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. India's GIFT City launched an International Fintech Institutem spearheaded by a consrtium led by Ahmedabad University along with other universities.
2. Propelld, an education finance startup, signed a partnership with Chandigarh University to provide education loans.
3. iServeU, a payment technology company, partnered with PAX Technology to launch an All-in-One-soundbox terminal for banks in South and Southeast Asia.
4. Razorpay launched a Venture Investment Program in partnership with two VC funds to invest in B2B SaaS startups.
5. The RBI's deputy governor said that generative AI could boost global GDP by $7-10tn over the next three years and add $360-440bn to India's GDP by 2030.
6. India's life insurance sector reported a 42% MoM decline in new individual policies sold in Oct, 2024, largely due to Life Insurance Corporation's decline of 60%.
7. The IRDAI (insurance regulator) is planning to introduce new supervisory guidelines to regulate insurance companies.
8. In Sep, 2024 Indians spent INR 1,15,168cr ($13.6Bn) on eommerce using credit cards, making up 65.4% of total credit card spends.
9. InsuranceDekho grew revenue by 7.7x to INR 86cr ($10M) in FY24.
10. Infibeam Avenues, a payment gateway, grew revenue by 29% QoQ to 1,017cr ($120M) in the quarter ended Sep, 2024.
11. Jupiter, a neo banking startup, grew revenue by 7x to INR 51.2cr ($6M) in FY24.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Matrimony.com launched WeddingLoans.com to offer loans for weddings.
2. StableMoney, a fixed income investment startup, launched a bond investing platform.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. SEBI (securities): Released a consultation paper to propose new guidelines for Angel Funds.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Sarvagram, a rural lending startup, raised $67M.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Fintech startups in the Southeast Asian region raised $1.4bn (-1% YoY) in 2024 (till Oct, 2024).
2. The Global Finance and Technology Network (GFTN) of Singapore announced a new fintech center to boost digital payments, tokenisation, digital assets and AI efforts.
3. The Philippine mobile commerce sector is expected to contribute $11.6bn in GMV to the country's digital economy, according to a report by UnaCash.
4. TNG Digital, a Malaysian fintech company, is expected to launch its IPO in 2026.
5. DBS Bank is Singapore is looking to purchase stakes in Malaysian banks.
6. Maybank Singapore partnered with PracBiz to launch supply chain finance for qualified users of PracBiz Exchange (PBX).
7. MAS clarified that financial institutions using finfluencers for advertising must ensure information is presented in a balance manner.
8. Cake, the Vietnamese digital bank by VPBank, partnered with Visa to launch a cloud based card management system (CMS)
9. SCB10X, the digital asset subsidiary of Siam Commercial Bank, launched Rubie Wallet, a purpose-bound stablecoin and digital currency wallet for payments at events.
10. Revolut launched a debit-card vending machine at NUS in Singapore.
11. FomoPay, a Singaporean payments company, partnered with Mastercard to launch SoftPOS, a Tap on Phone payment acceptance product.
12. Digital Financial Services startups in Southeast Asia reported $33bn in revenues in 2024, according to a report by Google, Temasek and Bain.
13. Grab's revenue from financial services business grew $34% YoY to $64M in Q3 2024 while its GXS Bank reported $1.1bn in deposits at the end of the same period.
14. The German central bank joined as a board member of Project Guardian, a MAS project to explore the uses of Asset Tokenisation in financial markets.
15. Cambodia's central bank partnered with Mastercard to launch Bakong Tourist, an app for digital payments in Cambodia.
16. Citi Bank in Hong Kong partnered with Bank of Shanghai to launch TourCard, a tourist payment card.
17. South Korean police arrested 215 people on suspicion of stealing $228M in crypto, the country's biggest crypto investment scam with 28 types of tokens sold to 15K people.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. SmartBank, a Japanese neobanking startup, raised $26.5M.
2. Collektr, an Indonesian live-stream collectibles digital asset startup, raised $1.3M.
3. Olea, a Singaporean trade finance company, raised $100M in warehouse financing debt line.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Mizuho Financial Group in Japan acquired a 15% stake in Rakuten's credit card unit for $1.1bn.

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