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.)

Chart of the week

Source: Dinesh Pai / X

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Pine Labs, a payment acceptance company, reported 10% YoY growth in revenue to INR 1,745cr ($208M) in FY24 (ended Mar, 2024).
2. Indifi, a small business lender, reported 72% YoY growth in revenue to INR 341cr ($40M) in FY24.
3. Freo, a neo banking startup, reported 8.7% YoY growth in revenue to INR 100cr ($11.8M) in FY24.
4. IndiaGold, a gold-backed lending startup, served 2M users across its products of gold loans, digital gold and physical gold purchases.
5. Fintech startups globally raised $2.2Bn in Sep, 2024.
6. Small finance banks' profitability is likely to decline in terms of Return on Assets to 1.7% in FY25 compared to 2.1% in FY24.
7. Life Insurers recorded 14% YoY growth in new Gross Written Premium (GWP) in Sep, 2024 to INR 35K cr ($4.2Bn).
8. National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved ICICI Bank's request to delist ICICI Securities from the bourses.
9. Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved JM Financial's 43% stake acquisition in JM Financial Credit Solutions.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Jar, a micro savings startup, launched Nek, a jewellery brand.
2. IppoPay, a payment acceptance startup, partnered with Tamilnad Mercantile Bank to launch UPI QR payment solutions for small businesses.
3. Appreciate Wealth, a wealth management startup, conducted the first mutual fund transaction on the ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) network.
4. JioFinance app launched and is now available on the app stores. Jio reported 1.5M users already use the app for recurring bill payments.
5. PhonePe partnered with ICICI Bank to launch pre-approved credit on UPI product.
6. Axis Bank partnered with IFC to launch a $500M climate debt fund to develop a "blue finance market and scale green finance" projects in India.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. RBI (central bank): Approved Electronic Payment and Services (EPS) to launch white-label ATM services. Asked bank and non-bank payment providers to review their digital payment systems to facilitate better access to disabled persons.
2. SEBI (securities): Proposed to allow stockbrokers to trade in government securities.
3. IRDAI (insurance): Will increase scrutiny of cyber security lapses in the insurance sector after Star Health Insurance's CISO was reportedly found to be selling API's to access data on 31M users.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Niva Bupa Health Insurance, a health insurance company, raised $59M in pre-IPO round.
2. Swara Finance, a consumer lending company, raised $2.3M.
3. ZenStatement, a finance automation and cash flow management startup, raised $1.6M.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. OSL Digital Securities, a Hong Kong based digital asset custody company, secured $1Bn in insurance coverage for its custody services, the largest of its kind.
2. Thailand's potential new digital banks are estimated to spend $90M to $170M in new demand for tech services and implementations, per a report by Maybank Investment Banking.
3. Alipay+ reported it has 30+ payment partners globally and payment volumes have grown 3x YTD.
4. MoneyHero, a Southeast Asian financial company, partnered with bolttech, an insurance infrastructure company, to launch car insurance products.
5. Singapore's MAS warned financial services providers are falling short of their responsibilities to mitigate money-laundering risks and must update their systems to avoid fines.
6. Bitstamp, a crypto exchange startup, partnered with StraitsX, a Singaporean payments startup, to launch XSGD, Singapore's first dollar-backed stabelcoin, enabling cross border payment acceptance.
7. $37Bn was stolen by cyber crime syndicates across Southeast Asia in 2023, according to the UN.
8. South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), launched an inspection of online loan distribution platforms.
9. Kitabisa, an Indonesian crowdfunding startup, launched insurance products.
10. Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) partnered with DBS Bank to launch eGIRO, a tool for faster tax payments.
11. JCB Card Network partnered with Nuvei, the Canadian payments company, to launch JCB card acceptance in Singapore and Hong Kong.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Surfin, a Singaporean consumer lending startup, raised $12.5M.
2. Ouch!, a Malaysian insurance distribution startup, raised $1.2M.
3. Earlybird AI, a Singaporean booking startup for SMB's, raised an undisclosed amount.
4. Helicap, an Indonesian fixed income startup, raised $3M in debt.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. SBI Holdings, a Japanese financial group, acquired a minority stake in UBX, a Philippine open finance platform.

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