FinTech Weekly| issue 79

Danish corporate credit card startup Pleo receives 40 million euros in debt financing

Recently, the B2B expenditure management fintech platform Pleo announced that it has received 40 million euros in debt financing from HSBC Innovation Bank (UK). Pleo was founded in 2015, mainly providing users with business expense management solutions and company credit card services (including bookkeeping, invoice payment, email synchronization, subscription management, direct reimbursement, and expense classification).

 

Information link:

https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/08/pleo-picks-up...

Comment: Currently, the company has launched the aforementioned products in Germany, Sweden, and the UK, and plans to further expand into the European market in the future. In 2021, Pleo successfully secured $200 million in Series C financing.

 

AI cloud infrastructure startup CoreWeave financing $1.1 billion

On May 1, 2024, artificial intelligence cloud infrastructure startup CoreWeave announced a $1.1 billion financing, with a platform valuation of $19 billion, nearly three times higher than five months ago. According to Crunchbase data, although there were few financing transactions with a scale similar to CoreWeave in the previous quarter, the venture capital of AI related startups in the first quarter of 2024 still slightly increased compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.

 

Information link:

News.crunchbase.com cloud/ai startup corelive hopes evaluation/

Comment: Specifically, out of 1166 transactions in the first quarter of 2024, approximately $12.2 billion was invested in venture capital supported artificial intelligence startups, a 4% increase from the fourth quarter of last year. In the fourth quarter of 2023, startups in related fields completed a total of 1072 financing transactions, with a total amount of 11.7 billion US dollars.

 

Novidea raised an additional $30 million, with a total financing amount of $120 million

The data-driven enterprise insurance management platform Novideo has received $30 million in investment from HarbourVest Partners, with a total Series C financing of $80 million and a current total financing of $120 million. Participants include existing investors Battery Ventures, Cross Creek, and Israel Growth Partners.

 

Information link:

https://insurtechdigital.com/articles/novidea...

Comment: Over the past three years, Novidea has recruited many talents in multiple markets worldwide, including the UK, North America, and Europe, and will operate in Southeast Asian markets by the end of 2023.

 

Property management software platform Guesty raised $130 million in financing

Short term leasing and hotel management software platform Guesty announced a $130 million financing, led by KKR, with participants including Inovia Capital, Apax, BDT&MSD Partners. Guesty has entered over 80 countries and provides the necessary tools for businesses and property management companies to manage the rental process. This platform provides various solutions to centralize the management of reservations, customer communication, operational tasks, and cleaning management for all reservation platforms.

 

Information link:

https://www.guesty.com/blog/guesty-raises-170-million-funding-round

Comment: In 2022, Guesty launched Damage Protection insurance in the US and Mexico markets to protect customers from damage to property in leased properties, with coverage ranging from $3000 to $20000.

Digital insurance company Lemonade launches home insurance in France

Digital insurance company Lemonade announced a partnership with BNP Paribas Cardif to launch home insurance in France. Millions of homeowners can purchase insurance for their property and contents, and enjoy Lemonade's seamless insurance experience. In December 2020, Lemonade entered the French market and provided consumers with AI driven rental insurance to ensure the property safety of residents.

 

Information link:

https://www.lemonade.com

Comment: In 2023, Lemonade's business development in the French market has made rapid progress, and it will continue to expand globally in the future. This collaboration combines BNP's years of professional consulting experience with Lemonade's innovative insurance model to provide digital home insurance for BNP's distribution partners.

 

InsureMO collaborates with MoneyHero to improve digital insurance services

InsureMO has reached a partnership with MoneyHero to promote the development of digital insurance integration and comparative services in the Southeast Asian market. According to this collaboration, the intermediate platform of InsureMO will be embedded in the MoneyHero ecosystem, allowing consumers to discover, compare, and purchase insurance products according to their own needs.

 

Information link:

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/insuremo...

Comment: MoneyHero is a personal finance and insurance trading platform located in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

 

Insurance software service provider Sapiens launches IntegrateAI

Insurance software service provider Sapiens has launched the IntegrateAI feature. IntegrateAI embeds machine learning models into decision model panels suitable for enterprises. Sapiens non-technical users are able to incorporate the machine and learning models of the data science team into a unified decision-making framework, thereby reducing the complexity of business and technology, improving control over operations and operational efficiency.

