QuantGroup (量化派), a financial technology company backed by Chinese movie stars, is planning a US initial public offering that could raise about US$200 million, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The Beijing-based firm has asked banks to pitch for a role on the potential offering, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
The deal is at an early stage, and details are yet to be finalized, they added.
QuantGroup joins other Chinese fintech companies in seeking funds in the US equity market as consumers in the world’s most populous nation increasingly turn to non-traditional lenders.
Fenqile (分期樂), a Chinese online mall that lets buyers pay in installments, picked banks to work on a planned IPO that could raise about US$600 million, people familiar with the matter said in March.
SmartFinance (智融), a Chinese Internet loans business that judges borrowers on factors including how often they charge their phones, has also consulted banks about a possible US listing that could happen as soon as this year.
They would follow China Rapid Finance Ltd (信而富), which has risen 31 percent in New York trading since its US$69 million IPO last month.
A representative for QuantGroup did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Backers of QuantGroup include Star VC, the venture capital firm started by a group of Chinese celebrities.
Li Bingbing (李冰冰), an actress who appeared in Transformers: Age of Extinction, and Ip Man 2 actor Huang Xiaoming (黃曉明) are among partners at Star VC, according to the Web site of fellow portfolio company Handu.com (韓都衣舍).
Other QuantGroup investors include Fosun International Ltd (復星國際) and Guosen Securities Co (國信證券).
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained