FinTech Weekly | Issue 86

Mexican digital payment unicorn Clip receives $100 million in financing

Recently, the Mexican digital payment and business platform Clip announced a $100 million financing, with investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Tactical Value and an unnamed West Coast mutual fund manager participating. Clip was founded in 2012 with the aim of providing a range of products and financial services, including software and hardware solutions, to small and medium-sized enterprises.

 

Information link:

https://www.production-expert.com/production...

Comment: In 2021, Clip received $250 million in financing from SoftBank Latin America Fund and Viking Global Investors LP, with a platform valuation of $2 billion. Adolfo Babatz, the founder and CEO of the company, stated that Clip is nearing profitability and plans to use this financing to drive product development and continue expanding its workforce.

 

PQShield financing of $37 million

PQShield, headquartered in London, is a cybersecurity company specializing in post quantum cryptography. The company has raised $37 million in Series B financing led by Addition, with other participants including Chevron Technology Ventures, Legal&General, and others.

 

Information link:

https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/20/pqshield-secures...

Comment: PQShield was founded in 2018 and is a derivative of cryptography researchers and experts from the University of Oxford. By providing ready-made and customized IPs for security components, IoT firmware, PKI and server technology, and end-user applications, PQShield helps customers transition their product line from traditional RSA and elliptic curve encryption to quantum security standards. Customers include AMD Microchip Technologies、 Sumitomo Electric, NTT Data, etc.

 

Sidekick financing £ 8.5 million

Sidekick， The wealth management platform headquartered in London has raised £ 4.5 million in seed round financing and £ 4 million through debt financing. The seed round financing is jointly led by Pact VC and TheVentureCity, with participation from MS&AD Ventures, Blackwood, and others.

 

Information link:

https://www.orangeaftermarket.com/rtv-xg850-sidekick_c_26783.html

Comment: Sidekick was founded in 2022 and is committed to unlocking products and financial services that are typically reserved for 1% of people. The target customers of this startup company are the wealthy masses aged 30-45, with salaries ranging from £ 80000 to £ 200000. Sidekick offers a variety of products and services, including accounts, access to various assets, internal portfolio managers, and credit limits.

 

Zhongan International Technology has completed a Series A financing of 35 million US dollars

On June 18th, ZA Tech announced the completion of a $35 million Series A financing and officially changed its name to Peak3. This round of financing is led by European private equity firm EQT, with JPMorgan Chase serving as the exclusive financial advisor. As a leading global provider of SaaS services for insurance core systems, Zhongan International Technology stated that with this round of financing as an opportunity, the company will accelerate its expansion and development in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).

 

Information link:

https://finance.sina.cn/2024-06-18/detail-inazckzp5531944.d.html

Comment: At the same time, in line with the trend of AI empowering the insurance industry, Zhongan International Technology will also accelerate its layout in the direction of AI and big data, promoting the digital process of the global insurance industry towards intelligent development.

Anterior uses artificial intelligence to simplify medical insurance approval

According to reports, Anterior is a startup company that uses artificial intelligence to simplify healthcare insurance approval and has received $20 million in Series A financing. This financing is led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with a post financing valuation of $95 million. Existing investors Sequoia and Neo also participated in this round of investment, while angel investors such as Mustafa Suleyman from DeepMind and Inflection AI also participated.

 

Information link:

https://www.vbdata.cn/intelDetail/179964

Comment: Anterior was founded in September 2022, and its artificial intelligence driven platform can help healthcare professionals accelerate the insurance approval process. This technology aims to reduce the time spent on administrative tasks, allowing doctors and nurses to focus more on patient care.

 

Hub International launches Hub Fleet Solution Trading Platform

Hub International announced the launch of the Hub Fleet Solutions fleet digital solution platform, providing third-party service providers with fleet management, insurance, maintenance, technology, and diagnostic products and services. This platform helps commercial fleets find the most suitable solutions, manage risks, and obtain the best insurance rates. In addition, they will be able to simplify the procurement process of products and services for commercial fleets.

 

Information link:

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

Comment: Hub stated that they have selected over 70 trusted suppliers to provide one-stop customized products and services for commercial fleets, meeting their daily needs.

 

Sapiens launches an artificial intelligence insurance platform to simplify operations

Sapiens International Corporation is a global supplier of software solutions for the insurance industry. The company has launched an advanced artificial intelligence driven platform aimed at enhancing the services and processes of insurance companies. The Sapiens insurance platform utilizes digital interaction, data intelligence, core business processing, as well as machine learning and generative artificial intelligence capabilities.

 

Information link:

https://www.vbdata.cn/intelDetail/116587

Comment: This can help insurance companies innovate seamlessly, make informed data-driven decisions, and automate business processes, thereby maintaining competitiveness in dynamic markets. Through Sapiens's recent collaboration with Microsoft, the platform's AI integration has been accelerated, integrating advanced GenAI features and providing customized solutions to promote growth and efficiency.

