CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund Announces New Investments in Global Growth-Stage Fintech Companies

NEW YORK, March 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund ("CEFIF"), a venture fund investing in growth-stage fintech companies in China and globally, announced at the 2017 LendIt USA Conference in New York that it recently participated in investment transactions in three new fintech companies. LendIt annual conferences are recognized as one of the largest global fintech industry events dedicated to connecting the global fintech and lending communities

The three investment transactions include Series C financing round in Trumid, an electronic trading platform for the bond market, Series B financing round in WeConvene, an online corporate access management ERP provider for capital markets, and Seed Round financing round in WorldCover, an innovative peer-to-peer insurance network.

Ning Tang, Founder and CEO of CreditEase stated, "We are excited to take the global stage and showcase the stars of our CreditEase eco-system. CreditEase is the market leader in wealth management and inclusive finance in China and globally. As China is increasingly embracing financial technologies that rejuvenate economic growth and improve financial health, we are well positioned to continue to address the underserved needs of fast-growing, mass affluent and high-net worth investors. We are also expanding our various investment funds to meet demands of our wealth management clients and enable them to take advantage of global investment opportunities while ensuring balanced asset allocation."

Founded in late 2015, CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund ("CEFIF") has an equivalent of US$ 1 billion in total committed capital. CEFIF has formed strategic partnerships with global leading venture capital investors to discover opportunities in five sub-segments within the domain of Fintech: Lending, Payments, Personal Finance / Private Wealth Management, Enterprise Solutions and Insurance. The Fund has made a total of eight investments since launch, including Trumid, WeConvene and WorldCover. Other announced investments include Circle, a blockchain-based payment application; Tradeshift, a cloud-based buyer-supplier network; and DYCD.com, an auto financial technology platform.

Over the past three years, the global fintech sector has experienced tremendous growth, becoming a key destination for venture capital and private equity investments. The total investments in global fintech sector reached 18 billion USD in the first nine months of 2016. Driven by strong investment interests, fintech companies continue to gain significant momentum, capturing greater market share and causing disruption in the traditional financial service sector. There has also been increase in collaboration between banks and fintech companies in the last couple of years.

Anju Patwardhan, Senior Partner of CEFIF, commented, "We believe the Chinese fintech market will continue to grow in 2017 and beyond, as many 3-5 year-old companies have grown into large-scale operations. We expect many of these to mature into high-quality, mid-to-late stage companies. Similarly, we anticipate a slew of promising early and mid-stage growth companies in the US market, due to the improving climate for investment, as well as the more sustainable development of fintech sector."

"In the next ten years," added Patwardhan, "the fintech sector will continue to experience accelerating growth, which presents huge opportunities for smart investors. CreditEase's deep industry insights and expertise, coupled with our ability to invest globally, our fund is now being recognized as one of the top global fintech venture funds and we will continue to create value for our investors."

CEFIF's success of investing in the fintech sector is resulted from three vital factors: insightful observation of the industry, comprehensive and ongoing research in specific segments, and strategic empowerment for management teams with global vision and investment capabilities. The fund is well positioned to capture great opportunities in the fintech space and will continuously create value for investors.

CreditEase is founded by Ning Tang who returned to China from Wall Street in 2006 to specialize in small business and consumer lending as well as wealth management for high net worth and mass affluent investors. Since its inception, CreditEase has been at the forefront of financial technology in China and globally. CreditEase leadership team joined from top global investment banks with deep industry knowledge and experience, which helps implement a global strategy and establish asset management capabilities.

About Trumid

Founded in June 2014, Trumid is a US-based electronic bond trading platform. The company is listed as a Fintech 50 by Forbes, with noted investments from Soros Fund Management and venture capitalist Peter Thiel. With electronic trading already dominating most markets, electronic bond trading is the next big trend. While the current US Treasury market is transitioning well to electronic trading platforms, the corporate bond market, still suffers from low liquidity, lack of transparency and lengthy phone negotiations between banks and their clients. The electronic trading platform introduced by Trumid can effectively increase the liquidity and transparency of corporate bonds. There have been already 500 institutions signed up with Trumid with daily average order volume of US$1 billion and daily average transaction volume of US$50 million. Trumid plans to expand into the European and Japanese markets, as well as other asset classes in the future.

About WeConvene

WeConvene is a US-based promising enterprise solution provider. Founded in 2012, WeConvene enables capital market buy-side, sell-side and issuers to arrange meetings effortlessly through a state-of-the-art online booking system that reduces inefficiency and redundancy in traditional ways of arranging meeting and sharing documents. 

About WorldCover

Founded in January 2015, WorldCover is a US-based insurance technology company that uses a peer-to-peer model to provide farmers in developing worlds with crop insurance against natural disasters and provides investors with diversified returns from the non-traditional financial markets.

About CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund

Founded in December 2015, CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund is a venture fund investing in growth-stage fintech companies in China and the global markets. CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund has an equivalent of USD1 billion in total committed capital. The fund has formed strategic partnerships with global leading venture capital investors to discover opportunities in five sub-segments within the domain of Fintech: Lending, Payment, Personal Finance/Wealth management, Enterprise Solutions and Insurance.

SOURCE CreditEase