Fintech investment in Asia-Pacific quadruples in 2015 – report

40% of Asia-Pacific fintech investment in 2015 were in payments and 24% in lending which have traditionally been the sole domain of banks, accenture.com reports. Alternative providers are taking market share from traditional financial services firms via new payment and lending platforms, particularly in China. In 2015, Ping An Insurance Group ventured Lufax to raise money as it continued to develop multiple alternative financing and lending platforms, including P2P and B2C platforms.

Beijing Wecash Wonder Technology also raised funding to expand its app for analysing Chinese customers`credit. By mining public mobile data from roughly 600 million mobile internet users, Wecash is able to provide credit assessments and build predictive models for customers` credit risk — a technology useful for start-up payment platforms as well as banks.

In 2015, 12 financial institutions participated in the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific. Accenture has launched other FinTech Innovation Labs in London (2012) and Dublin (2014), such as The New York FinTech Innovation Lab, where 31 alumni fintech startups raised more than USD 175 million in venture financing after participating in the programme.

In 2015, four participants have been acquired – including Standard Treasury and BillGuard. At the FinTech Innovation Lab London, 21 alumni fintech startups raised more than USD 35 million in new investments, signed nearly 50 contracts to do business with banks, and increased revenues by 170%, on average. At the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific, alumni fintech startups raised more than USD 26.5 million.