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Asia/Pac

·Aug. 3, 2017

India’s Lendingkart Raises $10mn

The Indian online lending platform has closed a $10 million debt funding deal with investment from Kotak Mahindra Bank, Aditya Birla Financial Services and other financial institutions; follows other recent capital investments; firm plans to use the funds to support its loan book and expand to 700 cities; its platform originates loans ranging from Rs 1 lakh ($1,570) to Rs 40 lakh ($62,817) with interest rates of 16% to 24% and provides loan funds within three days. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Aug. 3, 2017

Marketplace Lender Blackmoon Launches Ethereum Platform for Tokenized Investment Vehicles

Russian marketplace lender Blackmoon has launched Blackmoon Crypto for tokenized investment vehicles; seeks to support management of tokenized funds; Blackmoon Crypto is incorporated in Singapore; it will not initially be partnering for US investments however the firm is applying for a broker dealer license in the US. Source

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Asia/Pac News Roundup Online Lending

·Aug. 3, 2017

China Development Bank Works with Tencent to Provide Students Loans

Tencent, with advantages in cloud computing, big data, social networking, and mobile payments, will cooperate with China Development Bank to provide students loans; China Development Bank is a "policy financial institute" under the State Council; the bank covers over 90% of the student loans market. Source (Chinese)

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Aug. 4, 2017

First Bitcoin Cash Block Mined

The Bitcoin Cash (BCC) blockchain has successfully split away from the legacy chain; the block was mined by the China-based mining pool Viabtc at 2:14 pm EDT; the first Bitcoin Cash block was 1.9 MB in size, holding 6,985 transactions - much larger than BTC's 1MB limit and approximately 3,000 transaction throughput. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Aug. 4, 2017

Renault Launches a Blockchain POC Project

VeChain, Viseo and Microsoft have launched a blockchain proof of concept project for the French car maker Renault; the idea is that blockchain can be used to keep record of how a car is maintained and that information from various car service providers can build a trustworthy growth history of a car; auto giants like Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Porsche have tried blockchain projects before as well. Source (Chinese)

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Aug. 4, 2017

Hexindai Launches Payments Function on Mobile App

Chinese marketplace lender Hexindai has added a payments function to its mobile app; firm has partnered with China UnionPay for Quick Pass; QuickPass allows platform investors to use funds for payments at merchants in the China UnionPay network. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Aug. 7, 2017

China Disrupted – How Fintech is Changing the Way That 1.5 Billion People Bank

At LendIt USA 2017, Lang Di CEO Gabriel Hai hosted a panel themed how fintechs are changing the way that Chinese people bank; one approach is to use big data technology to reach the individual credit market; panelists agree that China's fintech platforms are more willing to cooperate with traditional banks, as the banks have a more friendly regulatory environment and sufficient cheap money, whilst platforms are at advantages of bringing new technologies to the cooperation; however, Zhou Xinming, CEO of Hexindai, pointed out that China's fintech companies' customer base is more of individual investors rather than institutional investors, and the former are still not financially sophisticated. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Aug. 7, 2017

Lend Academy Podcast: Jeffrey Chen of ZhongAn Insurance

Lend Academy talks with Jeffrey Chen, CEO of ZhongAn Insurance; firm has seen great success in insurtech in China, issuing billions of small dollar value insurance policies through the internet; Chen talks about the insurance products offered through the platform, how they have scaled the business, some of the innovative technologies they are using and their goals for the future. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Aug. 7, 2017

Hong Kong-Based TNG FinTech Group Inc. Closing $60mn Funding Deal

TNG FinTech Group Inc. is close to closing a Series A funding deal that will add $60 million in new capital for the firm and bring its valuation to $500 million; the firm offers global money transfers, foreign-exchange transactions and bill payments; following the funding round it will be one of the highest valued fintechs in Hong Kong; it plans to use the funding to expand its business internationally through acquisition of companies with remittance licenses in Singapore, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia and the UK. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Aug. 7, 2017

Tencent Launches Credit Scoring Service to Compete with Ant’s Sesame Score

Tencent has launched its credit scoring service, Tencent Credit Score, Tencent's counterpart to Ant Financial's Sesame Credit; for now, only QQ Vips can have access to their score (QQ is a social network tool developed by Tencent, popular among teenagers); credit scores range from 300 to 850; the score measures a person on five different aspects including credit history, security, wealth, consuming habits and social network. Source (Chinese)

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