Hi fintech friends, I'm Osborne, Principal at EMVC!

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).

✨ Plural presents Beers with Peers x Fintech Happy Hour

We're hosting our first fintech community meet up of the year. Plural presents Beers with Peers x Fintech Happy Hour. Meet the ecosystem shaping India's financial products.

🗓️ When: 07th March, 2024
🕕 Time: 06:30pm to 09:30pm
📍Where: MG Road, Bengaluru

💬 Fireside Chat: Shashank Mehta, Nikhil Kumar and Tanya Naik

🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

📈 Chart of the Week

Source: Indus Valley Report, Blume Ventures

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. India reported Q3 (ended Dec, 2023) GDP growth of 8.4% compared to estimates of 6.6%.
2. Paytm discontinued all inter-company agreements with its Payment Bank entity.
3. Fintech founders and the ecosystem had a meeting with the Ministry of Finance. The meeting had the following discussions:
   • It was recommended that the RBI hold monthly meetings with startups and fintech firms.
   • It was discussed to implement MDR for UPI.
4. NIPL, NPCI's international arm, signed an MOU with Eurobank, a Greek bank, to launch cross border payments through UPI.
5. Razorpay reported INR 2,279cr ($275mm) in revenue in FY23.
6. Amazon Pay received approval from RBI for its payment aggregator business.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Mobikwik launched Pocket UPI, a prepaid wallet UPI product.
2. Zoho launched Zakya, a POS billing app for small businesses to accept payments.

📝 Regulatory Update

1. IRDAI (insurance): Proposed draft regulations to protect policyholder's interests.
2. RBI (central bank): Changed its rules to accept "Regulatory Sandbox" applications on tap. Invited comments to the Draft Disclosure Framework on Climate-related Financial Risks.
3. SEBI (securities): Introduced new regulations requiring small and mid-cap mutual funds to disclose more about risks.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. mSwipe, a payment aggregator startup, raised $20mm.
2. CredAble, a supply chain finance startup, raised $10mm.
3. QuiD, a B2B supply chain financing startup raised $600K.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Tiger Brokers Singapore partnered with Wise to launch Tiger BOSS debit card, where users can invest spare change in fractional shares.
2. G20 countries endorsed a roadmap to collaborate and improve cross border paymetns infrastructure between the 20 countries.
3. According to a Singaporean advisory firm, BaaS offerings could contribute to 40% of banking revenue in APAC by 2030.
4. Thailand's SEC (securities regulator) recommended to the Finance Ministry to revoke Zipmex's digital asset business license.
5. HugoSave, a Singaporean wealth management app, received Sharia-compliance certification.
6. Sea Group is reportedly acquiring a minority stake in HiBank, an Indonesian bank.
7. Nium received a Type 1 Funds Transfer license in Japan allowing it to process large value transfers in and out of Japan.
8. Central banks of Malaysia and Cambodia signed an MOU to collaborate on innovation and payments.
9. Julo, an Indonesian digital lending startup, is planning to go public in Indonesia. The company reported growing its revenue by 73% to USD 121mm in 2023.
10. Policystreet, a Malaysian insurance marketplace, partnered with Vircle, a Malaysian neobank, to launch Vircle Club protect, an embedded insurance product.
11. Revolut Singapore launched mobile wallet transfers to Bangladesh and Kenya.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Qapita, an equity management startup, raised $17.2mm.
2. Fluid, a business purchase financing startup, raised $5.2mm.
3. ProCredit, a Philippine SME lender, raised $4.1mm.
4. Refy, a green asset financing startup, raised $525K.
5. 1Long, a Vietnamese wealth management startup, raised $500K.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. SCBX, a unit of Siam Commercial bank, acquired 100% of Home Credit Vietnam for $866mm.

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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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