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).

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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. HDFC Bank grew Q2 FY2025 (ended Sept, 2024) total income by 9% YoY to INR 85,500cr ($10Bn), while deposits grew 15% YoY to INR 25,00,100cr ($297Bn).
2. RBL Bank reported a 24% YoY decline and 40% QoQ decline in net profit in Q2 FY25 (ended Sept, 2024) to INR 223cr ($26.5M). Stress in the microfinance portfolio was attributed to causing the decline.
3. BharatPe, a small merchant payments startup, grew revenues by 39% YoY to INR 1,426cr ($170M) in FY2024 (ended Mar, 2024)
4. Indian fintech startups raised $778M in Q3 2024, according to a report by Tracxn.
5. Navi, a financial startup by Sachin Bansal, emerged as the fifth largest UPI third party app, recording 120M transactions.
6. State-owned banks are waiving processing fees to grow demand for home loans, ahead of Diwali festivities.
7. Kotak Mahindra Bank acquired Standard Chartered's unsecured personal loan book worth INR 4,100cr ($488M).
8. Biz2X, the digital lending SaaS platform of Biz2Credit, crossed INR 9,000cr ($1.07Bn) in loan disbursements.
9. PayU, a payment gateway company, deferred its IPO plans to next financial year (FY26).
10. Acko, a general insurance startup, grew its revenue by 20% YoY to INR 2,106cr ($250M) in FY24 (ended Mar, 2024).

🚀 Product Launches

(no product launches were announced this week. did I miss any?)

📝 Regulatory Updates

RBI (central bank):

1. Notified about its action against four non-bank lenders, restricting their lending operations by citing usurious lending practices.
2. Lifted restrictions on JM Financial to provide loans against shares and debentures.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Weaver Services, a non-bank home loan startup, raised $95M.
2. Lendingkart, a small business lending startup, raised $30M from Fullerton for a majority stake at a $100M valuation.
3. Slice, a consumer lending startup, raised $8.6M.
4. Healspan, a revenue cycle management startup for hospitals, raised an undisclosed amount.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Weaver Services, a non-bank home loan startup by ex-HDFC Bank executives, acquired Capital India Home Loans, for $32M.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) released a draft proposal to develop Ho Chi Minh City as an international financial centre.
2. SWIFT, the financial messaging network, launched an AI-powered feature to help banks fight financial crime.
3. Singaporean fintech startups raised $158M in Q3 2024, accounting for 49% of the funds raised by Southeast Asian fintech startups.
4. Household loan disbursals in South Korea reduced by 46% MoM, to $3.8B in new loan disbursals in Sept, 2024.
5. GMO Payment Gateway invested $3M in Helicap's credit fund.
6. Vietnam's debit card payments market is expected to grow by 14% CAGR to $65B by 2028.
7. Taiwan's credit card value outstanding grew by 1.5% MoM to $3.5B as of Aug, 2024.
8. The National Bank of Cambodia partnered with Alipay+ to launch cross border QR code payments through KHQR.
9. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) launched Project Aperta, a protocol for secure cross border financial data sharing.
10. SCB, a Thai bank, partnered with its venture arm SCB 10X and Lightnet to launch Thailand's first cross border payment system using Stablecoins.
11. Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) partnered with Nium to launch real time cross border payments.
12. Wise received approval for direct access to Zengin, Japan's bank payment clearing network, to enable payment clearing by bypassing intermediary banks.
13. Fingular, a Singaporean neobank, launched digital lending products in Bangladesh.
14. Aspire, a Singaporean small business digital banking startup, received in-principle approval to operate as a Major Payment Institution in Singapore.
15. DBS Bank launched DBS Token Services, a blockchain-enabled core transaction banking platform for institutions.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. OneLot, a Philippine startup lending to used car dealers, raised $4M.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Mitsubishi Corp, a Japanese conglomerate, acquired a 6% stake in GCash, a Philippine e-wallet startup, for $320M.

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