HONG KONG, Oct. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- China's leading fintech company 9F Group announces today that it has received a new round of Series E Financing from world-renowned FinTech company SBI Holdings, Inc. (SBI), after China Xinda (Hong Kong) Holdings Co., Ltd., Focus Media Chairman Jiang Nanchun, Youzu Interactive Chairman Lin Qi, and the two major industrial funds of FAMOUS GROUP and Plentiful International.
SBI's strategic investment in 9F Group showcases its intention to establish cooperation with the FinTech industry in China and around the world, facilitating 9F Group in advancing its development in finance technology and consolidating its global business presence in Hong Kong, Singapore and the US.
Founded in 1999, SBI is a FinTech harbinger in Japan and one of the world's leading FinTech groups. It was formerly known as Softbank Investment and became listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in February 2002. The company changed its name to SBI Holdings in July 2005. Its structure encompasses Softbank Finance, Softbank Investment, Softbank Asset Management and other internal financial related businesses and companies. SBI Holdings became an independent financial group in August 2006.
Founded around the same time of the same year, 9F Group has a number of independent wholly-owned or holding subsidiaries, with four domestic business sectors including digital accounts (9F One Card), artificial intelligence (9F Technology), online lending (9F Puhui), brokerage investment (insurance and funds), and overseas business sectors in Hong Kong (9F Securities and 9F Wealth Management), Southeast Asia and the US. After years of organizational optimization and resource integration, the company has become a well-known independent third-party FinTech holdings company in the industry, providing convenient and one-stop services for customers and providing technology-enabled services for banks and other institutions.
In 2016, SBI Group established the world's first "Internet Finance Ecosystem", covering a wide range of fields such as securities, banking and insurance, holding a variety of Internet financial service licenses. The group is also committed to asset management businesses, investing in FinTech companies and fostering and expanding financial services overseas. The group has stepped up its layout in newly-emerged advanced technologies such as AI, blockchain, big data, IoT and robotics. In December 2015, SBI Group established the industry's first "FinTech Special Fund" to explore and cultivate FinTech companies with a total subscription amount of 30 billion yen.