 

Information link:

https://sapiens.com/newsroom/sapiens-launches...

Comment: Generative artificial intelligence automatically translates natural language into decision models, enabling businesses to improve their level of decision automation and create greater business benefits.

 

Allianz and Clearspeed collaborate on fraud detection capabilities

Allianz has partnered with Clearspeed in the UK to enhance insurance fraud capabilities and accelerate the processing of legitimate user claims. Clearspeed's voice analysis tool helps detect potential fraudulent activities. Their analytical insights can improve decision-making ability and optimize consumer experience. Allianz stated that the use of various applications to tamper with images, videos, and documents has increased threefold in the past two years.

 

Information link:

Pacificprime.com

Comment: The cooperation between both parties will effectively combat insurance fraud and crime rates. At the same time, it will also help Clearspeed enter the UK insurance market.

Royal Bank of Canada launches a fintech incubator project

Recently, the Royal Bank of Canada announced that it will collaborate with Rogers Cybersecurity Catalyst at City University of Toronto to launch a financial security incubator project. Enterprises interested in participating in this project need to provide a fintech product that requires stronger embedded networks and risk practices, or a technology product that addresses the urgent cybersecurity issues faced by the financial services industry. The ultimately selected companies will have the opportunity to showcase their technology to industry experts and potential investors, establish connections, and help meet industry procurement requirements.

 

Information link:

https://www.moomoo.com/hans/news/post/11076468

 

The Bank of India plans to launch a digital currency with offline functionality

Recently, Shaktikanta Das, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), stated at the Bank for International Settlements summit that India is undergoing testing of its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), and a key feature of this innovative model is its ability to be used offline. Previously, India had already started testing both wholesale and retail CBDCs, and introduced relevant tests in contactless payments last year.

 

Information link:

https://www.coinlive.com/zh/news/india-s-rbi-progresses-towards-offline...

 

UK digital bank Monzo is expected to raise £ 500 million again

Recently, according to foreign media reports, the UK digital bank Monzo is expected to raise another £ 500 million in financing. Sources say that Monzo may announce this news as early as this week, with Airbnb and early supporters of Uber, Hedosophea, and the Singapore Government Investment Corporation (GIC) all participating in the investment, with investment amounts expected to reach millions of pounds each. At present, Monzo has over 9 million personal account customers, ranking seventh largest retail bank in the UK.

 

Information link:

https://d3.harvard.edu/platform-digit/submission/monzo-a-digital-offering-that-has-traditional-uk-banks-scrambling/

 

Federal Bank of Germany and Massachusetts Institute of Technology jointly conduct research on central bank digital currencies

On April 16, 2024, the Federal Bank of Germany and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology jointly announced that they will conduct joint research on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). German central bank experts will collaborate with the Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) research team at the MIT Media Laboratory to explore potential new technologies for CBDC design. It is reported that the research results of the joint research project will be released, and it is expected to deepen the understanding of CBDC applications in Europe and the world.

 

Information link:

https://algoine.com/news/German-Federal-Bank-and...

Royal Bank of Canada launches a fintech incubator project

Recently, the Royal Bank of Canada announced that it will collaborate with Rogers Cybersecurity Catalyst at City University of Toronto to launch a financial security incubator project. Enterprises interested in participating in this project need to provide a fintech product that requires stronger embedded networks and risk practices, or a technology product that addresses the urgent cybersecurity issues faced by the financial services industry. The ultimately selected companies will have the opportunity to showcase their technology to industry experts and potential investors, establish connections, and help meet industry procurement requirements.

 

Information link:

https://www.moomoo.com/hans/news/post/11076468

 

The Bank of India plans to launch a digital currency with offline functionality

Recently, Shaktikanta Das, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), stated at the Bank for International Settlements summit that India is undergoing testing of its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), and a key feature of this innovative model is its ability to be used offline. Previously, India had already started testing both wholesale and retail CBDCs, and introduced relevant tests in contactless payments last year.

 

Information link:

https://www.coinlive.com/zh/news/india-s-rbi-progresses-towards-offline...

