This Week in Fintech

Argentina’s ecommerce MercadoLibre to net billion dollar investment
Recently, SoftBank pledged a staggering USD 2 billion to invest in Latin American tech companies and it looks like they have company. PayPal is set to invest USD 750 million in MercadoLibre and investment firm Dragoneer is committing USD 100 million to a USD 1.8 billion equity offering by the ecommerce outfit.  Read more
 
Not pocket change: Facebook cryptocurrency could net billions
The social media giant is said to be working on a cryptocurrency for P2P payments. A Barclay’s analyst estimates that the stablecoin could net up USD 19 billion by 2021. Read more

Hello, world?! Vietnamese bank choses voice biometrics firm NICE for authentication
NICE, a company delivering real-time authentication and fraud prevention solutions, announced this week that a prominent Vietnamese bank will be using its services, amongst which are voice authentication. Voice biometrics, the company claims, allows the bank to deliver both better customer service and fight fraud. Read more

Indonesia clamps down on unlicensed fintechs
The country’s Investment Alert Task Force recently shut down well over a hundred fintechs and 47 investment operations. In total, the task force has closed 803 unlicensed fintechs during 2018 and 2019. Scrutiny of P2P lending sites and the Google Play store led to the closings. Read more

Ant Financial rolls out core banking platform 
The new product, created in collaboration with Hoperun Information Technology, is hailed by Ant Financial's vice president as the "first of many collaborations" that Ant Financial plan to be involved with as they seek to provide better technology solutions to problems faced by the financial services industry and accelerate its digitisation. Read more 

Barclay's deepens relationship with Alipay 
A new agreement between Barclaycard, who processes almost half of UK card transaction, and Alipay, will allow merchants to accept the Chinese payment app at the point of sale via QR code-based mobile shopping app. Read more

Funding

Waves, a Russia-based blockchain platform providing crypto asset and custom token issuance, raised USD 120 million in a private funding round.

Acko, an India-based digital-first insurance provider for transportation related parties, raised USD 65 million in a Series C funding round that included Amazon.
 
Pagantis, a Spain-based POS credit financier for ecommerce, secured EUR 65 million in Series B funding. 

Stash, a US-based company providing a mobile app to help novices start investing, secured USD 65 million in a Series E round.
 
CXA Group, a data-driven, Singapore-based insurtech for employers operating across the Asia-Pacific, have closed USD 25 million in funds to expand in the region.
 
ZayZoon, a Canada-based wages-on-demand start-up, raised USD 15 million.
 

Research

Scalability Interoperability and Sustainability of Blockchains
By The European Union Blockchain Observatory and Forum
 
What’s going on in blockchain in Europe, and what will the future of the technology look like in the region, especially regarding large-scale blockchain platforms? This paper tackles these matters, giving an overview of the European blockchain industry, issues and challenges facing the tech, success factors for large-scale blockchain projects, and gives policy recommendations. Read more 

EU alternative investment funds
By ESMA
 
In this report, the ESMA presents its first-ever statistical report on alternative investment funds in the EU. As such, this sweeping endeavour overviews market structure and developments and covers hedge funds, real estate funds, private equity funds, funds of funds, and more. Read more

Paradigm shift in financial market
By PwC Switzerland
 
This report tackles the legal and economic impacts of the EU Action Plan Sustainable Finance on Switzerland’s financial sector. It details sustainable finance in Switzerland as well as on a European-wide scale, comparing and contrasting their characteristics. It also dives into the impact of the action plan on various actors in the Swiss financial industry amongst other matters. Read more 

Unlocking Digital Competition: Report of the Digital Competition Expert Panel
By Digital Competition Expert Panel (UK)

Firstly assessing the meritocracy of digital economies from a governmental perspective, the report leads to a range of proposals on how to increase digital competition and fully leverage the benefits of digitisation. The key proponents are a code of competitive conduct and an industry relevant merger policy, both to be overseen by a digital markets unit. Read more 

Africa Data Revolution Report 2018 STATUS AND EMERGING IMPACT OF OPEN DATA IN AFRICA
By UNDP, UNECA, WF, OD4D
 
This report dissects African governments' initiatives to open up their datasets to impact economies, improve social equity and stimulate innovation. It takes a country by country approach to assessing the impact open governmental data has, and could have, and notes key recommendations to not only increase access to governmentally held data, but spur its productive use. Read more
 
Moving toward gender balance in private equity and venture capital
By Oliver Wyman, RockCreek, IFC
 
Addressing the gender imbalance at both institutional and portfolio company levels, this report finds that women investors tend to invest in a more gender balanced portfolio, which in turn is evidentially linked to higher returns and valuations. It also uncovers how general partners view gender diversity as important when investing, yet the vast majority do not broach the subject during due diligence. Read more