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

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🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

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

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Slice and North East Small Finance Bank announced the completion of its merger.
2. Ujjivan Small Finance Bank is expected to apply for a universal banking license in the next financial year.
3. Deutsche Bank invested INR 5,110cr ($605M) to further expand its Indian operations.
4. PB Fintech grew revenues by 44% YoY to INR 1167cr ($138M) in the quarter ended Sep, 2024.
5. Cashfree, a payment acceptance startup, grew revenues by 5% YoY to INR 643cr ($76M).
6. Bajaj Finserv raised a $400M loan from IFC for green finance initiatives.
7. India's life insurance sector reported a 13% YoY growth in monthly new premiums to INR 30,348cr ($3.6bn)
8. State Bank of India reported INR 50lac cr ($592bn) in total deposits and a 28% YoY growth in quarterly net profit to INR 18,331cr ($2.2bn).
9. Northern Arc raised $65M in loans from global development banks for its maiden climate fund.
10. The Ministry of Finance will lower the minimum revenue requirement for onboarding to the TReDS platform, an RBI build invoice discounting platform, from INR 500cr ($59M) to INR 250cr ($30M).
11. India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL) is planning to set up a subsidiary to issue asset backed securities.
12. Perfios, a B2B fintech SaaS company, reported 37% YoY growth in revenue to INR 550cr ($65M) in FY24.
13. Juspay, a payments technology startup, reported 50% YoY growth in revenue to INR 319cr ($38M) in FY24.
14. Jar, a micro savings and investment startup, reported 5.6x growth in revenue to INR 49cr ($6M) in FY24.
15. Yubi, a debt marketplace startup, reported 48% YoY growth in revenue to INR 484cr ($57M) in FY24.
16. Turtlemint, an advisor-led insurance distribution startup, reported 3.2x YoY growth in revenue to INR 505cr ($60M) in FY24.

🚀 Product Launches

1. State Bank of India partnered with APIX in Singapore to launch the SBI Innovation Hub to drive financial innovation, digital transformation and promote inclusion.
2. PayMate, a B2B payments company, partnered with Mastercard to launch Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMEA) B2B payments.
3. ProgCap launched new digital tools for small business merchants to access loans.
4. CRED launched auto insurance products.
5. Cashfree launched a pilot for new cross border payments.
6. IDFC First Bank launched real time tracking feature for cross border payments.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. RBI (central bank): Introduced updated guidelines for customer verification and data sharing.
2. SEBI (securities): Told rating companies to obtain a no-objection certificate from RBI or any other central authority before rating instruments such as unlisted bonds and corporate deposits. Released a consultation paper outlining a new framework allowing recognised Specified Digital Platforms to act as intermediaries for content related to securities.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Easy Home Finance, a housing finance startup, raised $35M.
2. Modifi, a B2B finance and BNPL startup, raised $15M.
3. QubeHealth, a health payments and lending startup, raised an undisclosed amount.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Bandhan Financial Services, the hold co. of Bandhan Small Finance Bank, acquired Genisys, a London-based IT services provider for INR 100cr ($12M)

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Mastercard launched Pay Local, a global product allowing users to make card payments with local digital wallets.
2. Mastercard launched Passkey for on-device biometric-based payments authentication.
3. Visa is collaborating with QR payment providers across APAC to launch QR payments acceptance for merchants using Visa's rails.
4. Visa launched Flexible Credential, Payment Passkey, Click to Pay, Data Tokens, Visa Protect for account to account payments and more.
5. Brankas, a Southeast Asian fintech infrastructure startup, partnered with Advance.AI, to launch open banking solution with integrated KYC technology.
6. StraitsX partnered with Ant International and Grab to launch cross border payments using multi-currency (including digital assets) to pay for services on Grab.
7. Maya Philippines partnered with Fexco to launch Dynamic Currency Conversion for merchants across its network.
8. Singapore accounted for 53% of funds raised by fintech startups across APAC of the $1.4Bn total raised over 9M 2024.
9. HSBC signed a credit facility for Funding Societies totalling $100M to be used for small business financing.
10. AliPay+ partnered with PayPay, Japan's QR payment system to launch cross border payment acceptance on QR.
11. Ingenico partnered with Crypto.com to launch crypto payment acceptance for merchants across SEA.
12. Tencent partnered with Visa to potentially launch palm recognition technology for digital cross border payments.
13. Nium partnered with Partior to launch blockchain based clearing and settlement.
14. Boxo, a superapp infrastructure startup, partnered with Nium to launch a white label remittance platform for mobile apps.
15. Nium partnered with Kinexys, a JP Morgan payments company, to enhance cross border payment accuracy in Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong.
16. Validus reported $14.8M in revenue in 2023, growing 42% YoY.
17. In Pakistan, Silkbank will merge with United Bank and is pending regulatory approval.
18. GCash partnered with Thunes to launch UK and Europe based remittances to Philippines.
19. Toko Labs and PayMob in Pakistan received in-principle approvals by the State Bank of Pakistan to launch electronic money and payment system operations.
20. MAS, Singapore's central bank, released a plan to advance tokenisation in financial services.
21. WeBull, a Hong Kong based stock trading platform, launched its products in Thailand.
22. Liquid Group, a digital payments provider, launched RoamQR, an APAC cross border QR payments solution.
23. Razer Gold received in-principle approval from the MAS to operate as a Major Payment Institution.
24. Bank for International Settlements (BIS) announced graduating from the mBridge project, a CBDC cross border payments initiative, citing project maturity.
25. Standard Chartered partnered with Wise to launch cross border remittances across Asia and Middle East.
26. Wise received approval to integrate with PhilPaSS Plus, the Philippines' real time gross payment system managed by the country's central bank.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Capital C, a Singaporean retail user and small business fintech startup, raised an undisclosed amount.

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