Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

Pinterest nears $1 billion in ad sales, valuation rises as it looks to go public mid-2019

Pinterest has grown significantly through mobile use and consumers in Western Europe, Latin America and Japan.

Pinterest has taken a long time to justify its monstrous private market valuation. However the social media company is finally approaching $1 billion in ad revenue as it pushes toward an IPO in mid-2019, according to people familiar with the matter.

Investors are already getting more bullish on Pinterest. Trades on the secondary market value the company at between $13 billion and $15 billion, said people with knowledge of the matter. That is up from a valuation of $12.3 billion at the time of its last financing round in June 2017.

eu.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/07/23/...-mid-2019/820573002/

www.merchantmaverick.com/reviews/bluevine-review/

www.lendgenius.com/blog/bluevine-review/

BlueVine raises additional $12 million from M12, Microsoft's venture fund, and Nationwide, bringing total Series E funding to $72 million

Online business lender's total funding volume tops $1 billion after only 4 years

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 31, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BlueVine announced today it has raised another $12 million from new investors, M12, Microsoft's venture fund, and the venture arm of insurance and financial services provider, Nationwide.

The announcement comes eight weeks after BlueVine, a leading provider of online working capital financing to small and medium-sized businesses, said it had secured $60 million from Menlo Ventures, SVB Capital and other investors.

The additional funding raises BlueVine's Series E total to $72 million.
"We're excited about BlueVine's suite of technology-enabled working capital solutions for small and medium sized businesses," said Elliott Robinson, partner at M12. "The company's market traction to-date has been impressive and we believe their technology and talent have set them on the path for continued growth. We look forward to seeing what they do next."

BlueVine is funded by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, 83NORTH, Silicon Valley Bank, Citi Ventures, Rakuten Fintech Fund, M12 , Nationwide and other investors.

www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/...72-million-300688758.html

bei Simpleinsurance:

Simplesurance kooperiert mit Fahrradhersteller
VON JONAS TAUBER AM 26. JULI 2018

Das Insurtech Simplesurance aus Berlin kooperiert mit dem Fahrradhersteller Canyon und bietet dessen Kunden eine Diebstahl- und Reparaturversicherung. Käufer können die Police direkt auf der Homepage des Fahrradherstellers abschließen, der dann eine Provision erhält. Die Partnerschaft beschränkt sich auf Deutschland. Simplesurance hat nach eigenen Angaben rund 2.500 vergleichbare Kooperationen mit Online-Shops. Außerdem verkaufen die Berliner Policen direkt über ihr Portal Schutzlick.de.

versicherungsmonitor.de/2018/07/26/...-mit-fahrradhersteller/

Indonesia’s Go-Jek could expand into Thailand ‘very soon,’ its president...
11:30 PM ET Thu, 13 Sept 2018

Andre Soelistyo from Go-Jek says that the team in Thailand is working to get the app up and ready very soon, in a few weeks.

www.cnbc.com/video/2018/09/13/...soon-its-president-says.html

Rakuten TV mulls wider European expansion

Written by Andrew McDonald
09 November 2017

Speaking exclusively to Digital TV Europe, Rakuten TV CEO Jacinto Roca said “we have the intention to launch but we don’t have concrete plans yet”.
Roca said that heading into next year, the firm may consider increasing its number of territories with a view to expanding into the Nordics and Eastern Europe.
“The idea is to cover Europe as a whole. I think that will be the main priority,” said Roca.
“I think that to launch in these countries we may consider M&A opportunities as well.”
Currently Rakuten TV is live in 12 European countries, including its home and largest market of Spain, and other major European countries like the UK, Germany, Spain, France and Italy.

www.digitaltveurope.com/2017/11/09/...der-european-expansion/

Nathan Ramler, CFA
Rakuten (4755 JP) Mobile: Can It Succeed? A Study, Plus Insights from SoftBank’s (9984 JP) EMobile
Fri, 21 Sep 2018 02:41

In this second part of our series about Rakuten's (4755 JP) plans for its MNO (mobile network operator) service, we explore Rakuten's MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) and the early stages of its MNO as well as how the history and lessons from eMobile, now part of the Softbank Group (9984 JP), are relevant for Rakuten.