 

Amazon Pharmacy Expands RxPass Subscription Service to Medicare Patients

Amazon Pharmacy is expanding its prescription drug subscription program RxPass to Prime members of Medicare. According to the company, RxPass plans to launch in January 2023, providing unlimited usage rights for 60 eligible generic drugs, and will deliver drugs to customer homes for a fixed fee of $5 per month, while also providing 24/7 pharmacist services.

 

Information link:

https://www.engadget.com/amazons-affordable...

Comment: Amazon Pharmacy still offers same day delivery services in nine cities. Amazon Pharmacy Vice President John Love stated in an interview that Medicare beneficiaries who take at least one medication provided through RxPass can save about $70 per year, while beneficiaries who take two or more medications can save even more.

Sainsbury's sells its core banking business to NatWest

Sainsbury's, a British supermarket group, is selling its core banking business portfolio of personal loans, credit cards, and retail deposits to NatWest Group. The transaction will transfer £ 2.5 billion of total customer assets to this high street bank, including £ 1.4 billion of unsecured personal loans and £ 1.1 billion of credit card balances, as well as approximately £ 2.6 billion of customer deposits. As part of the transaction, it is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025, and NatWest will have approximately 1 million new customer accounts. Since January this year, Sainsbury's has been searching for buyers for the business, when it first announced its intention to gradually end certain areas of its banking business.

 

Information link:

https://www.aol.co.uk/news/sainsbury-offloads-most...

 

The Reserve Bank of Australia will conduct a "comprehensive review" of retail payment regulation

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will begin reviewing the country's retail payment regulation, with a focus on encouraging the payment industry to address efficiency, competition, and security issues on its own. Ellis Connolly, the head of payment policy at the Federal Reserve of Australia, announced this review in a speech at the Business Risk Committee meeting held in Melbourne this week. Connolly confirmed that once the Australian government completes the evaluation of the current Payment System Regulation Act 1998 (PSRA), a review will be conducted, which also outlines the regulatory powers of the Reserve Bank of Australia.

 

Information link:

https://www.sbs.com.au/language/chinese/zh-hans/...

 

DZ Bank collaborates with Surecomp to develop a trade financing collaboration platform

DZ Bank of Germany will adopt Surecomp's collaborative trade financing platform to digitize several aspects of its trade financing business. According to a statement, this Frankfurt based commercial bank is utilizing its supplier's RIVO solution for "real-time enterprise communication, transparency of transaction status, and accelerated trade financing issuance.". This platform is integrated with Surecomp's DOKA-NG backend trade financing processing solution, which is expected to achieve "faster financing transactions" for buyers and suppliers of DZ Bank services.

 

Information link:

https://surecomp.com/news/dz-bank-plans-to...

 

Citibank: More than half of banking positions will be affected by artificial intelligence

Recently, Citigroup released a report stating that over half (54%) of the work in the banking industry is more likely to be automated, with a higher proportion than other industries. The report points out that during the past period of technological change, many long-standing job positions have been eliminated and replaced by new ones, and many companies have also disappeared. Artificial intelligence will repeat this cycle, even faster. Citigroup believes that artificial intelligence may be adopted faster by digital native cloud computing companies such as fintech and technology giants, followed closely by agile existing banking institutions. However, some banks may fall behind in the adoption of artificial intelligence and lose market share due to technological and cultural debt.

 

Information link:

https://www.ithome.com/0/776/479.htm

Jurisdictions that account for more than half of the global economy are actively moving towards international sustainable disclosure standards

On May 28th, the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS Foundation) announced significant progress in establishing a consistent global benchmark for corporate sustainability reporting systems. According to GDP calculations, jurisdictions that account for more than half of the global economy have announced measures to use the ISSB guidelines or make their sustainable disclosure standards fully consistent with the ISSB guidelines. So far, over 20 jurisdictions have decided to use or are taking measures to introduce ISSB guidelines within their legal or regulatory frameworks, accounting for nearly 55% of global GDP, over 40% of global market value, and over half of global greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Information link:

https://www.casc.org.cn/2024/0531/256777.shtml

 

RepRisk releases the world's first ESG topic due diligence scoring tool

On June 5th, international ESG product provider RepRisk released the world's first ESG topic due diligence scores tool, aimed at helping market participants quickly and effectively assess the ESG risks faced by companies. RepRisk is a globally renowned ESG product provider that applies machine learning technology to the ESG field. It has the world's largest ESG database and a leading position in ESG risk data. RepRisk's users include banks, asset management companies, and regulatory agencies. For example, when analyzing the greenwashing issue in the European banking industry, the European Banking Authority used the ESG risk database provided by RepRisk to determine which entities are facing relevant risks.

