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

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🦉🏆 Tweets of the Week

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. OneCard claimed to have 12mm registered users and 2mm monthly active users.
2. BrightChamp, an Edtech startup, started accepting payments in cryptocurrencies in India.
3. Paisabazaar claimed to have improved credit scores of 5.27mm users by more than 20 points.
4. Fi, a neobank, claimed to have 1mm registered users within 10 months since launch.
5. ASCI, India's advertising body, released guidelines for crypto advertising.

🚀 Product Launches

1. TripMoney, MakeMyTrip's fintech vertical, launched a TripMoney Global Card, a credit card.
2. Rupeek, a gold-based financing startup, launched a gold deposit backed credit card.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. RBI (central bank): issued a caution against using carpooling startup sRide which operates an unauthorised prepaid wallet.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. PineLabs, a payments company, raised $150mm. (from previous week)
2. Niyo, a neo banking startup, raised $100mm.
3. Xoxoday, a payments reward management startup, raised $30mm.
4. Smartcoin, a digital lending startup, raised $7mm.
5. Actyv.ai, a B2B BNPL startup, raised $5mm.
6. Brahma, a sustainable and diversified crypto yield protocol, raised $4.2mm
7. Karma.Life, a blue collar finance startup, raised $2.2mm.
8. Finarkein Analytics, a low/code data orchestration startup, raised an undisclosed amount.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Renewbuy, an insurance marketplace, acquired Artivatic.AI, an insurance cloud infrastructure startup.
2. Chargebee, a subscription management startup, acquired numberz, a collections management startup.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Nepal will adopt India's UPI system to digitise payments in the nation.
2. Mitsubishi UFG shut down it's blockchain-based payments network, GO-NET Japan, citing the "recent hard business environment" for payments.
3. Modalku, the Indonesian SMB finance arm of Funding Societies, and Carro, a used car startup, invested in Indonesia's Bank Index for a minority shareholding.
4. ZA Bank and Mox Bank in Hong Kong have reportedly cornered two thirds of the deposits among eight digital banks in the country by offering numberless credit cards and cash prizes.
5. China's supreme court ruled that crypto transactions constitute "illegal fund raising" with punishment of up to 10 years in prison.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Amber Group, a Singaporean crypto company, raised $200mm at $3bn valuation.
2. PayMongo, a Philippine payments startup, raised $31mm.
3. Dowsure, a Chinese cross-border payments startup, raised $20mm.
4. NayaPay, a Pakistani messaging and payments startup, raised $13mm.
5. Broom, an auto financing startup, raised $3mm.
6. StockViva, a Hong Kong based stock investment and advisory startup, raised $3mm.

ACQUISITION:

1. M-DAQ, a Singaporean cross-border fintech company, acquired Wallex, a Southeast Asian cross border payments company.

🌏 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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