5 Chinese Fintech Unicorns to Watch

Earlier this year, British unicorn Powa Technologies collapsed into administration and after the vote to leave the EU, who knows what will happen to the UK fintech industry. Despite this, there has been a transformation in the Chinese fintech industry with many companies increasing their worth to over $1 billion. According to Business Insider, Chinese fintech unicorns are starting to dominate.  

Ant Financial

Industry: Mobile Payments

Worth: $60 billion

Raised: $4.5 billion

China’s most valuable fintech company could be compared to the likes of PayPal. A powerhouse in the online payments market with its connections to industry giant Alipay, it also provides a money-market fund called Yue’ Bao and online bank MYbank. With 450 million active users and counting, 58% of the country’s online payment transactions are made through Alipay, according to research compiled by Credit Suisse.

Lufax

Industry: Peer-to-Peer Lending

Worth: $18.5 billion

Raised: $1.69 billion

According to the Wall Street Journal, Lufax is one of the world’s biggest Internet finance companies, but also operates from around 100 shops located in over 80 cities. Headed up by Ping An Insurance, a unicorn in its own right, the company is responsible for financing over 20,000 loans worth $2.5 billion collectively since Lufax was launched.

ZhongAn Insurance

Industry: Insurance

Worth: $2 billion

Raised: $931.3 million

Set up by founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, as well as Tencent chairman Ma Huateng and PingAn chairman Ma Mingzhe, ZhongAn is China’s first online-only insurer. As we are becoming increasingly aware of more and more financial institutions implementing robo-advice services, China could be ahead in this respect and this could be what we must all expect to use in the next few years.

Jimubox

Industry: Peer-to-Peer Lending

Worth: $1 billion

Raised: $131.2 million

Another peer-to-peer lending unicorn that was created during the internet finance boom that occurred in China at the start of this decade, and Jimubox continues to grow exponentially. At the end of last year, the company launched an intelligent advisory platform for wealth management after gaining $84 million in a C stage funding round.

Rong360

Industry: Financial comparison

Worth: $1 billion

Raised: $258 million

Backed by Google, Apple and WhatsApp and with investment from Silicon Valley’s Sequoia Capital, it is of paramount importance that you watch this space. Financial comparison website Rong360 allows users to search for loans, credit cards, mortgages and more, including insurance.