Investment in Asian P2P Increases

US investment firm Tiger Global has brought into Dianrong.com, the Chinese peer-to-peer lender. Dianrong did not disclose the sum of the investment or the stake purchased, but it is rumoured to be between tens and hundreds of million of dollars. 

This is the latest in Tiger’s investments into Asia’s booming peer-to-peer sector. The company has previously invested in Alibaba, which completed a $25 billion IPO last year, and Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com, as well as investing in India’s largest online retailer, Flipkart.  

Guo Yuhang, one of the founders of Dianrong.com, commented:

“Tiger’s investment will improve the credibility of our platform.” He also added that the extra capital would allow the firm to expand, improve its online systems and attract further investment partners.

Elsewhere in Asia the Taiwanese Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is planning to utilize crowdfunding to help support young and creative entrepreneurs.

The commission plans to submit a proposal to Executive Yuan by the end of January which should allow them to implement the crowdfunding website by March at the earliest. The FSC’s Chairman Tseng Ming-chung has said that this year’s development strategy includes the production of the crowdfunding site. 

An FSC officer reported that crowdfunding websites have a lower threshold for small businesses and entrepreneurs to start in comparison to the Go Incubation Board for Startup and Acceleration Firms platform (GISA). Before being registered on GISA, a company has to be thoroughly inspected and have undergone a period of counselling with the GreTai Securities Market. GISA was originally created to assist with micro companies needing to raise capital in response to the government’s policy to foster the development of small businesses.  

It has been reported that the specifics of the platform are yet to be finalised but this does show that there is large amount governmental support for crowdfunding and an appreciation of the great benefits it can bring to small businesses.