The biggest news in international fintech was the $34.5 billion pricing of Ant Group’s upcoming initial public offering. We covered the news earlier this week. The company will be making a dual IPO, offering half of its shares on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, and the other half on Shanghai’s Star Market. The date for the Hong Kong IPO has been set for next week, November 5th. No date has been determined for Ant Group’s IPO on the Shanghai-based exchange.
The $34.5 billion target would represent a new record, topping the $29.4 billion raised by Saudi Aramco earlier this year in its IPO. Ant Group anticipates earning a valuation of more than $313 billion. This amount would rival that of most of the biggest banks in the U.S., with the only exception being JP Morgan Chase with its market cap of $434 billion.
On the European fintech front, a handful of Finovate alums have made headlines this week. Account takeover prevention specialist SpyCloud announced a partnership with Southern European-based information security solutions value-added distributor, DotForce. U.K.-based Icon Solutions, a payments technology provider, picked up a strategic investment from JPMorgan. In the Americas, FIS teamed up with Brazilian financial services firm Afinz to help the company enhance its private-label credit card processing capabilities. Meanwhile to the north, Toronto, Ontario, Canada’s Finn AI inked a deal with Michigan-based United Federal Credit Union to bring conversational chat to the firm’s 200,000 members.
Here is our look at fintech around the world.
Central and Eastern Europe
- German business banking platform Penta partners with savings marketplace Raisin.
- Lithuanian government authorizes new Centre of Excellence in Anti-Money Laundering.
- German sharia-compliant banking app, insha, raises €2.5 million en route to planned U.K. launch.
Middle East and Northern Africa
- Bahrain-based open banking platform Tarabut Gateway launches in the UAE.
- Oman Banks Association urges lenders in the country to embrace fintech and open banking.
- Turkish fintech Payguru introduces new pay by text message service.
Central and Southern Asia
- Indian fintech GetVantage raises $5 million in seed funding.
- Smart Engines partners with Alfa Bank Kazakhstan to power digital onboarding and online payments.
- PhonePe, an online payments company based in India, announces availability as a payment option at more than two million locations in Maharashtra.
Latin America and the Caribbean
- Risk analytics software company Provenir partners with Mexico’s Estudia Mas to automate and digitize risk decisioning for education loans.
- Visa to acquire YellowPepper, a company that supports Latin American and Caribbean financial institutions and startups.
- Real-time financial data aggregator Afterbanks begins operations in Mexico.
Asia-Pacific
- Rapyd launches its “all-in-one” payment capabilities in South Korea courtesy of a partnership with local PSPs.
- Hong Kong-based virtual bank Mox onboards 35,000 customers in its first month of operation.
- TechinAsia looks at the “brutal” competition in the Vietnamese e-wallet market.
Sub-Saharan Africa
- Evolve Credit, a Nigerian loan and financial product marketplace, raises $25,000 in funding from Nigerian VC firm Microtraction.
- Fintech infrastructure platform Nium announces expansion into Africa.
- Two South African fintechs, B2B digital lender Lulalend and biometric digital identity company Paycode, earn recognition by the 2020 Inclusive Fintech Awards.
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