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. Juspay partnered with Agoda, a global digital travel platform, to provide full-stack payment orchestration and reconciliation services across multiple countries.
2. ICICI Bank reported consolidated net profit of INR 13,502cr ($1.56bn), up 15.7% YoY in Q4 FY25, with standalone profit up 18% to INR 12,630cr ($1.46bn) and GNPA ratio improving to 1.67%.
3. Yes Bank reported INR 738cr ($86.4M) standalone net profit in Q4 FY25, growing 63% YoY, with net Interest income (NII) rising 5.7% YoY to INR 2,276cr ($263M), beating estimates.
4. Mahindra Finance reported INR 563cr ($66M) standalone net profit in Q4 FY25, declining 9% YoY, as credit costs surged 34% YoY to INR 457cr (USD 54M) and net interest margin narrowed to 6.5% from 7.1% YoY.
5. HDFC Bank's market valuation crossed INR 15 lakh crore ($174bn) becoming the third Indian company after Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to achieve the milestone.
6. National Stock Exchange (NSE) added 8.4M new active demat accounts in FY25, growing 21% YoY to over 49M total, with Groww contributing 40% of growth.
7. Amazon invested INR 350cr ($41M) into its fintech subsidiary Amazon Pay India, which dropped to 8th place in UPI transaction volume with 0.6% market share in March 2025.
8. ICICI Securities partnered with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to revamp its retail trading platform using TCS BaNCS, aiming to improve performance, reduce latency, and streamline brokerage functions.
9. Andromeda, a loan distributor company in India, reported INR 1.08 lakh crore ($13bn) in loan disbursals in FY25, growing 25% YoY, and set a target of INR 1.20 lakh crore ($14bn) for FY26.
10. Shriram Finance reported standalone net profit growth of 10% YoY to INR 2,139cr ($250M) in Q4 FY25, and announced plans to enter payment services pending RBI approval.
11. Credit card spending in India grew over 15% YoY to INR 21.16 lakh crore ($244.5bn) in FY25, up from INR 18.32 lakh crore ($211.7bn) in FY24, driven by robust consumer demand and digital adoption.
12. ICRA, a ratings agency, reported non-banking financial companies' (NBFCs) credit growth is projected to moderate to 13-15% in fiscal years FY26 and FY27 from 17% in the previous two fiscals, with retail assets expected to grow at a slower 16-18% CAGR during this period.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Fibe, a consumer lending startup, partnered with Mirae Asset Financial Services (MAFS) to offer personal loans up to INR 5 lakh ($6K) to salaried individuals.
2. PhonePe launched PhonePe 3.0, a redesigned version of its app to provide comprehensive financial services including payments, investments, insurance, and financial management tools.
3. Stable Money, a fixed income products startup, launched SmartFD, a feature allowing users to split fixed deposits and withdraw partially without losing full interest or paying penalties.
4. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched E-KYC Setu for faster Aadhaar-based KYC across banking, securities, insurance, and pension sectors regulated by RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, and PFRDA.
5. Poonawalla Fincorp launched a new consumer durables loans business and digital EMI card.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. RBI (central bank): Issued revised guidelines for banks on opening and operating savings and term deposit accounts by minors, allowing those above 10 years to independently operate accounts within bank-set limits. Mandated 2.5% additional run-off rates on digital deposits for banks, improving aggregate Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) by 6% as of Apr, 2026.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Bachatt, an Indian wealth-tech startup, raised INR 34.6cr ($4M).
2. SaveIN, a healthcare finance startup, raised INR 37cr ($4.3M).
3. Finodaya Capital, an SME finance startup, raised INR 21.6cr (USD 2.5M).

ACQUISITIONS:

1. 360 ONE, a wealth and asset management firm with $68Bn AUM, acquired UBS Wealth's India onshore business and UBS Wealth India received 4.95% of 360 ONE in return.
2. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) acquired 10% in 24x7 Moneyworks Consulting, an agri-fintech startup.

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🌏 Asia

- 📰 Market Updates:

1. FOMO Pay partnered with Circle to become a design partner for Circle's new global payments network enabling real-time cross-border stablecoin transactions.
2. Saison Capital, BRI Ventures & Coinvestasi launched Tokenize Indonesia, a Real-World Asset (RWA) startup accelerator in Indonesia.
3. Finmo expanded its money movement services to include Malaysian Ringgit and Vietnamese Dong collections, enabling real-time cross-border payments across Southeast Asia.
4. Thailand's Deputy Finance Minister invited South Korean investors to invest in Thailand's sustainable finance initiatives to establish Thailand as a leading financial center in Asia.
5. Stripe enabled new payment methods and features for Japanese businesses, including PayPay integration, card installments, 3D Secure support, and network token support.
6. Alipay, China's leading digital payments platform, reported its QR code-based contactless payment solution Alipay Tap! surpassed 100M users within 11 months of launch.
7. Thunes launched 'Thunes Business Payments', a new service to streamline international business transactions for enterprises, merchants, banks, and mobile wallet providers.
8. SWIFT launched Case Management Service to reduce costs and delays in investigating cross-border payment issues.
9. Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) are considering mandatory certifications for vendors handling sensitive financial data.
10. Penguin Securities, a Singapore-based financial institution, secured Capital Markets Services (CMS) licence from Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to offer investment solutions to accredited and institutional investors.
11. Identity fraud in Asia-Pacific (APAC) financial services grew 121% YoY in 2024, with Singapore seeing a 207% surge, according to Sumsub's APAC Identity Fraud Report 2024.
12. Aspire partnered with Episode Six to launch a multi-currency corporate card for SMBs in Singapore and Hong Kong, offering spend controls and reduced FX costs.
13. Krung Thai Bank (KTB), Thailand's state-owned bank, reported THB 11.7B (USD 349M) net profit in Q1 2025, flat YoY but 7% higher QoQ, beating estimates.
14. MoneyHero, a Hong Kong-based personal finance comparison startup, partnered with Bolttech, an insurance technology company, to launch a car insurance product line in Hong Kong, enabling users to purchase insurance through MoneyHero's app.
15. Akulaku, an Indonesia-based Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) platform, reported a 50% drop in net profit to IDR 692B ($41M) in FY2024 due to BNPL market slowdown, but expects recovery by 2025.
16. Mynt, operator of Philippine e-wallet GCash, may defer its anticipated $1.0-1.5bn IPO if the US-China trade war continues to roil markets in 2025.
17. Juspay, an Indian payment infrastructure solutions provider, opened a new office in Singapore to support 500+ global clients.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Surfin Meta, a Singapore-based payments and banking startup for the underbanked, raised $26.5M.
2. WeMoney, an Australian financial product comparison startup, raised $12M.
3. LenderLink, a Philippine credit bureau startup, raised $1.25M.
4. LendMN, a Mongolian SME digital lending FinTech, raised $20M in debt funding.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Demyst, an Australian data workflow orchestration startup, was acquired by Feedzai, a Portuguese fraud prevention software company, for $157M.
2. Syfe, a Singapore-based digital investment platform, acquired Selfwealth, an Australian investing platform, for $15M.
3. PeopleFund, a South Korean peer-to-peer lending platform, acquired Investree's credit scoring system, expanding its footprint in Indonesia's fintech market.

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