Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket
“We project annual merchandise sales [for the flea market apps] will reach around 200 billion yen a year in the middle of 2018,” said Rakuten President Hiroshi Mikitani. The consolidation of the apps will also streamline plans to tie in other services, such as its core Rakuten Ichiba e-commerce platform.
https://www.asiaventurepedia.com/2018/02/06/...-to-counter-top-rival/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/26/...ryone-else-adds-3-million-users/
If, for the sake of argument, Acorns did reach 2 million users this year, a $1B valuation would equate to around $33 per user. How realistic is this? Certainly Acorn’s average account balance of just $156, compared to Wealthfront’s approximately $80,000, makes Acorns appear a long way from Unicorn status.
But Acorns has a longer-term game plan. Millennials have assets estimated at over $2 trillion and as they pay down the burden of college loans, increase savings and inherit wealth, this demographic will eventually bypass Boomers as the wealthiest demographic and the core focus for wealth managers.
For aspiring investors, starting small can be a good thing, as long as they keep going. “It’s easier to part with $1 fifty times than it is to part with $50 once,” said Jeff Cruttenden, co-founder of Acorns.
https://wmtoday.com/2016/03/07/...e-only-roboadvisor-worth-1-billion/
“Die japanische Rakuten hat eine starke Präsenz in Asien, sie verstehen den Markt für Consumer Financial Services und als Eiogwentümer von Viber ist sie ein signifikanter Player im Markt für Social Messaging [… ] Die Partnerschaft wird unsere Expansion in Asien beschleunigen und uns dabei unterstützen, unser Ziel der Entwicklung von tieferen Social Network Integrationen zu erreichen“, sagt Michael Kent, CEO und Mitgründer von Azimo."
http://www.it-times.de/news/...chrichten.de&utm_medium=CustomFeed
P/E Ratio 9.40
Price to Book Ratio 1.5296
Price to Sales Ratio 0.9924
https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/4755:JP
http://www.f1soft.com/viber-banking.html
The news builds on Currencycloud’s momentum in Asia-Pacific, with the UK-headquartered fintech signing 14 partnerships in the region in the past year and growing the volume of payments in the region by 66% in the past year since Q1 2017.
These partnerships include agreements to process business payments between the West and China with X-Transfer and to deliver local payouts in Europe with Geoswift. A strategic partnership has also been signed with EasyPay to facilitate the collections process for Hong Kong merchant service providers.
https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/74244/...ip-with-hyundai/retail
According to Bloomberg, one source said that the California-based startup is looking to sell shares that would value the business at $500 million to $1 billion.
While a spokeswoman for Upstart said the company isn’t currently raising funds, she does anticipate completing “a final private round” over the next year. She added that the company became profitable last year, while the value of loan transactions increased threefold and gross revenue went up fourfold.
Last year, the company announced a $32 million round of funding led by Rakuten, the Japanese eCommerce company. That brought Upstart’s total amount raised to $85 million. At the time, the company said it would put the money toward future growth, as well as to help license the technology to banks, credit unions and retailers.
https://www.pymnts.com/loans/2018/...upstart-funding-venture-capital/
https://www.insikt.com/#/about
BlueVine founder and CEO Eyal Lifshitz said, "We continue to grow stronger as a technology-enabled financing provider for small businesses addressing their everyday funding needs. We're helping thousands of entrepreneurs reach their business goals with an easy-to-use platform that gives them fast and convenient online access to working capital."
http://www.globes.co.il/en/...ises-200m-from-credit-suisse-1001233892
UK blockchain startup Everledger, which makes tools for verifying the diamond trade, has raised $10.4 million led by the Canadian division of Fidelity Investments and GMP Securities.
The Series A round featured participation from Singaporean firm Vickers Ventures Partners, Graphene Venture Capital, and previous investors Rakuten, FPV, Fenbushi, and Bloomberg Beta.
Everledger develops blockchain-based solutions for provenance tracking and certification and is focused particularly on the diamond and jewellery industry.
“Everledger started with the purpose of building trust amongst stakeholders in global markets,” said CEO Leanne Kemp. “Having this round of financing supported by strong and credible investors is testament to our success to date in achieving that purpose, taking us from a startup to a scaleup in just three years.”
http://tech.eu/brief/everledger-funding/
Die ganzen Rakutenbeteiligungen sind ja schön und gut, nur sind die meisten wirklich winzig. Auch wenn diesem Bereich einiges an Potential nicht abzusprechen ist.
Rakuten Leads $530M Investment In Lyft
- Investment in Lyft represents investment in the sharing economy -
TOKYO, March 12, 2015 – Rakuten, Inc. (TOKYO: 4755), today announced that it has agreed to purchase a 11.9% stake in Lyft, the San Francisco-based ride-sharing service provider and sharing economy pioneer. Rakuten is investing $300M as the lead investor in Lyft’s series E investment round.
Hiroshi Mikitani, founder and CEO of Rakuten said: “We have seen the future and this is it. By empowering human connection, the sharing economy is going to fundamentally transform the service industry and benefit society. We believe businesses like Lyft that unlock the latent potential that exists in people and society hold the key to the future.”
https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2015/0312_01.html
https://twitter.com/hmikitani_e/status/892575183264985088
By Paul Ausick April 6, 2017 2:30 pm EDT
Investors in Lyft’s latest round were not named, but previous rounds included Fortress Investment Group, Rakuten, Carl Icahn, and Chinese ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing (listed under its former name, Didi Kuaidi).
https://www.google.de/?gws_rd=ssl
https://www.statista.com/statistics/223334/...-group-revenue-segment/
P/E Ratio9.95
Price to Book Ratio1.6193
Price to Sales Ratio1.0506
https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/4755:JP
Viber, a messaging app, announced on Thursday (Feb. 23) that it will start showing users items that are for sale based on the current chat.
According to a report in Tech Crunch, users of Viber have to opt in by pressing a shopping bag icon at the bottom of the screen. The feature is slated to go live on March 6 in the U.S. and will eventually be launched in other markets outside of the country. In its first iteration, the new shopping function will include a selection of items from categories such as electronics, fashion and home goods.
Viber, which is owned by Rakuten, will get its shopping items from Rakuten.com as well as from 30 other brands, one of which is Macy’s. Viber also plans to have a shopping feature that is focused on deals. In the first stage of the new feature, Viber customers won’t be able to make purchases directly from the messaging app, but that could come in the future.
“We will do purchasing in Viber eventually, but we decided to launch it this way to learn more about how it is used and to get it out there as soon as possible,” said Viber’s Chief Executive Djamel Agaoua in the report. “We are looking to transform Viber into a platform without turning to ‘stupid’ advertising.”
https://www.pymnts.com/news/mobile-commerce/2017/...-goes-contextual/
https://www.paldesk.com/viber-business-important-channel/
Coca-Cola is the world’s largest beverage company, refreshing consumers and bringing people together with over 500 brands and nearly 3,900 beverage choices. Pairing the brand with Viber’s connected and engaged Bulgarian audience was pivotal to its goals—boosting its mobile footprint, interacting with current and new consumers while providing an integrated digital experience—in- and out-of-app. Over a three-month period, Coca-Cola launched a Public Account, Sticker Packs with a promo code mechanism and a Chatbot experience on Viber. To maximize their reach and conversions, Coca-Cola amplified this with cross-promotion across their social channels, supporting an “under-the-cap” sweepstakes. Coca-Cola successfully engineered a comprehensive and engaging promotion strategy.
http://info.viber.com/rs/879-RYH-696/images/...ola_Campaign_Recap.pdf