 

Information link:

https://www.todayesg.com/reprisk-esg-due-diligence-score

 

CDP launches a new disclosure platform

On June 4th, the global environmental information disclosure platform CDP released a newly upgraded disclosure platform and integrated version of the questionnaire, opening the 2024 disclosure season. September 18th is the submission deadline for obtaining ratings, and the questionnaire response function will be closed on October 2nd. Against the backdrop of the increasing trend of mandatory global information disclosure, the CDP platform upgrade and questionnaire integration aim to accelerate the action speed of all relevant parties to address environmental issues, benchmark against global mainstream disclosure standards, and improve corporate disclosure efficiency.

 

Information link:

https://www.cdp.net/en/2024-disclosure/cdp-portal

 

US accelerates nuclear energy deployment

On June 18, 2024, the US Senate passed a bill to accelerate nuclear energy deployment, aimed at accelerating the licensing process for nuclear power plants and providing new incentives for advanced nuclear reactor technology. This measure has received widespread support from both parties and is expected to play a crucial role in decarbonization of the power sector and achieving climate change goals. Democrats believe that the ADVANCE bill is crucial for promoting decarbonization in the power sector and achieving climate change goals, while Republicans see it as a way to ensure reliable electricity supply and create employment opportunities.

 

Information link:

https://www.yicai.com/news/102160426.html

EU audit oversight body suggests improving sustainable financial disclosure regulations

On June 18, 2024, the European Central Bank (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pension Authority (EIOPA), and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), three EU regulatory bodies, issued a joint opinion on the evaluation of sustainable financial disclosure regulations (SFDR), calling for the establishment of a coordinated and sustainable financing framework that meets the needs of green transformation while strengthening consumer protection, while taking into account the lessons learned from SFDR operations. Among them, three institutions hope to set simple and clear category standards for related financial products to ensure that consumers understand the purpose of the products and reduce the risk of greenwashing. In addition, the three institutions also suggest that the European Commission consider introducing sustainability indicators to rate financial products such as investment funds, life insurance, and pension products.

 

Information link:

https://kpmg.com/cn/zh/home/insights/2023/08/...

 

Japan plans to establish an economic security think tank within one to two years

According to the Nikkei Shimbun, the Japanese government plans to establish a think tank focused on economic security research, focusing on advanced technologies in the fields of networks and space, and providing recommendations for the Japanese government's development priorities. Japanese Minister of Economic Security, Hayao Takashi, stated that she hopes to create this think tank within one to two years. The relevant legislative work is expected to be submitted to the Japanese parliament in 2025.

 

Information link:

https://www.jiemian.com/article/11317857.html

 

German Economy Minister's latest statement, stating that China is an important partner in all fields of cooperation

According to Reuters, German Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Robert Habeck, who is about to visit China, said in a speech that relations with China have become more complex, but China is an important partner in all fields. According to the German newspaper Business Daily, Habeck will visit China on the 21st and 22nd. Reuters mentioned that the background of Habeck's visit to China is the EU's plan to increase taxes on Chinese electric vehicles.

 

Information link:

https://www.guancha.cn/internation/2024_06_20_738619.shtml

 

South Korea and Germany hold ministerial level talks to discuss plans to strengthen industrial cooperation

South Korean officials said that South Korean Minister of Industry, Commerce, and Resources, Trade and Negotiation, Andegen, met with Germany's top economic policy maker in Seoul on Friday to discuss how to strengthen bilateral relations in advanced industries, energy, and broader economic relations. According to the German Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, German Deputy Prime Minister and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck is leading an economic delegation to visit South Korea. During the meeting, both parties agreed to strengthen cooperation in the fields of standards and data sharing for digital transformation and artificial intelligence industrial applications. Both parties also promise to strengthen cooperation in future transportation and other advanced industries through joint research and development projects. Government data shows that the trade volume between the two countries reached a historic high of 33.9 billion US dollars last year.

 

Information link:

https://cj.sina.com.cn/articles/view/5115326071/130e5ae770200266yq

 

The latest audit and compliance system changes in the Singapore Family Office

Recently, the Monetary Authority of Singapore has once again made a series of adjustments to the audit and compliance system of home offices to strengthen regulation in the financial sector. This round of adjustment will focus on three aspects: information provision, license plate adjustment, and regulatory actions. The core is to require the household office to provide more relevant information and increase regulatory requirements. The government's strengthening of regulations and supervision is not only to ensure the quality of Singapore's wealth management environment to the broader international market, but also to enhance the confidence of individual businesses, so that they can develop well and sustainably under legal supervision and protection. This is not only crucial for the long-term development of family businesses themselves, but also helps maintain the stability and reliability of the entire financial system.

