Hi fintech friends,

Happy New Year, 2023! Hope you had a great start to the year!

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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).

Note: Will not be publishing the Asia + India edition next week i.e. 28th Jan, 2023. Will be back to regular programing from 4th Feb, 2023.

Don’t forget to share with fellow fintech friends!

🦉🏆 Tweets of the Week

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. HDFC Bank reported 18.5% QoQ growth in its standalone net profit to INR 12,259cr ($1.5bn) for the quarter ended Dec, 2022.
2. Paytm Payments Bank received an approval to operate a Bharat Bill Payments unit.
3. Google India is piloting a ‘Soundpod by Google Pay’ for UPI payments.
4. PineLabs launched in UAE.
5. Fintech lending industry bodies FACE, Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment, and CFI (Center for Financial Inclusion), launched a Fintech Lending Risk Barometer, to create a systematic risk baseline of emerging risks in Indian fintech.
6. Klub*, claimed to have disbursed $6mm in financing to EV startups.
7. Paytm is reportedly selling a soundbox every six seconds.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Razorpay launched an affordability widget in its payments checkout page.
2. Rupeek, a gold-backed finance startup, partnered with Indian Bank to launch co-lending products.
3. Mobikwik partnered with MyShubhLife to disburse digital credit products to Mobikwik's users.

💰 Financing Announcement

1. PhonePe raised $350mm at a $12bn valuation.
2. MProfit, a multi-asset wealth tracking startup, raised $2mm.
3. Gullak, an automated savings startup, raised $300K.
4. SayF, a rewards based savings startup, raised $240K.
5. NeoGrowth, a small business financing startup, raised $10mm (debt).

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Huobi Global, a Chinese cryptocurrency exchange, launched a crypto debit card in Europe.
2. A Chinese central bank official released a statement that Ant Group and other companies have "basically completed business rectification" in line with guidance of regulators.
3. The People’s Bank of China, the Chinese central bank, reportedly enabled Android users to make offline payments using digital yuan.
4. livi Bank, a Hong Kong based lifestyle virtual bank, launched QR payment method.
5. Sun Finance, a Latvia-based financing startup, launched operations in the Philippines.
6. Coinbase Global is considering a withdrawal from Japan as part of its response to the sharp decline in cryptocurrency trading.
7. HugoBank, a Singaporean digital banking startup, received an initial No Objection Certificate (NOC) from Pakistan's central bank to operate a digital bank.
8. EasyPaisa, a Pakistani wallet payments startup, launched a Visa debit card linked to the prepaid wallet.
9. Thailand's central bank issued new regulations for digital asset wallets.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. PeopleFund, a South Korean P2P lending startup, raised $20mm.
2. Komunal, an Indonesian rural bank digitisation startup, raised $8.5mm.
3. Pilon, a Singaporean supply chain finance startup, raised $5.2mm.
4. Inypay, a Singaporean neobank, raised $1mm.
5. ZaynFi, a stablecoin yield optimiser on BNB Chain, raised $600K.

🌏 International

Please find our global coverage and consider subscribing.

• US and Global, written by Nik Milanovic.
• Europe and UK, written by Michael Jenkins.
• Latin America, written by Christine Chang.
• Africa, written by Emeka Ajene.
• China written by Ning Ye.
• Policy written by Mohammad Hamdy.

And of course, our podcast series - Beyond Two Percent and Hey Fintech Friends.

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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