Hi fintech friends, Osborne here!

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).

🐦🏆 Tweets of the Week

(Note: Neither TWIF nor I endorse any views in the tweets highlighted above.)

📈 Chart of the Week

Mapping out the BIS-level network of global value chains lets us look at both direct and indirect supplier-to-customer linkages, providing a more complete & timely picture of the overall dependencies in global value chains. (Source)

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Slice*, a consumer credit startup, received RBI approval to merge with North East Small Finance Bank.
2. Fintech funding reportedly grew 68% YoY in the Jul-Sep-23 quarter, according to a report by Tracxn.
3. Groww, a wealth management startup, generated INR 1,294cr ($ 158mm) in total revenue in FY23 (ended Mar, 2023), growing 252% YoY with INR 73cr ($ 9mm) in net profit.
4. Cred, a lifestyle fintech startup, generated $168mm in revenue in FY23 (ended Mar, 2023), growing 255% YoY.
5. Swiggy disbursed INR 450cr ($54mm) in loans to its restaurant owners.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Pepper Money launched Pepper Money Dreams Card, a Rupay prepaid card.
2. The central banks of India and UAE partnered to launch RuPay card acceptance in UAE.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. DPDZero, a debt collections startup, raised $3.25mm.
2. Roopya, a lending analytics and infrastructure startup, raised $610K.

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

🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. UOB Bank in Singapore conducted trials of Copilot genAI for use across bank branches.
2. RedOne, a Malaysian virtual telco, partnered with Experian to launch RedCash, a digital lending platform.
3. The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) partnered with MAS, Singapore's central bank, and several other central banks to launch Project Mandala, a project to simplify cross border payments while embedding jurisdiction specific policy and regulatory requirements.
4. UBS Asset Management launched its first pilot of a tokenised Variable Capital Company fund in Singapore.
5. Coinbase Singapore received a Major Payments Institution license from MAS, Singapore.
6. Total funding in Southeast Asian fintech startups fell by 74% YoY to $229mm in Q3 2023.
7. Singapore’s digital economy contributed $106bn, or 17.3%, to its GDP.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Investree, an Indonesian lending company, raised $231mm.
2. MADCash, a Malaysian small business finance startup, raised $1mm.
3. Alami, a Sharia compliant lending startup, raised an undisclosed amount.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Mynt, owner of Philippine payments company GCash, acquired 77% stake in ECPay, a Philippine payments company, for $40.7mm.

🌏 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.

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

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn