Five fintech start-ups have raised more than US$1 million each and set up partnerships with traditional financial companies, the Taiwan Financial Services Roundtable (TFSR) said yesterday.
They are artificial intelligence service provider Eyes Media Co Ltd (艾斯移動), payment platform company Installments Inc (Insto, 台灣盈士多), fund trader How-Investech Inc (好好投資科技), investment consultants Fortuna Intelligence Co Ltd (群馥科技) and Japan-based cybersecurity solution provider Caulis Inc, it said.
Gaining financial support from venture capitalists and other investors affirmed the business potential of the five, which emerged from the incubator at the nation’s first fintech coworking space, FinTechSpace (金融科技創新園區), TFSR said.
The incubator has been open for one year and accepted about 40 start-ups, said TFSR, which helps operate the space.
Six-year-old Insto has raised about US$1.9 million in its seed round and also gained support from the National Development Fund and other angel investors, chief executive Bruce Chen (陳仁彬) told the Taipei Times.
Insto provides a payment service that does not need a device.
Many retailers in Taiwan still use point-of-sale (POS) terminals to process credit card payments, so the company has created a mobile app that enables retailers to create a QR code or a link to consumers, who could pay by scanning the code or providing their credit card information online after clicking the link, Chen said.
The app also enables installment payments, which are popular for consumers who want to pay tuition fees or their rent, Chen said, adding that some publishing houses have used the app to pay royalties to writers.
“We do not compete with credit card issuers or banks, but we provide a service that benefits all, as we make credit card transactions more convenient for consumers and retailers,” Chen said.
A total of 30,000 users have registered for the company’s service, with accumulated transactions surpassing NT$10 million (US$322,560) after the app was launched in September 2017, he said.
How-Investech has raised more than NT$50 million and plans to gain more support from local venture capitalists by the end of this year, general manager Fionn Yang (楊少銘) said.
In cooperation with Far Eastern International Bank (遠東商銀), the company is to provide new fund management services on blockchain technology, enabling customers who have purchased fund products offered by the bank to exchange their products with other customers, without paying redemption fees, Yang said.
“It currently takes at least five days to conduct a fund trade, and during this period, customers cannot make any investment, just wait. We can shorten the time to less than one day with the use of blockchain technology,” he said.
The company plans to launch its service in November, once it gets approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission, he said.
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
DOLLAR SIGNS: The central bank rejected claims that the NT dollar had appreciated 10 percentage points more than the yen or the won against the greenback The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell for a sixth day to its weakest level in three months, driven by equity-related outflows and reactions to an economics official’s exchange rate remarks. The NT dollar slid NT$0.197, or 0.65 percent, to close at NT$30.505 per US dollar, central bank data showed. The local currency has depreciated 1.97 percent so far this month, ranking as the weakest performer among Asian currencies. Dealers attributed the retreat to foreign investors wiring capital gains and dividends abroad after taking profit in local shares. They also pointed to reports that Washington might consider taking equity stakes in chipmakers, including Taiwan Semiconductor
A German company is putting used electric vehicle batteries to new use by stacking them into fridge-size units that homes and businesses can use to store their excess solar and wind energy. This week, the company Voltfang — which means “catching volts” — opened its first industrial site in Aachen, Germany, near the Belgian and Dutch borders. With about 100 staff, Voltfang says it is the biggest facility of its kind in Europe in the budding sector of refurbishing lithium-ion batteries. Its CEO David Oudsandji hopes it would help Europe’s biggest economy ween itself off fossil fuels and increasingly rely on climate-friendly renewables. While
RSS