Swiss Life in October 2017 entered into a long-term partnership with Swiss business software provider for small businesses, bexio. Swiss Life becomes one of the largest shareholders of bexio and Swiss Life Switzerland CEO Markus Leibundgut joins the Board of Directors. The start-up already has over 10 000 customers and employs a staff of 50 in Switzerland. Bexio focuses on small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and offers web-based services – including

Total global fintech investment more than doubled quarter over quarter in Q2’17 to US $8.4 billion, up from US$3.6 billion in Q1’17, according to the KPMG Pulse of Fintech report. The fintech market rebound was helped by global M&A investment, with US$5.9 billion in deal value for M&A for the quarter. Comparatively, global VC funding to fintech companies declined slightly, with just over US$2.5 billion in VC funding raised

Lemonade, the New York City-based insurtech company in April 2017 announced a strategic investment by Allianz, the world’s largest insurance company. Details of the investment have not been disclosed. Solmaz Altin, Chief Digital Officer at Allianz, cited the company’s commitment to staying at the cutting edge of insurance and to helping Lemonade expand throughout the U.S. and internationally. Allianz already had invested in several thought leadership initiatives, such as

Zenefits, a San Francisco-based software startup recently valued at a whopping USD 4.5 billion, then revalued down to USD 2.3 billion, said in February 2016 it had replaced founder and CEO Parker Conrad with its former chief operating officer David Sacks, previously an executive at Yammer and PayPal. The company provides software for small and medium-sized businesses that automates some of their human resources services, including healthcare benefits, stock