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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✨ Thank you for coming by, Mumbai

Thank you for coming by, Mumbai!

This Fintech Happy Hour was easily the best we've hosted in a while (IMO). Thank you to our partners - AWS, Lex Consult, Cockroach Labs and Mars Shot Ventures

Unfortunately, we could not accommodate a lot of you who registered/reached out separately. We'll improve on this in future Happy Hours to accommodate more folks while maintaining our high bar for quality of attendees.

🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

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

📈 Chart of the Week

% of Indian public listed companies with P/E > 50.

Source: Harish Krishnan

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Nandan Nilekani claimed that startups powered by India's DPI are valued at $100bn.
2. Credit card spends increased 19% YoY in July, 2024 to INR 1.7tn ($20bn) while transaction volumes increased 39% YoY.
3. 72% Indians believe Indian financial institutions collect more data than required, as per a survey.
4. India has an 87% adoption rate of fintech products, according to a survey.
5. RBI Deputy Governor said "Fintech startups, unlike traditional financial institutions, have yet to establish the trust that stems from being licensed, regulations and having a proven track record."
6. 35 Indian fintech startups are potentially looking to list their shares in the public markets over the next 3-4 years.
7. Navadhan, a rural financing startup, expanded to 4 more states.
8. Indian fintech revenue is estimated to reach $190bn by 2030, according to a report by BCG.
9. PhonePe reported 74% YoY growth in revenue to INR 5,064cr ($604M).
10. Banking liquidity declined sharply in Aug, 2024 from peak of INR 2.86tn ($34bn) to INR 0.95tn ($11bn).
11. HDFC Bank is planning to sell $1.2bn in loan portfolios using a rare debt instrument of issuing a "pass-through certificate".
12. CapitalMind received in-principle approval to launch a mutual fund.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Razorpay launched EMI2, an affordability payments feature for brands to launch monthly payment facilities.
2. Razorpay partnered with Mastercard to launch biometric authentication and OTP-less solution for checkout payments. Razorpay also launched a few more products.
3. Google Pay launched UPI Circle, UPI Vouchers, Clickpay QR and more.
4. Mastercard launched Payment Passkey Service to use biometric authentication while replacing OTP's.
5. JP Morgan partnered with In-Solutions Group to launch a banking "seller app" on ONDC.
6. HDFC Bank launched new features for UPI and CBDC including circle-delegate payments, programmable CBDC and more.
7. HDFC Bank launched Giga, a financial platform for gig economy workers.
8. Pop, a fintech startup, launched Pop Club ruPay Credit Card, a multi-brand co-branded credit card.
9. Grip Invest launched the first privately placed, investment-grade bond with a 14% yield.
10. Pine Labs partnered with Visa to launch Pine Labs Mini, a small merchant payment acceptance platform.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. RBI (central bank): Granted "self-regulatory organisation" status to Fintech Association For Consumer Empowerment (FACE).
2. IRDAI (Insurance): Asked insurance companies to come up with strategies to make insurance products more affordable.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Finarkein, a financial data and SaaS startup, raised $4.75M.
2. PlutusOne, a bill payments startup, raised $2M.
3. Insurance Padosi, an insurance education and distribution startup, raised $500K.
4. OneMoney, an account aggregator startup, raised an undisclosed amount.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. MediAssist, a third party health administrator, acquired Paramount Health, for INR 312cr ($37M)

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Trust Bank, a Singaporean digital bank, launched Trust Cashback Card, a credit card.
2. Stripe launched AI powered payment tools for Asia. Stripe's cross border payments in Asia grew by 30% YoY.
3. Thailand Post received board approval to apply for Thailand's digital banking license.
4. Revolut and Visa partnered to launch international payments for businesses via Visa Direct.
5. ANT Digital Technologies joined Hong Kong Monetary Authority's sandbox to test out a tokenised asset platform.
6. TymeBank, a South Africa and Singapore HQ'd digital bank, is planning expansion to Indonesia.
7. South Korean banks' total capital ratio grew 16% in Q2 to 13.2%.
8. Fingular, a Singaporean financial group, launched its services in Qatar via investment in TESS Payments LLC.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Helicap, an Indonesian fixed income startup, raised $4.3M.

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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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