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).

Don’t forget to share with fellow fintech friends!

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.

Want to be a This Week in Fintech - Asia Sponsor? Email me at sponsor@thisweekinfintech.com or see our sponsorship information here.

🦉🏆 Tweets of the Week

📊Chart of the week

Avg. spends per card - premium vs. non-premium credit cards.

Source: Economic Times

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

• Mobikwik claimed that its revenues grew 80% YoY to ~$68mm and it turned EBITDA profitable.
• India's Enforcement Directorate searched offices of Paytm, Razorpay and Cashfree as it investigates the Chinese loan apps.
• Klub*, a revenue based finance startup, announced the close of its maiden $25mm revenue based finance fund.
• Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved the PayU's $4.7bn acquisition of Billdesk.
• Paytm claimed to have disbursed 6mm loans i.e. $564mm in value, and deployed 4.5mm payment devices in the period of July and August.
• YES Bank partnered with GIFT City in Gujrat to promote fintech innovation and set up a fintech accelerator.
• T Rabi Shankar, RBI's deputy governor, claimed that RBI's CBDC to be introduced later this year, could become a tool to reduce time and cost for cross border transactions.
• According to a report by Fiserv, the avg. spend per card of non-premium credit cards grew 67% YoY to INR 7,290 ($91.13) in Jan-Jun, 2022 compared to premium credit cards at INR 7,580 ($94.75).
• PhonePe claimed to have tokenised 14mm debit and credit cards on its platform.
• A survey of ~4,000 Indian gig workers on Swiggy, Zomato, Uber, Amazon, and others claimed 42% say their income is flat, 47% have no insurance, and 51% can't save money.
• Tata AMC is entering the pension fund management business.
• ET Money claimed to have crossed $4bn of mutual fund assets on its platform. Of the $4bn, $1.4bn are investments done on the platform and $2.7bn are investments imported by users on ET Money from other platforms.
• Niro, an embedded credit startup, partnered with Quikr and crossed $1mm in monthly disbursals for pre-approved loans.

🚀 Product Launches

• Paytm launched Pi, its fraud risk management platform.
• PayNearby partnered with Axis Bank to launch savings and current account products for last mile SME's.

📝 Regulatory Updates

• SEBI (securities): Approved the AMC license application of Helios Capital. Warned brokers against using unregulated algo platforms.
• RBI (central bank): Announced the selection of two entities in the test phase of RBI's Sandbox for retail payments. Issued an advisory against use of 34 unauthorised electronic forex trading platforms operating in India.
• Ministry of Finance: Released a list of measures to prevent illegal loan apps from operating.
• IRDAI (Insurance): Proposed to mandate dematerialisation of new insurance policies issued, through an Insurance Repository (IR).

💰 Financing Announcements

1. GroMo, a financial product distribution startup, raised $11mm.
2. CashFlo, a supply chain finance startup, raised $8.7mm.
3. AyeKart, an agri supply chain finance startup, raised $5.5mm (equity and debt).
4. FinAGG, a supply chain finance startup, raised $3mm.

ACQUISITION:

1. IppoPay, a payment startup, acquired Tutelar, a risk management startup.

1-min Anonymous Feedback: Your feedback helps me improve this newsletter. Click UPVOTE 👍🏽 or DOWNVOTE 👎🏽

🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

• BukaTabungan, a digital bank formed as a JV between Bukalapal and Standard Chartered, launched in Indonesia.
• Asian United Bank partnered with Atome to launch BNPL for its customers in Singapore.
• Grab and Singtel launched GXS, a digital banking platform in Singapore.
• Akulaku partnered with Alipay+ to launch BNPL for its customers.

💰 Financing Announcements

• VerifyVASP, a Singaporean blockchain startup, raised $5mm.
• SkorLife, an Indonesian credit scoring startup, raised $2.2mm.
• SnappRetail, a Pakistani POS startup, raised $2.5mm.
• Tititada, a Vietnamese investment app, raised $1.5mm.
• Versa, a Malaysian wealth management startup, raised an undisclosed amount.
• Be Group, Vietnam's ride hailing super app which operates digital banking platform Cake, raised $60mm in debt.

🌏 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.

1-min Anonymous Feedback: Your feedback helps me improve this newsletter. Click UPVOTE 👍🏽 or DOWNVOTE 👎🏽

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.