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

Apologies for the delay in sending this out.

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).

🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

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

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Premji Invest, the family office of Wipro's founder, is close to acquiring a majority stake in Nainital Bank in a transaction valuing the bank at INR 800cr ($ 96mm).
2. Indian banking sector deployed INR 24.6tn ($ 295bn) in credit to MSME sector in March, 2024 (+19% YoY).
3. NPCI's international arm signed a partnership with the Bank of Namibia to set up an instant payment system based on UPI for the African country.
4. Fi, a neo banking startup, received approval for its license to operate as an NBFC.
5. Credgenics claimed to resolve $70bn in debt repayments and handles 2.5mm in unique disputes every month, growing 20% MoM.
6. India's Finance Minister stated that UPI processed a total of INR 200tn ($2.4tn) in payments value in FY24.
7. CII launched a Corporate Governance Charter framework for startups.
8. Groww received approval from RBI to operate as a payment aggregator.
9. Paytm's wallet payments value has reportedly dropped by 70% between Jan to Mar, 2024, post RBI's restrictions on the business.

🚀 Product Launches

1. ANQ, a consumer payments startup, partnered with YES Bank to launch Pi and Phi credit cards.

📝 Regulatory Update

1. RBI (central bank): Released a notification to lenders regarding malpractices in charging interest on loans. Cautioned banks about gold loan disbursals being made through fintech startups. Issued a clarification that P2P lending platforms cannot offer investors a Default Loss Guarantee. Lifted the business restrictions on Bajaj Finance.
2. SEBI (securities): Reduced the minimum ticket size of bond investments from INR 1lac ($1,200) to INR 10,000 ($120).

💰 Financing Announcements

1. U Gro Capital, a small business lending company, raised $158mm.
2. BankBazaar, a financial product marketplace, raised $15.6mm (equity and debt).
3. BriskPe, a cross border payments company, raised $5mm.
4. Dexif, a fixed income investment startup, raised $4mm.
5. Reelo, a customer loyalty and POS SaaS startup, raised $1mm.

ACQUISITION:

1. MyShubhLife, a lending SaaS startup, was acquired by U Gro Capital for $5.4mm.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Mula partnered with Prepay Nation to launch cross border payments for Mula's customers in Southeast Asia.
2. Alipay+ launched its cross border payments acceptance platform in Hong Kong enabling 14 wallets across 9 countries.
3. IFC partnered with KB Kookmin Card Co. (KBC), a South Korean credit card issuing company, to launch a $150mm financing for KBC's operations in Indonesia and Thailand.
4. Hong Kong's Monetary Authority and Securities and Futures Commission launched Cross Industry Fintech Platform for better data sharing and collaboration between all financial sectors.
5. Singapore's Fintech Association handed out BNPL Code of Conduct Accreditation to four BNPL companies.
6. OCBC Bank Indonesia completed its acquisition of PT Bank Commonwealth Indonesia.
7. AIA Singapore launched a Wealth Center to service HNI clients in the region.
8. MAS ended business restrictions on DBS Bank but retained the 1.8x multiplier for risk weighted asset capital adequacy.
9. T2P, a Thai cross border payments startup, partnered with Wise to launch no markup cross border payments for Thai users.
10. ANT's Singaporean wholesale bank launched loans for small businesses.

💰 Financing Announcements

(there were no funding announcements. did I miss any?)

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Shopee acquired Bank BKE in Indonesia.

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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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