5 Chinese fintechs making waves in the U.S.

From investing, to new payment services, to money transfer acquisition love triangles, Chinese fintech is having a bigger and bigger crossover with the U.S. fintech scene.

With that in mind, here are five Chinese fintechs making their way into the U.S. market to keep an eye on.

AliPay

Yes, AliPay is sort of a given–if there’s going to be one name on this list you should know, it’s Ant Financial’s flagship product. As one of the biggest–if not the biggest–P2P payments service in the world, AliPay’s domination in China has been a topic of discussion in fintech for years. What’s more recent, is the service’s move to the U.S.

Ant Financial is slowly filtering its presence, including its trademark P2P service, into the U.S. by focusing on its core consumer base of Chinese visitors. However, as the company’s well-documented tug-of-war over MoneyGram should attest, it seems to be looking to establish a more permanent presence in the region–and perhaps a more permanent presence in the smartphones of U.S. residents.

CreditEase

Based in Beijing, CreditEase specializes in credit management and microfinance, and has been easing its way further into the U.S. in recent years–including funding three U.S.-based fintech startups in March 2017, with capital from its CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund.

One of China’s leading wealth management platforms, the company’s stock is also listed on the New York Stock Exchange, granting a fair amount of transparency to U.S. investors. The company is responsible for Yirendai (also called “Chinese Lending Club”), the first Chinese online lending platform to go public in the United States just a few years back.

China Rapid Finance

Which brings us to the second Chinese online lender to go public in the U.S., earlier this month. 

China Rapid Finance is hoping its American IPO will lead to more Chinese customers, which, like its bigger contemporary Ant Financial, is where it’s keeping focus.

The company’s recent IPO was a move to grow its consumer base in China, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t attract the attention of fintech-ers in the U.S.

Niu Jiao Suo

As fintech goes global, more and more investors in China look to branch out–and this fintech startup is here to help.

Niu Jiao Suo connects its Chinese investing clients to foreign mutual funds operated by U.S. financial institutions like Blackrock, JPMorgan Chase, or Goldman Sachs.

The startup works through a mobile app, naturally, and users can invest a minimum of $400 in such funds (though users are currently capped at $50,000 in investments per year, due to Chinese regulatory requirements).

WeBank

The first online-only bank launched in China, WeBank was created by Chinese giant Tencent–also known as the parent company of the app WeChat, which is now used for a huge portion of daily activities by Chinese consumers.

Tencent has been stepping up its relationships outside of China in recent years, including investments in companies like cross-border payments solution provider Airwallex. Tencent also runs an artificial intelligence research lab in Seattle, and a holding company, named Tencent America, located in Palo Alto, Calif.