Hi fintech friends, I'm Osborne, investor in early stage startups.

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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🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

(Note: Neither TWIF nor I endorse any views in the tweets highlighted above.)

📈 Chart of the Week

Source: Ritholtz Wealth Management

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Decentro launched its Ledgers Module for global customers.
2. PB Fintech, the listed company of PolicyBazaar and PaisaBazaar, reported revenue from operations of $120mn and consolidated net profit of $7.2mn for the quarter ended Jun, 2024.
3. Unique Investors registered on the NSE grew to 100mn as of Jul, 2024.
4. LIC reported INR 10,461cr ($1.25bn) in net profit for the quarter ended Jun, 2024.
5. BSE reported INR 265cr ($31.6mn) in net profit for the quarter ended Jun, 2024.
6. SBI reported INR 17,035cr ($2bn) in net profit for the quarter ended Jun, 2024.
7. 73mn Indians filed their income tax returns as of 31st Jul, 2024, +7.5% YoY.
8. UPI credit transactions on Rupay grew to INR 10,000cr ($1.2bn) per month as of July, 2024.
9. NPCI released a notification to al RuPay issuing credit card companies requiring UPI Rupay credit transactions to earn equal rewards like other cards from 1st Sept, 2024.
10. Google Pay, Phone Pe, Amazon Pay, Cred and Mobikwik have sought RBI permission to enter into a pilot program to process India's eRupee payment.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Pine Labs' Setu partnered with Axis Bank to launch UPISetu, a UPI payments infrastructure for businesses and developers.
2. Niyo, a travel banking startup, launched flight booking and visa services.
3. BookMyForex, a MakeMyTrip forex company, launched zero fee remittance for international students.

📝 Regulatory Updates

RBI (central bank)

• Increased the limit for tax payments made using UPI from INR 1lac ($1,200) to INR 5 lacs. ($6,000).
• Released a draft circular on ‘Regulatory Principles for Management of Model Risks in Credit’
• Introduced delegated payments feature for UPI payments.
• Proposed introducing continuous clearing of cheque payments with on-realisation-settlement.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Finqy, a financial product distribution SaaS startup, raised $2mn.
2. IppoPay, a QR payments solution, raised an undisclosed amount.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Wibmo Indonesia, a PayU payments security company, partnered with Ayconnect to launch security features for payments made in Indonesia.
2. MAS released a statement reiterating its efforts to curb cross border payment scams.
3. Brankas partnered with Boost Capital to launch LoanLink, a chat based lending product.
4. Revolut launched B2B payments and banking services for customers in Singapore.
5. DigiAsia, an embedded finance company, partnered with Jalin, an Indonesian ATM provider, to launch embedded finance products via ATM's in Indonesia.
6. Philippines leads SEA in terms of fintech app adoption with 63% penetration, per a study.
7. Funding Societies partnered with BPMB, a Malaysian bank, to launch a SME digital finance platform.
8. South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) introduced a Virtual Asset User Protection Act under which, crypto exchange providers whose annual revenue exceeds $2.2mn, need to pay supervisory fee.
9. Partior, a Singaporean blockchain payments startup, reported $285K in annual revenue in 2023.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Djoin, an Indonesian SaaS platform for MFI's, raised an undisclosed amount.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Payoneer, a payment processing company, acquired Skuad, a Singaporean payroll startup, for $61mn.
2. M-DAQ, a Singaporean cross border payments company, acquired Easy Pay, a Malaysian B2B payments company.

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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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