Hi fintech friends,

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).

Editor’s Note: If you’re an early-stage startup founder raising equity, I may be able to help - reach out to osborne@thisweekinfintech.com.

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🦉🏆 Tweets of the Week

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

• PayMate, a B2B payments startup, filed it's draft IPO prospectus to raise ~$200mm.
• India's Economic Affairs Secretary said the ministry is expected to release a consultation paper on cryptocurrencies.
• RBI, India's central bank, has raised questions regarding Equitas Small Finance Bank's partnership with Google Pay for fixed deposit product. Equitas has decided to discontinue the product.
• Clear, previously ClearTax, claimed that it's Clear Compliance Add on is SAP-certified and can be integrated on SAP NetWeaver.
• The Chairman of SBI Bank, the largest bank in India, said that the bank will accelerate its partnerships and investments in fintech startups.
• As per a report, India's digital payment industry is expected to grow to $10tn by 2026.

🚀 Product Launches

• SlayPay partnered with RuPay to launch a credit-booster credit card.
• Vyapar, an SMB accounting SaaS startup, partnered with FinBox to launch business loans for SMB's.
• EasyPay, a digital payments startup, launched a small business neobanking platform.
• EnKash, a corporate card issuance startup, launched CardX, a card issuance API product.
• Clix Capital partnered with Tezzract to launch a SMB liability marketplace.
• Coinswitch launched CRE8, a crypto rupee index - a benchmark index to measure the performance of the rupee-based crypto market.

📝 Regulatory Updates

• RBI (central bank): Reduced the minimum net worth requirement from INR 100 cr ($13.3mm) to INR 25 cr ($3.3mm) for non-bank entities launching Bharat Bill Payment System payments. Released the list of winners for its first global hackathon - HaRBInger.
• IRDAI (insurance): Introduced a "use and file" system for Health and General Insurance companies to launch new insurance products and then file those products with the regulator.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Slice*, a consumer credit startup, raised $50mm at a valuation of $1.5-1.8bn.
2. StrideOne, the digital lending platform of venture debt fund Stride Ventures, raised $32mm (equity & debt)
3. GoSats, a bitcoin rewards app, raised $4mm.
4. Dvara E-Dairy, an agri fintech startup, raised $2mm.
5. Decimal, a micro investing startup, raised $1mm.

ACQUISITION:

1. Vyapar, a SMB accounting SaaS startup, acquired NeoDove, a SMB marketing automation startup.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

• MAS, Singapore's central bank, launched Project Guardian to pilot DeFi projects for B2B use cases.
• MAS imposed additional capital requirements of SGD 330mm on OCBC Bank because of phishing scams that affected the bank's users.
• Indepay, a one-click checkout startup, partnered with Domino's Indonesia to launch it's one-click check solution.
• Stripe launched its Payment Terminal in Singapore.
• DBS completed its first live transaction on the Singapore Trade Data Exchange (SGTraDex), a digital data exchange that facilitates trusted and secure sharing of data between supply chain ecosystem partners.
• GCash, the Philippine mobile payment arm of Mynt, claimed to have 60mm registered users and 5mm merchant network.
• Green Link Digital Bank (GLDB), a Singaporean wholesale bank, is the first digital bank to commence operations after MAS issued licenses.
• The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), has recommended built-in regulatory framework for DeFi blockchain projects.
• MAS plans to introduce an Emergency, Selfservice "kill switch" to suspend a bank account if it is compromised. This Kill Switch is among other measures being launched to combat fraud.
• Stripe's South East Asia expansion plan.

💰 Financing Announcements

• Bibit, an Indonesian robo-advisory startup, raised $80mm.
• HitPay, a Singaporean payments startup, raised $15.8mm.
• Ringkas, a digital mortgage startup, raised $2.3mm.
• Digital Asset, a "smart yen" project, raised an undisclosed amount from SBI Holdings.
• Artpedia, an Indonesian NFT marketplace, raised an undisclosed amount.

🌏 International

Please find our global coverage and consider subscribing.

• US and Global, written by Nik Milanovic published on Friday’s and Saturday’s.
• Europe and UK, written by Michael Jenkins published on Monday’s.
• Latin America, written by Christine Chang.
• Africa, written by Benjamin Dada.

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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