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).

✨ Jakarta Fintech Happy Hour - 26th Sept, 2023

Join us on 26th Sept, 2023 at the Jakarta Fintech Happy Hour presented by AWS, Quona and B Capital!

Jakarta Fintech Happy Hour is Sponsored by AWS, Quona, B Capital, Bureau and Xendit and Supported by Indonesia Fintech Association (AFTECH).

Fintech Happy Hour details:
🗓️ Tue, 26th Sept, 2023
🕕 6pm onward
📍 SCBD, Jakarta (register to get details)

At the Jakarta Fintech Happy Hour we will be hosting a panel comprising of special guests and luminaries from the financial industry.

🐦🏆 Tweets of the Week

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

📈 Chart of the Week

Take some time to go through this chart. It shows the YoY growth rate of various indicators in the Indian economy. (Source - highly recommended reading on the current state of the Indian economy)

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Zaggle went public on the Indian stock exchanges, at a price at par with its offer price of INR 164 ($2), it's IPO was oversubscribed by 12.6 times.
2. OlaMoney reported INR 110cr ($13.4mm) in revenue in FY22 (ended March, 2022).
3. ONDC, India's digital commerce network, enabled digital gift card issuance via RuPay network.
4. Safexpay, a cross border payments startup, expanded to GCC countries.
5. FlexiLoans reported INR 108cr ($13mm) in revenue and INR 6.7cr ($ 0.81mm) in FY23 (ended March, 2023).
6. SBI Bank reportedly intends to send defulating borrowers chocolates to nudge them to pay.
7. Total fintech funding raised by Indian startups in August was $130mm, from $164mm in July.
8. Flipkart is reportedly investing $15-20mm in its credit marketplace product.
9. JP Morgan Chase decided to include India as part of its Emerging Market global bond index.
10. Innoviti, a POS payment acceptance company, reported INR 110cr ($13.4mm) in revenue in FY23 (ended March, 2023).
11. InsuranceDekho, an insurance marketplace, reported INR 96cr ($11.8mm) in revenue in FY23.

🚀 Product Launches

1. WhatsApp partnered with PayU and Razorpay to launch in-app payment acceptance for its merchant userbase.
2. Axis Bank launched NEO, a business banking platform for small businesses.
3. Shopify partnered with Cashfree Payments to launch payment acceptance for Indian small businesses.
4. EBANX, a Latin American payments company, launched payment acceptance for global merchants from Indian users.
5. NPCI partnered with Fonepay, a Nepali payments company, to launch QR based UPI payment acceptance in Nepal using INR.
6. Hyperface partnered with Visa to launch card as a service product.

📝 Regulatory Updates

• RBI (central bank): Asked Credit Information Companies to prepare a data quality index for commercial and micro finance segments. Released the list of 15 NBFC's in the Upper Layer under scale based regulations.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. QubeHealth, a healthcare payments and credit startup, raised an undisclosed amount.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Perfios acquired Fego.ai, a financial insights platform for banks and other institutions.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Grab launched a crypto wallet for is Singaporean customers.
2. Ant Group extended its A+China Program, a cross border payments product of Alipay+ in China, to seven new countries in Asia including Mongolia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and more.
3. Thailand’s digital economy reportedly grew by 14% in 2022, according to the Thailand Digital Economy Promotion Agency.
4. 2C2P, a Singaporean payments company, reported $15mm of net loss in 2022.
5. Bank Mandiri, an Indonesian bank, partnered with FishLog, to launch small business financing.
6. MoneyGram partnered with WireBarley, a South Korean payment company, to launch direct to bank account payout integration in South Korea. +
7. DTCPay, a Singaporean payments company, partnered with Sumsub to provide eKYC and onboarding in several global markets.
8. MAS banned the founders of Three Arrows Capital for 9 years from Singapore's capital markets for "flagrant disregard of Singapore's regulations".
9. Wise partnered with SWIFT to launch cross border payments for SEA small businesses.
10. Singtel partnered with Great Eastern Insurance to launch flexible home insurance plans.
11. Fintech as a share of the Singaporean GDP could reach 3.56% by 2027, according to a report by Una Financial.
12. Sumitomo Mitsui Finance extended an asset backed loan to Tsuzaki in which casks of whisky were pledged as collateral.
13. Indonesian central bank launched a national “de-dollarisation” task force to facilitate cross-border local currency transactions with regional partners.
14. SBI Ripple Asia, a joint venture between SBI Holdings, Ripple, Tranglo, and SBI Remit, launched XRP-enabled cross border remittance service in Southeast Asia.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Bolttech, a Southeast Asian insurance infrastructure company, raised $50mm.
2. CrossFund, a Singaporean and Vietnamese equity financing startup, raised $1.5mm at a $47mm valuation.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. ANT Group acquired a 36% stake in Toss Payments, a South Korean super app, for $75mm.

🌏 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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