 

UK digital bank Monzo is expected to raise £ 500 million again

Recently, according to foreign media reports, the UK digital bank Monzo is expected to raise another £ 500 million in financing. Sources say that Monzo may announce this news as early as this week, with Airbnb and early supporters of Uber, Hedosophea, and the Singapore Government Investment Corporation (GIC) all participating in the investment, with investment amounts expected to reach millions of pounds each. At present, Monzo has over 9 million personal account customers, ranking seventh largest retail bank in the UK.

 

Information link:

https://d3.harvard.edu/platform-digit/submission/monzo-a-digital-offering-that-has-traditional-uk-banks-scrambling/

 

Federal Bank of Germany and Massachusetts Institute of Technology jointly conduct research on central bank digital currencies

On April 16, 2024, the Federal Bank of Germany and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology jointly announced that they will conduct joint research on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). German central bank experts will collaborate with the Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) research team at the MIT Media Laboratory to explore potential new technologies for CBDC design. It is reported that the research results of the joint research project will be released, and it is expected to deepen the understanding of CBDC applications in Europe and the world.

 

Information link:

https://algoine.com/news/German-Federal-Bank-and...

Biden signs the TikTok bill, company response: will take legal action

On April 24 local time, US President Biden signed a foreign aid package worth US $95 billion, which also involves forcing ByteDance to divest its TikTok US business. In relevant terms, ByteDance is required to spin off its US business for about nine months, otherwise it will face a nationwide ban in the US. In addition, if Biden confirms progress on the sale, he may also exercise a 90 day extension right. TikTok has vowed to fight back through legal means.

 

Information link:

https://www.caixin.com/2024-04-25/102189983.htmlv

 

Promoting the modernization of financial market infrastructure, BIS initiates Project FuSSE

Recently, the Innovation Center of the Bank for International Settlements and the Inter-American Development Bank signed an agreement to jointly launch Project FuSSE (a fully scalable settlement engine). Nowadays, components and systems are developing at an extremely fast pace, integrating these innovative solutions to ensure seamless financial services is becoming increasingly complex, and the cost of updating financial market infrastructure is also rising.

 

Information link:

https://www.bis.org/about/bisih/topics/fmis/fusse.htm

 

The US Securities Regulatory Commission will hold a meeting to discuss the current situation and promotion measures of the angel investment market

On April 25, 2024, the Small Business Capital Raising Advisory Committee of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it would hold a meeting on May 6 to discuss two topics: regulation and angel investment. The first half of the meeting will focus on discussing the current successes and challenges faced by the crowdfunding industry, as well as whether to optimize tax exemption policies. The second half of the meeting will focus on angel investment, sharing existing market financing trends, their impact on angel investors, angel funds, and investment enterprises, as well as whether to introduce more measures to encourage the development of angel investment activities.

 

Information link:

https://news.cnstock.com/news Yw-202310-5132255.htm

 

The US government plans to invest $285 million to support the development of semiconductor "digital twin" technology

The US Department of Commerce announced on May 6th local time that the Biden administration is opening up a funding opportunity, planning to invest approximately $285 million to establish a research institution focused on the development, validation, and use of digital twin technology, serving semiconductor manufacturing, advanced packaging, assembly, and testing processes.

 

Information link:

https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_22859824

JPMorgan Chase officially releases IndexGPT for investment using the ChatGPT approach

Recently, JPMorgan Chase released IndexGPT, which supports OpenAI's GPT-4 technology and is specifically designed to automatically create and analyze themed investment baskets; This tool can scan news and other data sources to generate investment indices, helping clients identify stocks with commercial value and expanding investment horizons to non-traditional enterprises; IndexGPT integrates deep analysis capabilities to analyze complex financial and news data, tap into potential companies, and is suitable for diversified thematic investment strategies.

 

Information link:

https://www.pymnts.com/news/artificial...

 

BCG: The digital economy accounts for over 24% of Spain's GDP

The 2024 Digital Economy Report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) shows that Spain's digital economy continues to show an upward trend, accounting for 24.2% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023. This contribution has increased by 1.5 percentage points compared to 2022 and 2.1 percentage points compared to 2020. Rafael Rilo, President of BCG Iberia, emphasized the importance of these achievements and pointed out that the acceleration of digitalization is fundamental, not only driving overall economic growth, but also improving productivity and having a significant impact on social welfare. The report also emphasizes the need to address ethical, privacy, and security challenges related to artificial intelligence, and points out that 42% of companies have not yet implemented generative artificial intelligence due to a lack of responsible strategies.

