Chinese Investments Activity In FinTech, Payments Firms Increases Into May’s End

In activity seen through the very beginning of June, the latest period for which PYMNTS has data, the week that ended on June 9 saw a lag in activity with no reported transactions. But the previous week, which ended the month of May, saw $262.6 million in investments made by Chinese entities.

That week saw three separate investments outside of China, made by a single firm, Minsheng Investment Group. That $262 million was spread out to Tuandaiwang via private equity placement, and the recipient firm has presence in FinTech, especially in alternative finance. In this latest transaction, the funding was done through a pre-IPO funding round, which values the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending company at roughly $1.4 billion. A financial trade press reported that other investors participating in the funding round included Beijing Yisheng Innovation Technology. The P2P firm, in the meantime, has said that it has helped individuals in China borrow $11.4 billion, cumulatively.

The latest tally is a boost from the $17 million in investment activity that came in the previous week. This comes with $2.1 billion in tracked investment activity thus far in 2017, outpacing the $1.9 billion seen in 2016 (recent figures from the United Nations puts total Chinese foreign direct investment at $144 billion in that year, up 44 percent from 2015). These are internal investments in the country, and for the year external investments, made outside China, the tally to date for the current year, keeping in mind a payments-firm focus, is $1.3 billion.

In separate news germane to investment activity beyond Chinese borders, various news wires and other publications have reported that the United States is mulling whether to restrict cross-border investments from China into U.S. firms. The ultimate aim would be to secure various U.S. technologies deemed as being essential to U.S. national security. Among those investments to be reconsidered: Chinese investment in U.S. startups featuring AI.