Global Fintech News

China, once seen as an imitator when it came to technology, is now looking to take the lead in areas from blockchain to artificial intelligence (AI), much-hyped technologies that are seen as critical to the future. Despite the U.S.-China trade war, experts say the world’s second largest economy will continue pushing its domestic technology sector.

Africa-focused fintech startup OPay has raised a $120 million Series B round backed by Chinese investors. Located in Lagos and founded by consumer internet company Opera, OPay will use the funds to scale in Nigeria and expand its payments product to Kenya, Ghana and South Africa. Series B investors included Meituan-Dianping, GaoRong, Source Code Capital, Softbank Asia, BAI, Redpoint, IDG Capital, Sequoia China and GSR Ventures.

Financial services has been unbundled by fintech. In this briefing we unpack how fintech is maturing and moving to a mult-line strategy to rebundle the bank with consumers at the center. We’ll also discuss where fintech startups are finding new opportunities, what markets are emerging as technology hubs, and the trends we’re watching in fintech through Q3’19. We also discuss the numbers, such as: Q3’19 fintech funding topped $8.9B, a quarterly record when adjusting for Ant Financial’s $14B investment in Q2’18.

Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Uber are all eyeing financial services as the next frontier. Getting there might take some work. The US tech firms need only look to Asia for a lesson in how a push into banking can accelerate their growth. There, tech firms plowed into finance years ago and largely won out. In Beijing, it’s embarrassing to pull out a credit card rather than a QR code that links to your WeChat account.

Join the discussion about the game-changers and visit the 4th Fintech Meets the Regulators conference on November 29th. All players active in the market and those interested with the market developers are invited. Of course the four financial regulators (ACM, AFM, DNB and AP) will also be present, making it the perfect opportunity to open up the conversation about the impact of these developments. The seminar takes place in the DNB auditorium and will be concluded with an informal lunch for networking.