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    • Oct 12, 2018

Investment themes

P2P lending has been fraught with scandals as new regulations and investigations turn up illegal funds and trouble with loan repayments (1) (2) (3), sparking protests amongst the Chinese middle-class (4) (5). Despite the recent turmoil, wise investors have managed to distance themselves from the frauds, and the future of P2P looks growth-positive (6) (7) (8) (9), as tighter regulations serve to drive out fraudulent platforms (10) (11) (12) and foster a healthy investment environment.

Online education industry continues to grow, with firms looking to expand operations for a global reach (13). This growth is largely due to Asia’s growing middle class and their strong cultural tradition of investing in their children’s education (14).

 

References

  1. Japan's peer-to-peer lenders get burned by anonymous borrowers

  2. Indonesia identifies 227 illegal P2P lending startups, mostly from China

  3. Online Lender Ezubao Took $7.6 Billion in Ponzi Scheme, China Says

  4. How peer-to-peer lending turned middle-class Chinese dreamers into angry protesters

  5. Victims of P2P Lending Crisis in China Speak Out About Misfortunes

  6. SG: Online financing platform Validus Capital cross $73.4m business funding

  7. P2P Lending Activity Accelerates in Vietnam - Fintech Singapore

  8. Australian SME lender Judo Capital raises $104m in venture round

  9. Indonesian P2P lender KoinWorks raises $16.5m Series A led by Mandiri Capital

  10. Regulations Shrink India’s Peer-To-Peer Lending Industry

  11. Regulations help resolve P2P plight in China

  12. VN Central Bank working on framework for P2P lending

  13. VIPKid Announces Expansion of Curricula, Product Lines, and Overseas Operations Across 100 Countries

  14. Lessons for investors in China's red-hot education sector


Emerging markets are a battleground between tech giants (1), leading to increasing investment opportunities (2) (3) as developing nations account for an ever-growing share of global GDP (4). However, a lot of capital flows into emerging markets are high-risk, leaving them susceptible to crises (5), however, emerging economies nowadays have better fundamentals, less external debt, and better trade balances (6). The establishment of more Private Banking services in maturing economies is also a clear sign of the increasing wealth and investable capital in these regions (7).

 

References

  1. Chinese and US tech giants go at it in emerging markets

  2. Vietnam Securities Pioneer Nguyen Duy Hung Keeps An Eye On Agriculture Opportunities

  3. Private equity investors eye Myanmar’s digital economy as interest rises

  4. There's a major demographic shift happening

  5. Are Emerging Markets Ready for a Crisis?

  6. Currency Crises in Emerging Markets

  7. Bordier inks private banking deal in Vietnam


Traditional banks are dabbling in modern technologies (1), while the “virtual bank” sector continues to grow (2), despite a contraction in China’s shadow banking sector causing a slowdown in GDP growth (3). FinTech has been growing in importance for emerging economies (4) (5), with some large scale opportunities available for keen investors (6) (7)

The “New Retail” movement offers customers an interactive experience, merging online shopping and traditional retail (8), and disrupting both supermarket and the fashion industry (9) (10), promising positive growth for the e-commerce sector (11) along with consumer credit and payment apps (12) (13)

Russia’s Kalashnikov switches gears and joins the list of electric vehicle manufacturers (14), while China’s Dearcc skids into the market with a funding round to rival Tesla (15). Further advancements in robotics are driving investments in autonomous technologies (16) (17).

On-demand transport services continue to grow, adding more types of vehicles to the mix of ride-sharing options available in major cities around the world (18) (19), and paving the way for investors interested in the up-and-coming “new mobility” market (20). Security issues remain of concern in ride-sharing services (21), and start-ups are at risk of overhype if firms can’t justify their own valuations and run into regulatory issues (22).

 

References

  1. Open API Framework for the Banking Sector and the Launch of Open API on HKMA’s Website

  2. Hong Kong digital bank Neat nabs tidy $2m funding

  3. China GDP Growth Slows After Record Contraction In Shadow Banking Credit

  4. Rapid Development of Fintech Industry in Indonesia

  5. Fintech for Promoting Financial Inclusion in Vietnam: Fact Findings and Policy Implications

  6. VC interest in fintech could prompt emergence of new unicorn, says Minister Rudiantara

  7. HKMA Promotes for Fintech Push

  8. Visiting Alibaba’s Hema Supermarket Store

  9. Fashion brand Guess employs Alibaba AI tool in New Retail concept

  10. JD.com: the Future of China’s B2C E-commerce Market?

  11. Ant Ups Financial Services Stake

  12. Consumer credit firm PaySense raises $18m from PayU

  13. PayU acquires Zooz to take on international payment services

  14. Russian arms manufacturer Kalashnikov unveils its answer to Tesla

  15. China's latest electric car upstart outpaces Tesla in early fundraising

  16. Arbe Robotics Continues to Drive Next-generation Autonomous Vehicle Sensing Technology With $10M

  17. Baidu partners with Intel’s Mobileye to enhance Apollo self-driving platform

  18. Bike-share venture Mobike expands Tel Aviv operations

  19. China's DiDi, Ant Financial said to consider joint $2b Ofo buyout 41 New Mobility Companies For A New Future

  20. China's Didi Halts Its Carpool Service After Second Woman Killed

  21. The overhyped scooter company is an example of everything that's wrong with Silicon Valley

  22. Ashton Kutcher thinks it's 'absurd' to have a problem with the scooters littering San Francisco


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