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

📊 Stat of the week

Fintech startups raised $132Bn (+169% YoY) in funding globally i.e. 21% of total venture funding. US attracted the most funding at 34% of total, followed by Asia at 28%, Europe at 23%, LatAm at 7%, Canada at 2% and all other regions at 6% (Source)

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Paytm will be shutting down its Canadian payments app by 14th March, 2022.
2. Zaggle, an employee incentives and benefits platform, is planning a $200-250mm IPO.
3. A report by Chainalysis claims that Indians visited scam cryptocurrency websites 9.6mm times in 2021.
4. 1-3mm new retail trading accounts (demat) are expected to be opened with brokerages in preparation to participate in the LIC IPO.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Indifi partnered with GooglePay to offer SMB loans to its merchant users.
2. Pagarbook, a staff management startup, launched neobanking and credit services

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. RBI (central bank): Released new guidelines for NBFC's in invoice factoring businesses enabling more firms to participate in the RBI factorin

💰 Financing Announcements

1. INDMoney, a wealth management startup, raised $75mm.
2. Digit, a general insurance company, raised $70mm.
3. M2P Fintech, a fintech infrastructure startup raised $56mm.
4. Arya, an agritech and credit startup, raised $46mm.
5. StockGro, a social trading startup, raised $32mm.
6. ScripBox, a mutual fund investment startup, raised $21mm.
7. Stader Labs, a staking and liquid staking startup, raised $12.5mm at $450mm valuation.
8. Threedots, a social trading startup, raised $4mm.
9. SahiCoin, a crypto social trading startup, raised 1.75mm.
10. Finsall, an insurance finance startup, raised $1.62mm.
11. Diginoor.io, an NFT marketplace startup, raised $1mm.

ACQUISITION:

1. Cholamandalam Finance acquired 72% of Payswiff, a payment gateway startup, for $61mm.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. MAS, Singapore's central bank, banned crypto trading platforms from advertising in public areas.
2. Netbank, a Philippine fintech infrastructure startup, partnered with NymCard to open its Banking as a Service offering to international commerce and payment companies to support trade and transactions in Philippines.
3. Binance signed a partnership with Gulf Energy Development to launch the crypto exchange in Thailand.
4. Telenor is selling off its stake in Wave Money, Myanmar's largest payments company.
5. MoMo, Vietnam's largest payment company, plans to launch retail banking services in partnership with Mizuho Bank.
6. Fusang, a Malayasian crypto exchange, received approval to launch its IPO via equity tokens.
7. Bitkub, a Thai crypto exchange, plans further expansion to other South East Asian countries.
8. UnionBank, Philippines' 10th largest bank, plans to launch crypto trading and custodial services.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. BukuKas (rebranded to Lummo), a book keeping startup, raised $80mm.
2. Bank Fama, the Indonesian digibank owned by Grab-Emtek, raised $35mm from Singtel for 16.26% stake.
3. BillEase, a Philippine BNPL startup, raised $11mm.
4. Taro Technologies, a Pakistani BNPL startup, raised $3.5mm.

🌏 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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