These are 2016’s top 100 influential leaders in fintech (part 4 of 4) December 7, 2016 City A.M. is publishing Hot Topics' top 100 fintech influential leaders list for 2016, supported by 360Leaders. This is part 4 of 4, in alphabetical order. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here, and part 3 is here. The most influential fintech leaders in 2016, R to Z Ricardo Martin Manjon, head of digital [...]
£20m investment brings East London’s hipster offices to Portugal and the US October 30, 2016 Hipster workspaces will be soon arriving in Portugal and the US thanks to a £20m investment from a group of high profile investors. Second Home, a trendy workspace for technology start-ups, has won the backing of Bebo founder Michael Birch, as well as the Sainsbury family and returning investor Yuri Milner and, with a multi-million-pound investment [...]
Tencent overtakes Alibaba as most valuable Chinese tech company August 18, 2016 China's Tencent, one of the biggest tech firms in the region and the owner of messaging app WeChat certainly has something to er, type home about. A stellar set of earnings has sent shares surging as much as 6.2 per cent to an all-time high and topping Alibaba as the most valuable tech company in China in terms [...]
Five things you need to know about the Uber Didi Chuxing deal August 1, 2016 Uber and Didi have thrown in the towel on their costly rivalry with a deal to merge in China, worth a reported $35bn. Here's what you need to know. 1. Profits matter Uber was burning more than $1bn a year on its Chinese operations, becoming its largest market, but not making any profit from it. That's what boss Travis Kalanick [...]
Uber’s Apple-backed rival Didi Chuxing just raised billions June 16, 2016 The taxi wars are hotting up. A day after reports of Uber raising a further $2bn (£1.4bn) to add to its already rather large cash pile, its rival in China has announced another $7bn in new funding that puts it squarely on the tail of the US startup when it comes to being the most well-funded private startup [...]
Chinese Uber rival Didi Chuxing raises another $600m – one month after it got $1bn from Apple June 13, 2016 Chinese Uber rival Didi Chuxing has just unveiled another $600m (£423m) round of funding – exactly one month after Apple ploughed $1bn into it. China Life made an equity investment of $300m and a long-term debt investment of two billion yuan, about $305m. Didi Chuxing said the two companies had committed to a partnership on internet-powered financial innovation and other initiatives – [...]
Apple just ploughed $1bn into this Chinese taxi startup May 13, 2016 So now we've found out exactly what Apple was planning to do with (some of) the vast amount of cash it has sloshing around its bank account. Overnight Didi Chuxing, a Chinese rival to Uber, which describes itself as "the world's leading one-stop mobile transportation platform", issued a rather gleeful statement overnight saying it had made [...]
Beware fintech’s pivot to China April 12, 2016 Ever since former Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins declared an ”Uber moment” for banks, the powers that be from the Square Mile to Canary Wharf have rushed to defend themselves against a herd of ambitious fintech unicorns. But if recent collaborations between financial titans and spritely startups are anything to go by, it appears the [...]
Blockchain just had two major firsts with new social payment app Circle, Barclays and Britain’s financial regulator April 6, 2016 London may be the centre of fintech innovation, but there’s one huge trend we’ve failed to jump on board with yet – social payment apps. Messaging your mate with that fiver you owe for last night’s round at the pub and a big smiley face emoji is pretty common in the US and China, especially [...]
Samsung Pay launches in China following Apple Pay but faces Alibaba’s AliPay, Tencent’s WeChat Pay and other homegrown rivals March 29, 2016 Samsung will let its smartphone users in China pay with just a swipe of their mobile as it launches Samsung Pay in the country in a partnership with China UnionPay. Samsung follows Apple, which launched in China in February – also with UnionPay – and counted 3m cards set up with Apple Pay within the first two days. Samsung Pay will [...]