Hi fintech friends,

Welcome to the weekend of the year! We made it.

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).

Thank you, dear reader, for your support and encouragement throughout 2022. Hope to continue receiving the same. Hope you have a relaxing time off. Wishing you and those close to you a Happy Holidays!

Note: This will be the last edition of 2022. Will resume regular programming by 8th Jan, 2022.

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.

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🦉🏆 Tweets of the Week

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Razorpay and other payment gateways that received Payment Aggregator licenses were advised by RBI to pause merchant onboarding till the final license approval was received.
2. Siply claimed to have 6.3mm registered users of which 3.4mm are active and made transactions amounting to INR 629cr ($77mm) and disbursed INR 207cr ($25mm) in micro loans.
3. KFin Technologies, an RTA for the mutual fund industry, launched its IPO with 1.02x QIB subscription, 0.74x retail investor subscription and 0.03x HNI subscription (as on 20th Dec, 2022).
4. Zaggle, a spend management startup for businesses, filed its draft IPO prospectus with SEBI (securities regulator).
5. Ayekart Fintech, an agri supply chain fintech startup, claimed to be on track for INR 600cr ($73mm) in GMV in FY23 (ended March 23), 4x YoY growth.
6. India's central bank governor released a statement saying "we firmly believe that cryptocurrencies have no underlying value and have huge inherent risks for our macroeconomic and financial stability. I still hold my view that it should be prohibited because if it is allowed to grow, please mark my words, the next financial crisis will come from cryptocurrencies".
7. Worldline ePayments received RBI's in-principle approval for payment aggregator services.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Cashfree Payments launched eUPP, a fee payment management system for schools and colleges.
2. CredAble, a supply chain financing startup, launched an digital invoicing solution.
3. 1Pay, a fleet management fintech startup, launched a multi-purpose virtual prepaid card for fleet operators.
4. Drip Capital partnered with Vayana TradeXchange to launch trade finance services for SME exporters.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Insurance Samadhan, an insurance tech startup, raised $2mm.

Note: $1 = INR 82

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) set limits on banks' exposure to crypto markets to 2%.
2. Zipmex, a Thai crypto exchange, is applying to Singapore's court for rescue financing after suspending withdrawals earlier this year.
3. Payoneer received in-principle approval from MAS to expand its payment offerings.
4. As per a report by CoinJournal, Singapore is 9th most targeted country for crypto fraud.
5. SCB 10x, the venture arm of SCB, Thailand's oldest bank, released a statement that it believes its crypto/blockchain investments will serve the bank well over the long term.
6. Futu, a Chinese stock broker backed by Tencent, will list its shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange to mitigate risk of delisting from the US exchanges.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Toss, a South Korean financial super app, raised $405mm.
2. Validus, a Singaporean small business finance startup, raised an undisclosed amount.
3. Alami, a Sharia-compliant small business lending startup, raised an undisclosed amount.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Binance acquired Tokocrypto, an Indonesian crypto exchange.
2. Activpayroll, a UK-based HR tech firm, acquired Propay Partners, a Malaysian payroll management startup.

🌏 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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