SoftBank to invest $100m in Chinese insurtech JV

The investment will be made via SoftBank's Vision Fund which has used some of its $100bn of capital to acquire stakes in tech firms such as Uber and Indian digital payments firm Paytm. According to a report in the Financial Times, the new JV is designed to expand the technology side of ZhongAn's business which has increasingly focused on blockchain and artificial intelligence-based projects. ZhongAn was launched in China in 2013 by PingAn Insurance and e-commerce firms Tencent and Ant Financial as a digital-only insurer. However, while ZhongAn has attracted more than 300m customers it has failed to generate a profit due to the small margins involved in its insurance business. It reported a $95.40 million loss for the first half of 2018 Consequently it has sought to expand the technology side of its business.