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

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).

Happy Independence Day to our readers from India 🇮🇳 and Indonesia 🇮🇩.

Interact with the rest of our TWIF community on Slack - join now - India and Southeast Asia.

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✨ See you at the Mumbai Fintech Happy Hour on 28th Aug

Are you attending Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai? We'd love to host you for our highly-anticipated Mumbai Fintech Happy Hour.

🚀 Who? founders, investors, senior executives, product managers and you
📆 When? Wed, 28th Aug, 2024, 6pm to 9pm
📍 Where? BKC, Mumbai

Big thanks to our sponsors and supporters: AWS, CockroachDB and MarsShot VC.

We're excited to bring the entire community together very soon.

🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

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

📈 Chart of the Week

Source: History of Bull and Bear Markets

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), is partnering with a firm in Southeast Asia to offer its digital public infrastructure to countries in the region.
2. Wise resumed signing up customers in India and and launched enhanced features for its remittance products.
3. 15 new mutual fund schemes were floated in July which collected INR 16,565cr ($2bn) in investor captial.
4. RBI's deputy governor suggested that implementation of risk-based premium for deposit insurance merits consideration.
5. Jai Kisan, an agri-finance startup, received RBI approval to acquire a majority stake in Kushal Finnovation Capital and operate as an NBFC.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Axis Bank partnered with Visa to launch Primus, an ultra-premium credit card product.
2. Fairexpay, a cross border payments startup, launched an outbound payments product under Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS), as approved under RBI's sandbox.
3. InCred partnered with Ola Financial, to launch personal loans for Ola's users.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. RBI (central bank): Released updated regulations for NBFC P2P license operators.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Neo, a wealth management company, raised $48mn.
2. Vayana, a small business credit network, raised $20mn.
3. Skydo, a small business cross border payments startup, raised $5mn.
4. Infinyte Club, a private equity investments startup, raised $3.6mn.
5. HealthCRED, a B2B healthcare financing startup, raised $1.2mn.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

• DBS Bank of Singapore is planning an expansion in Dubai to grow its presence in the Middle East.
• 51% of Indonesian financial institutions are planning to deploy GenAI products for everyday internal tasks, per a report by AC Ventures.
• South Korea's financial regulator introduced a guideline to strengthen technology network rules for financial sector.
• Toss Securities, a South Korean stock trading startups, is launching a US entity to allow South Koreans to trade in US equities.
• Monimo, Samsung South Korea's financial app, claimed to have 10mn users within two and a half years since launch.
• Advance.AI, a Southeast Asian KYC and onboarding startup, partnered with Credit Information Corporation (CIC) of Philippines to establish a new credit bureau in the country.
• AND Financial Corporation partnered with Marubeni and Premium Group in Philippines to launch digital inclusive finance in the country.
• OJK, Indonesia's financial regulator, announced a roadmap for the development of technology and digital assets in the financial sector, titled “Welcoming the Future of Digital Finance: Laying the Foundation for Effective and Balanced Supervision,”
• Fintech app adoption in Southeast Asia is expected to grow from 49% to 60% by 2030.
• Airwallex, the Southeast Asian cross border payments startup, is processing $100bn in annual transaction value.
• Superbank, an Indonesian digital bank, announced it reached 1mn users in 2 months since launch via integration with Grab.
• DBS Bank partnered with ANT Financial to launch DBS Treasury Tokens, a blockchain solution designed for treasury and liquidity management.
• BitGO, a global crypto custodian startup, received license to operate as a Major Payment Institution in Singapore.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Syfe, a Singaporean wealth management startup, raised $27mn.

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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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