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 or debt, I may be able to help - reach out to osborne@thisweekinfintech.com.

Want to be a This Week in Fintech - Asia Sponsor? Reach fintech founders, industry professionals and enthusiasts. Email me at sponsor@thisweekinfintech.com.

🦉🏆 Tweets of the Week

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. PhonePe applied for an AMC license with SEBI (securities regulator) to launch its own mutual fund products.
2. Fashion has emerged as the top category for BNPL spending in 2021 with a 2.3x increase in spends.
3. BharatPe's cofounder and MD Ashneer Grover continues to be embroiled in controversy over allegations of toxic behaviour and investigations into accounting processes.
4. Decentro, a fintech API startup, claimed to integrate with SMB-focused startups including Pagarbook, Simpel, Minko and others to launch embedded SMB fintech products.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Patanjali, an FMCG brand, launched a co-branded credit card.
2. Nishchal Shetty, cofounder and CEO of WazirX, launched Shardeum, India's first layer 1 blockchain project.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. Ministry of Finance: Proposed a tax rate of 30% on transfer of virtual digital assets, including cryptocurrencies and NFT's.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Chargbee, a subscription management SaaS startup, raised $250mm.
2. Jar, a micro savings and investing startup, raised $32mm.
3. Waterfield Advisors, a multi-family wealth advisory firm, raised $6mm.
4. BOLD Finance, a gold financing startup, raised an undisclosed amount.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Thailand's central bank plans to allow banks to invest up to 3% of their capital funds in fintech startups.
2. Thailand's central bank released a consultation paper seeking comments to issue virtual bank guidelines.

💰 Financing Announcements

(there were no fund raise announcements this week. Did I miss out on something? Please write to me?)

🌏 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.
• Policy, written by Ben White.

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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