Hi fintech friends, I'm Osborne, Principal at EMVC!

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).

🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

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

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Perfios, a banking SaaS company, is planning to list its shares in India to raise $500mm at a valuation of $2bn.
2. Equiris, a financial serivces firm, launched InnovateX, a $25mm investment fund.
3. SBI Card, SBI Bank's credit card arm, reported INR 4,742cr ($570mm) in total income for the quarter ended Dec, 2023 (+30% YoY) and INR 549cr ($66mm) in net profit for the quarter ended Dec, 2023 (+8% YoY).
4. Axis Bank reported INR 18,087cr ($2.2bn) in total income (+13% YoY) and INR 6,071cr ($730mm) in net profit for the quarter ended Dec, 2023 (+3.7% YoY).
5. Indian Overseas Bank reported INR 7,437cr ($894mm) in total revenue and INR 723 cr in net profit for the quarter ended Dec, 2023 (+30% YoY).
6. HDFC Bank reported 20mm credit cards outstanding, the first bank to report as many cards in ciirculation.
7. ICICI Bank reported INR 24,653cr ($3.0bn) in total income and INR 11,053cr ($1.3bn) in net profit for the quarter ended Dec, 2023 (+25.7% YoY).
8. Paytm reported INR 2,850cr ($343mm) revenue from operations (+38% YoY) and net loss of INR 221cr ($27mm) for the quarter ended Dec, 2023. Paytm also reportedly crossed 100mm monthly active users.
9. BlackSoil, an alternative credit company, disbursed $30mm (+35% YoY) in loans to businesses in the quarter ended Dec, 2023. It disbursed $110mm from Apr-Dec, 2023.
10. Groww, a capital markets startup, reported 7.6mm active traders, maintaining its lead over Zerodha with 6.7mm active traders on NSE. While AngelOne reported 20mm total traders on its platform.
11. A Punjab and Sindh Bank official used his and other staff's ID's to break customer fixed deposits totalling INR 52cr ($6.3mm) to play online games.
12. Groww discontinued its US Stocks investing product.
13. Outward remittances by Indians was $1.9bn in Nov, 2023 the lowest since Feb, 2022.
14. According to a research by Juniper Research, spending on GenAI by banks are expected to reach $85bn by 2030 from $6bn in 2024.

🚀 Product Launches

1. LegalPay, a litigation funding startup, launched a zero-interest credit line for settling legal disputes.
2. Razorpay launched its POS platform with instant refunds for failed UPI transactions.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. IRDAI (Insurance): Approved Himalayan Reinsurance's reinsurance license application to begin operations in India.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Namdev, a consumer credit startup, raised $15mm.
2. SK Finance, a SMB and pre-owned vehicle financing company, raised $160mm (equity and debt).
3. Vivifi, a consumer finance startup, raised $75mm (equity and debt).

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Razer's fintech arm partnered with BillEase to launch BNPL products on Razer's merchant payment acceptance network.
2. FundPark, a Hong Kong based SMB financing company, raised $500mm in asset securitisation facility.
3. Alipay+ partnered with NayaPay, a Pakistani payments company, to launch its cross border payments acceptance in Pakistan.
4. Hong Kong's government is planning to launch a new subisdy for green financing startups.
5. A group of industry participants in Singapore launched the Singapore Sustainable Finance Association (SSFA).
6. Aleta Planet, a Singaporean payments provider, partnered with Alipay to launch a remittance product.
7. AXS, a Singaporean payments company, partnered with Triple-A to launch bill payments using cryptocurrencies.
8. DOKU, an Indonesian payments company, launched Wallet as a Service, for other platforms to use its wallet payment infrastructure.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. BlueSheets, an accounting and compliance automation startup, raised $6.5mm.
2. Qupital a Hong Kong based SMB financing startup, raised an undisclosed amount.

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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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