Hi fintech friends, Osborne here!

Please enjoy all the news and updates from the past week in today’s edition. If you feel TWIF brings you value, please share it with your friends (and maybe suggest they subscribe too).

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🐦🏆 Tweets of the Week

📈 Chart of the Week

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. PayNearby claimed to have opened 100K current and savings bank accounts in the six months ended Mar-23.
2. Flexiloans, an SME lending startup, claimed to manage an AuM of INR 1,000cr ($122mm) in 70,000 loans with INR 3,400cr ($414mm) in total disbursements till FY23 (ended Mar-23).
3. UGro Capital, a small business lending company, said that it will raise $41.4mm in equity capital.
4. CreditFair, a retail lending startup, announced that it will use CredGenics to streamline its debt collections.
5. Indian startups raised $2.8bn in Q1 2023, a 75% YoY drop from the $11.9bn in Q1 2022. Fintech startups raised $1.2bn during the same period.
6. Non-life insurance companies are planning to launch a platform to onboard hospitals and manage cashless claims settlement while keeping fraud in check.
7. Razorpay helped 80 startups remit back INR 60cr ($7.3mm) over 10 days post the SVB collapse.
8. IRDAI, the insurance regulator, claimed that it is in process of reviewing 20 applications for various manufacturing licenses.
9. BankBazaar, a lending product marketplace company, said it will apply for IPO in the next 16-18 months and reported INR 160cr ($19.6mm) in net revenue in FY23 (ending Mar-2023).
10. EbixCash, a remittance and financial services company, received SEBI approval to list its shares.
11. Mutual Fund industry AuM for FY23 (ended Mar 2023) grew 7% YoY from $460bn to $490bn
12. RBI scrapped its plans to introduce New Umbrella Entity for payments.
13. Zerodha announced partnering with Smallcase to launch its mutual fund business.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Venlo, a domestic UPI payments app for non-Indians, launched its app.
2. ICICI Bank launched a credit on UPI product.
3. Bajaj Markets, a subsidiary of Bajaj Finserv, partnered with Vested, a global stock investing startup, to launch US stock investing for Bajaj's customers.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. RBI (central bank): Approved easier application norms for Core Investment Companies (CIC). Released guidelines restricting lenders from blending penal charges on loans with the principal and interest charges.
2. SEBI (securities): Asked mutual funds to introduce "direct plans" and trail model for distribution commission.
3. IRDAI (insurance): Approved the life insurance license application of Credit Access Grameen.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. PhonePe raised $100mm at a $12bn valuation.
2. GenWise, a financial services and content platform for seniors, raised $3.5mm.
3. CreditAccess, a non-bank microfinance company, raised $20mm in debt.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. OfBusiness acquired Koeleman India, a food processing and exports company.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Australia's central bank cancelled Binance' financial services license
2. The Payment & Clearing Association of China warned that technology like ChatGPT could pose “risks such as cross-border data leaks”.
3. Sea Bank, an Indonesian digital banking subsidiary of Singaporean Sea Group, reported net profit of $18mm for FY2022 (ended Dec-2022) compared to $21mm in FY2021.
4. Tiger Brokers, a Chinese stock trading company, launched TigerGPT, an AI investment assistant.
5. ZA Bank of Hong Kong announced its plans to become the go-to bank for the Web3 ecosystem.
6. KoinWorks reportedly shut its student financing product.
7. Airwallex conducted a study on Southeast Asian small businesses that revealed 7 in 10 small businesses are bracing for a potential recession within the next two years.
8. Thunes received a license in France to operate cross border payments.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Soft Space, a Malaysian fintech infra startup, raised $31.5mm.
2. Alchemy Pay, a Singaporean crypto/fiat payments co, raised $10mm at $400mm valuation.
3. BetterTradeOff, a financial planning SaaS startup, raised an undisclosed amount.

🌏 International

Please find our global coverage and consider subscribing.

• US and Global, written by Nik Milanovic.
• Europe and UK, written by Michael Jenkins.
• Latin America, written by Christine Chang.
• Africa, written by Emeka Ajene.
• China written by Ning Ye.
• Policy written by Mohammad Hamdy.

And of course, our podcast series - Beyond Two Percent and Hey Fintech Friends.

If you’ve made it this far - thanks! As always, you can always reach me at osborne@thisweekinfintech.com. I’d genuinely appreciate any and all feedback. If you liked what you read, please consider sharing or subscribing.

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