonly referred to as the “Two Sessions”… Read More

May 25, 2020 @ 1:03 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Indian Fintech firm Zaggle has teamed up with Visa in order to support various payments solutions for SMEs. Both companies will work cooperatively to develop solutions for startups and SMEs that will help them improve their overall productivity and efficiency. Businesses will be able to… Read More

May 24, 2020 @ 11:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

An increasing number of transactions are being conducted online by the residents of the Philippines due to COVID-19. The nation’s government has confirmed that it will launch a branchless bank that will offer services to Filipinos working and living abroad. The digital bank will also… Read More

May 24, 2020 @ 5:43 pm By Xu Gao  |  

The People’s Bank of China and State Administration for Market Regulation Sign Data Sharing MoU On May 20th, the People’s Bank of China (PBC) and State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) signed a Memorandum of Cooperation on Data Sharing (hereinafter referred to as the MoU),… Read More

May 23, 2020 @ 10:09 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Digital asset exchange FTX has introduced a crypto trading platform for US-based users. FTX.US supports spot trading for major virtual currencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Paxos Gold token (PAXG), and stablecoin Tether (USDT). The new platform will provide up… Read More

May 23, 2020 @ 9:14 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Southeast Asian banks will most likely accelerate their digital transformation initiatives, due to the COVID-19 outbreak and changing consumer behavior resulting from safe distancing measures and lockdowns. Incumbents could be challenged more than ever before, as they might struggle to offer the same level of… Read More

May 23, 2020 @ 9:13 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

  The Suseong University in South Korea will be working with the Korea Artificial Intelligence Association (KORAIA), in order to establish a blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) and AI-focused campus in Daegu, a city located in the country’s North Gyeongsang province. Local media outlet… Read More