The size of financial services firm Ant Group’s planned flotation will be enormous if it succeeds in raising anywhere near the reported $30bn it is targeting from selling stock in Hong Kong and Shanghai at a valuation of some $250bn.

Increasingly, the public and private worlds are converging.

Another one goes.

As with yesterday’s column on Tencent and US gaming companies’ interest in European startups, the continent is increasingly interesting for tapping fintech talent.

The issue of who can and wants to invest where is only heating up.

The commitment of gaming and technology companies from Japan, Finland, the US and South Korea to a new India-based venture capital firm, Lumikai, is a reflection of the size of market potential but also shows up some wider trends.

Airbus Ventures, the US-based corporate venturing unit of European plane maker Airbus, has turned to Japan for the limited partners of its third fund.

Entrepreneurs have traditionally needed five things to build their business: capital, customers, product development, staff recruitment and, eventually, an exit. A sixth factor of increasing importance in a world of heightened geopolitical tensions involves dealing with government and regulators.

SoftBank is projected to report operating income of more than $1bn for the quarter ended in June.