 

Information link:

https://www.shlegal.com/docs/default-source/news-insights-documents/2023/...

 

Report on the Development of Identity Planning Services Market in Hong Kong, China in 2024

On June 17, 2024, iMedia Consulting released a research report on the development of the identity planning service market in Hong Kong, China in 2024. The report shows that the overall approval rate of various talent input plans in Hong Kong in 2023 is about 61.3%, and the demand for identity planning services in Hong Kong is showing a continuous growth trend. The customer group characteristics of the identity planning service market in Hong Kong, China are distinct, with a significant proportion of high education, high income, and middle-aged and young people. In terms of family structure, over 70% of customers have school-age children, and their children are mostly concentrated in kindergarten and primary school.

 

Information link:

https://www.iimedia.cn/c400/100232.html

 

State Administration of Taxation responds to recent corporate tax issues

Recently, there have been reports of tax authorities in some regions conducting a 30 year investigation into corporate tax issues and requesting companies to pay additional taxes. Regarding this, the head of relevant departments of the State Administration of Taxation stated on the 18th that the tax department has not organized nationwide, industry-specific, and centralized tax inspections, and has not made any arrangements to conduct inspections for 20 or 30 years. The recent reports on tax inspections and supplements, some of which involve urging enterprises to pay taxes owed in previous years according to procedures, while others remind and inform enterprises of the risks of tax policy application according to procedures, are all routine behaviors of the tax department to perform their duties in accordance with laws and regulations.

 

Information link:

https://www.chinatax.gov.cn/chinatax/n810219/n...

 

Low altitude economic financing is active, and industrial funds are accelerating their entry into the market

In recent times, investment and financing in the low altitude economic sector have been active, especially in drones and eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft) enterprises, which have become hot investment topics. At the same time, many places are increasing their financial support and planning to establish relevant industry funds to guide more funds to invest in key areas of low altitude economy. In the first half of this year alone, multiple companies including Volante, Zhuoyi Intelligence, Xingluo Intelligence, and Tejin Intelligence have completed financing of billions of yuan each.

 

Information link:

www.yicai.com/news/102160432.html

By 2028, AI will drive the server market to grow to $273 billion

TechInsights predicts that by 2028, the server market will reach $273 billion with a compound annual growth rate of 18%; Servers designed specifically for AI applications will account for 59% of the market share, with a compound annual growth rate of 49%. These servers typically contain more high-performance processor cores, memory, storage, and network cards to handle complex AI applications.

 

Information link:

https://m.jiemian.com/article/11313836.html

 

Musk: Tesla AI hardware accounts for half, Nvidia/other hardware accounts for half

Musk talked about Tesla's cooling needs on social media, stating that this year's electricity and cooling needs are about 130 megawatts, but will increase to 500 megawatts in the next 18 months or so. The goal is for Tesla's artificial intelligence hardware to account for half, and Nvidia/other hardware to account for half. Either you don't get in, or you just get in and give it your all. Mainly HW4, some Dojo. Then, HW5 (renamed AI5) will be launched in the second half of next year. The capabilities of Tesla AI5 computers are about 10 times that of HW4 computers, and the entire software stack is developed by Tesla.

 

Information link:

https://wallstreetcn.com/articles/3709566

 

EU pure electric vehicle sales decreased by 12% in May

According to data released by the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA) on Thursday, the EU's new car registration volume in May decreased by 3% year-on-year, to about 911700 vehicles. The registration volume of pure electric vehicles decreased by 12% to approximately 114300 units, with sales in Germany decreasing by 31%. France and Belgium are the only two countries in the field of pure electric vehicles with sales growth. The proportion of pure electric vehicles in total sales is 12.5%, lower than the 13.8% in the same period last year.

 

Information link:

https://finance.sina.cn/2024-06-24/detail-inazutir5878728.d.html

 

The 2024 World Intelligent Industry Expo opens, focusing on cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence

The 2024 World Intelligent Industry Expo will be held in Tianjin today, with the theme of "Intelligent Action for the Future". The three-day expo focuses on cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, intelligent connected vehicles, and intelligent manufacturing, building an important platform to showcase new products, technologies, and achievements in intelligent technology. This year's World Intelligent Industry Expo has set up 10 themed exhibition areas, including artificial intelligence, intelligent connected vehicles, and intelligent manufacturing, with a total exhibition area of 100000 square meters. There are over 550 participating companies and institutions, covering cutting-edge hot topics in the intelligent industry. Attendees from 49 countries and regions focused on hot topics in the field of general intelligence for sharing.

 

Information link:

http://www.xinhuanet.com/20240620/97d4499a2dd84d7bae0280e...

 

 

 

 

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