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).

Don’t forget to share with fellow fintech friends!

🐦🏆 Tweets of the Week

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. The micro finance industry by NBFC's (excluding banks and small finance banks) reportedly grew 22% YoY in disbursals to INR 3,48,339crs ($42.4bn).
2. Pepper Group, an Australian mortgage financing company, is investing $150mm in the Indian arm. It plans to launch 3-5 prepaid co-branded cards.
3. Private life insurance companies grew premiums by 10% MoM in May, 2023, while LIC recorded a 6% MoM decline.
4. SafexPay, a payment gateway startup, reportedly recorded INR 150cr ($18mm) in revenue in FY22 (ended Mar, 2022) and INR 29cr ($3.5mm) in profit during the same period.
5. Easebuzz, a payment gateway startup, reportedly has 80K+ customers and recorded revenue  of INR 123crs ($15mm) in FY22 (ended Mar, 2022).
6. CRISIL reported that the FLDG guidelines by RBI will likely reduce lending volumes in unsecured personal and business loans segment.
7. Zurich Insurance is reportedly investing $500mm for a 51% stake of Kotak General Insurance.
8. A report by IIFL Wealth claimed that the Indian fintech lending industry could grow to $515bn by 2030.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Scapia launched a travel credit card for GenZ and Millenials.
2. Hubbl, a savings startup, partnered with Fino Bank to launch a spending account.
3. PhonePe launched a payment gateway targeting small businesses.
4. IndusInd Bank partnered with Wise to launch instant inward remittances from US and Singapore.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. IRDAI (insurance): Approved Digit's life insurance application. Called on insurance brokers to create "hybrid and niche" customer service platforms to purchase insurance.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Indifi, a small business financing startup, raised $35mm.
2. Aviom Housing Finance, a housing finance, raised $30mm.
3. Basic Home Loan, a housing finance startup, raised $4.7mm.
4. CloudBankin, a lending infra startup, raised $400K.

1-min Anonymous Feedback: Your feedback helps me improve this newsletter. Click UPVOTE 👍🏽 or DOWNVOTE 👎🏽

🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Maybank launched cross border QR payments for its Malaysian customers travelling to Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia.
2. MAS plans to set up a Sustainable Finance Association in Singapore.
3. MAS launched AI in Finance Challenge for its Global Fintech accelerator.
4. DurianPay, an Indonesian payment gateway startup, grew total payments value by 5x YoY to $700mm.
5. Hong Kong's central bank is reportedly planning to introduce a crypto framework tied to financial assets by 2024.
6. Thailand's central bank launched a pilot for retail central bank digital currency (CBDC).
7. KakaoBank, a South Korean bank, signed a partnership with SCBX in Thailand to acquire SCBX' virtual bank license in Thailand.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Amartha Nusantara Raya, an Indonesian small business financing startup, raised $100mm.
2. Pilon, a Singaporean supply chain financing startup, raised $5.2mm.
3. Finfra, an Indonesian lending infra startup, raised $1mm.

🌏 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.

1-min Anonymous Feedback: Your feedback helps me improve this newsletter. Click UPVOTE 👍🏽 or DOWNVOTE 👎🏽

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.