Financial

The business-focused financial services provider, backed by Sina and Xiaomi, raised $103m in funding last month.

Booking Holdings has provided more funding for Didi as part of a strategic partnership, as the latter looks to spin off its vehicle services arm in an IPO sized at up to $1.5bn.

Existing investor Itochu led the consumer credit provider's latest round, boosting its overall funding to $80m.

The financial advice provider has formed a venture capital vehicle called Motley Fool Ventures that is targeting a $100m close.

Investment-focused online community Snowball Finance has raised series D funding from Ant Financial that will support hiring and product development.

Munich Re, Nationwide and American Express returned for a round that boosted the insurance platform's total funding to more than $130m.

Companies developing energy storage technologies, a strategic target of oil and gas producer as well as carmakers, have been mentioned over the news in the past weeks, indicating expected growth of commitments in this space.

Naspers, which led Movile's last round, in December, also led the mobile services platform's latest, taking its total funding to $375m.

The Xiaomi-backed digital brokerage closed the round at a valuation of more than $1bn and will spend the cash on hiring and R&D.