 

Information link:

http://es.mofcom.gov.cn/article/jmxw/202405/20240503507700.shtml

 

AI and energy storage have been selected as the five key investment areas of ARK Invest

Recently, Brett Winton, chief futurist at ARK Invest, stated in an interview with CNBC that future technology investors should focus on five key areas: robotics, artificial intelligence, multi omics sequencing, public blockchain, and energy storage. Winton collaborates with Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest, to operate ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX). The company's website shows that ARKVX aims to provide venture capital products that allow individual investors to gain innovative space in the market. As of April 10th, the fund's main holdings include Epic Games, known for its online video game fortress night, as well as biotechnology companies Freedom and Relationship Therapeutics.

 

Information link:

https://blog.waytoagi.com/article/ARK-Investment-report

 

European 3 billion investment giants teaming up with Zheng Zhigang to expand the private credit market in Asia

Recently, European investment giant Tikehau Capital and Flow Capital, jointly founded by Zheng Zhigang, signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Hong Kong, China. The two sides will work together to target the Asian and European markets. Established in 2004, Tikehau Capital has an asset management scale of 44.4 billion euros (over 300 billion yuan) and is a well-established European PE powerhouse. With this collaboration, Tikehau Capital's Hong Kong office has landed, which is also its first office in Greater China.

 

Information link:

https://www.163.com/dy/article/J1HGU7BG0530HI7R.html

Former US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said he still intends to acquire TikTok

Former US Treasury Secretary Munuchin said in an interview on May 7th local time that he is still interested in acquiring TikTok. "I have talked to many technology companies about how to achieve reconstruction," and he is confident that buying it can rebuild algorithms and ensure "strong and secure.". Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, said in an interview that he had considered acquiring TikTok from ByteDance, but now he has given up the idea.

 

Information link:

https://m.jiemian.com/article/11144912.html

 

Abu Dhabi School of Management launches a Bachelor's degree program in Management with a focus on AI

In March 2024, the Abu Dhabi School of Management (ADSM) under the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ADCCI) announced the launch of the Bachelor of Management (BScM) program. The project will start in September and is mainly divided into three key directions: 1) General education projects; 2) Management courses emphasize management theory and its applications; And 3) Digital technology management plan, focusing on big data, analysis, and artificial intelligence technology. ADSM expressed its hope to help students acquire the necessary knowledge and skills in the Industry 4.0 era by combining advanced technology and emerging digital technologies, and contribute to Abu Dhabi's 2030 economic vision.

 

Information link:

https://www.36kr.com/p/1724524052481

 

Republican Bank of America announces bankruptcy, expected to cause FDIC losses of $667 million

According to CCTV News citing Reuters, on April 26th local time, the banking regulatory agency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), announced that Pennsylvania regulators have closed the Philadelphia based Republican Bank of America, the first bank in the United States to be closed this year. The FDIC stated in a statement that Pennsylvania regulatory agencies have designated the FDIC as the receiver. To protect depositors, the FDIC has reached an agreement with Fulton Bank, which will assume most of the deposits of Republican Bank of America and acquire most of its assets. The assets of Republican Bank of the United States are approximately $6 billion, and the total deposit amount is approximately $4 billion.

 

Information link:

Www.10100. com/article/51975

 

Brazilian government payment system hacked

The report shows that the comprehensive financial management system of the Brazilian federal government, managed by the Brazilian national treasury and used for government payment activities, was illegally hacked in April 2024. According to the audit results, the intruder misappropriated at least 3.5 million reais (approximately 4.9 million yuan) of federal funds. It is reported that various institutions affected by the incident have begun to investigate illegal activities. According to the current investigation results, at least 17 user passwords have been leaked. The intruder managed to obtain bank transfer receipts from various institutions and tampered with the recipient's data, and then misappropriated public funds through a mechanism similar to the instant transfer system of online payment service platforms. Due to suspicion that some of the stolen funds have been remitted abroad, the Brazilian central bank has also joined the investigation.

 

Information link:

http://www.br-cn.com/static/content/news/br_news/2024-04...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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