We believe that Rakuten will be able to leverage its existing customer relationships from its e-commerce platform, financial services businesses, and current MVNO subscribers to create an interesting niche mobile service.

But we expect Rakuten will struggle to make a reasonable return on its MNO on a standalone basis.
Fortunately for Rakuten, and unlike eMobile, Rakuten has a rich ecosystem of services and a variety of revenue and cash flow streams. Rakuten’s MNO may be able to strengthen the company’s overall ecosystem and create enough synergies to add positive value to the group.

www.smartkarma.com/insights/...rom-softbank-s-9984-jp-emobile

"An insurtech firm that provides brokers with software that “empowers them” to manage and even fund their premium finance book has raised $36 million (approximately £27 million) of funding, we revealed last week.

Insurance Business spoke to PremFina’s founder, Bundeep Singh Rangar, about the company he has dubbed the “Uber of premium finance,” and how it could help brokers to maximise revenues.
The software is currently available in the UK across general insurance products, but with its recent cash injection the firm is looking to expand.

“One thing we are seeing is that we have more demand than our current capacity can cope with,” Rangar said. “Increasing our staff across IT, sales and marketing, and broker support is a key aspect, and then looking at exporting the model to other parts of the world.”

www.insurancebusinessmag.com/uk/news/...um-finance-81439.aspx

MOBILE COMMERCE TO EMPOWER SOCIETY: CURBSIDE

JULY 3, 2018

It’s Monday morning, you’re on your way to work. You reach your favorite cafe to grab your morning latte, but there’s a line of people snaking out the door. This is going to take a while. Or is it?
An employee emerges from the cafe holding a takeout bag, greets you by your name and hands you your coffee. Astonished gazes from the coffee line follow you, as you thank the employee and continue on your way.

This is the future that Silicon Valley startup Curbside, acquired by the Rakuten Group earlier this month, wants to make reality. It’s an exciting mix of online-to-offline, mobile commerce and same-day delivery, with a strong focus on empowering small businesses to take advantage of new technologies.

rakuten.today/blog/curbside-mobile-commerce.html

nypost.com/2018/08/31/lyft-is-racing-to-beat-uber-to-an-ipo/

Nathan Ramler ignored/overlooked that the building of a green field cloud-native 4G/5G network after years of technical progress is a lot cheaper than the building of such a network some years ago and the maintenance of such an old network.

But, in key Asian markets, marketplaces are the primary online shopping channel for consumers. In China, 85 percent of total ecommerce transactions occur on marketplaces, according to eMarketer. In India, that figure is 83 percent, and in Japan it’s 70 percent.

In terms of gross merchandise value (GMV), just three Asian companies (China’s Alibaba, India’s Myntra and Japan’s Rakuten) out-earn the top 10 U.S. online marketplaces combined, by nearly 40%. In fact, Alibaba’s properties alone outsell the top 10 U.S. marketplaces.

The overwhelming popularity of marketplaces, combined with Asian and Latin American shoppers’ growing interest in cross-border shopping (our upcoming global ecommerce survey found that 70% of online shoppers globally have purchased products cross-border, a 6% increase over last year) , makes it a table stakes-level opportunity for foreign retailers looking to enter China, India, Japan or any global market.

www.pitneybowes.com/us/blog/...-cross-border-marketplace.html

Rakuten Card to launch “Rakuten Card American Express ® Card”

Tokyo, September 25, 2018 - Rakuten Card Co., Ltd. today announces it starts issuing the Rakuten Card American Express ® Card. This is the first card issued by Rakuten Card with American Express brand. From today, Rakuten will begin to issue and accept applications for the new cards.
With the Rakuten Card American Express Card, under the concept of "making that special day even more special," cardholders can enjoy not only the services and features of Rakuten Card, but also the complementary benefits and campaigns available on American Express network.

The Rakuten Card American Express Card is available in the following four varieties: “Rakuten Card”, which has no annual membership fee, “Rakuten PINK Card”, a credit card created for women which offers services that can be customized to suit the lifestyle of cardholder, “Rakuten Premium Card”, which offer additional services and benefits, and the “Rakuten Black Card”, which is available to selected card members.

global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2018/0925_01.html

From Jio to Raktuen as chief of Rakuten Telekom

Tareq Amin, Senior Vice President of Technology Development have recently quit the company, people familiar with the development said.

The exits take place as Jio seeks to expand beyond mobile phone services to tap areas such as the Internet of Things, for which it has launched a pan-India network in partnership with Samsung. The telco is also offering fiber-to-home (FTTH) broadband pilot services and it will soon launch it commercially.

Amin, who joined Jio in 2013, had been a prominent global face for Jio, having represented the telecom operator at various international platforms, including the Small Cell Forum.

At Jio, Amin was responsible for overseeing all aspects of the technology development and automation organization, including innovation, development, and operation. He served companies like Huawei and T-Mobile in the US before joining Jio in Mumbai, India.

www.gadgetsnow.com/tech-news/...quit/articleshow/64209039.cms

that Rakuten Mobile will be concentrated on New Technology that is 4G technology.
While other companies were stuck in high cost of capital, expensive technology over new and old technology, whereas Rakuten Mobile focussing purely on new technology.

similar investments in other companies around the world:

Ofcom CEO – The £6bn Cost of Truly Universal UK Mobile Coverage
Wednesday, June 20th, 2018 (10:11 am)

The CEO of Ofcom, Sharon White, yesterday told the Connected Britain event in London that to provide good mobile network (4G etc.) coverage across virtually all of the UK landmass would cost up to around £6 billion and is likely to require some form of cross subsidy.

www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2018/06/...mobile-coverage.html

www.visenze.com/customers

competitor can match

The new mobile business, slated for debut next year, will tie together the company’s disparate portfolio of about 80 different services, Chief Operating Officer Kentaro Hyakuno said in an interview. The convenience of using one ID for everything from shopping and booking travel to paying the bills will attract new customers as well as convince its more than 90 million registered users to spend more on the platform, he said.

Chief Executive Officer Hiroshi Mikitani pioneered online shopping in Japan when he started the Rakuten online marketplace more than two decades ago. Since then, the company has lost ground to Amazon and has increasingly relied on financial services such as credit cards and online banking for growth. While Mikitani’s plan to build Japan’s fourth-largest wireless operator will add another business where it doesn’t have a leading market position, the company is betting the venture will serve as a platform for a collection of offerings no other competitor can match.

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...oo.headline&yptr=yahoo

Rakuten Aspyrian raised a total of $217.8M in funding over 5 rounds. The latest funding came from a Series C round on Aug 23, 2018.

www.crunchbase.com/organization/...section-locked-marketplace

Some Biotechs Find Freedom in Self-Commercialization Model
By Jared Whitlock
Wednesday, September 5, 2018

There’s Rakuten Aspyrian, which in August announced a $150 million Series C round as the company’s lead cancer candidate moves into a final-stage trial. The company plans to be a fully-integrated biopharma.

“To support long-term R&D we need to create long-term value and this can only be achieved by creating a commercial entity where commercial products support value to sustain continued investment and innovation,” CEO Miguel Garcia-Guzman, said in a statement.

www.sdbj.com/news/2018/sep/05/...-notebook-some-biotechs-fin/

mich wieder zu sperren.

Scheinbar hat man Everybody's Bitcoin übernommen. Bin gespannt was man aus der eigenen Kryptowährung und der nun eigenen Börse bastelt.

www.statista.com/statistics/828707/...ervices-they-drive-for/