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).

✨ Join us in Bangkok on 24th April, 2024

We're joining our friends at Saison Capital and Citi Ventures to host a community mixer in April along the sidelines of Money20/20 Asia.

The mixer will be hosted on a cruise on the river Chao Phraya close to the Money20/20 Asia venue. It'll be an experience

Details below:
📆 Wed, 24th April, 2024
🕕 07:00pm to 09:30pm (boarding starts at 06:30pm)
📍 Chao Phraya, Bangkok.

🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

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

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. PB Fintech, Policybazaar's parent company, received approval from RBI to launch payment aggregator operations.
2. DBS Bank committed $250mm for loans to Indian startups.
3. According to a report by Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment (FACE), loan disbursement by fintech startups reached INR 33,922 cr ($4bn) in the Q3 FY2024, growing 46% YoY for the period, whereas number of loans grew by 12% YoY to 25mm in the same period.
4. UPI payments value grew to INR 18.2tn ($219bn) in Feb, 2024 with 1.2bn transactions.
5. Juspay reported revenue of INR 200cr in FY23 (ended March, 2023).
6. Advantage Club, an employee engagement and rewards startup, reported INR 323cr ($38.6mm) in revenue in FY23 (ended March, 2023).
7. Safegold, a digital gold investments startup, reported INR 4,498 cr ($538mm) in GMV.
8. P2P Lenders are discontinuing instant withdrawal products to customers after 31st March, in a move to self regulate.

🚀 Product Launches

1. CashFree Payments launched RiskShield, a risk management and fraud prevention SaaS platform for its customers.
2. FinRight, a financial information startup, launched a WhatsApp bot to resolve financial and banking queries.
3. Pop, an ecommerce startup, launched Popcoins, its rewards program for payments made on its marketplace for D2C brands.
4. Groww launched a feature to allow derivative traders to reduce/cap their downside on derivative trades.
5. Plum Insurance, a group health insurance startup, released a Bangalore city guide for founders.

📝 Regulatory Update

1. RBI (central bank): Launched an omnibus framework for recognising Self-Regulatory Organisations for Regulated Entities.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Sugmya, a retail financing NBFC startup, raised $3mm.
2. Yenmo, a loan against securities startup, raised $500K.
3. Beshak Insurance, an Insurance advisory startup, raised $360K.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Mastercard partnered with Alipay to extend cross border payments for users in China.
2. China's UnionPay launched Project Excellence 2024 to make payments convenient for senior citizens.
3. Atome, a Southeast Asian BNPL company, partnered with Chubb, an Insurance company, to launch consumer insurance products for Atome's customers in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia.
4. Zed, a Philippine neo bank, launched a no-fee credit card.
5. Five of South Korea's state owned financial institutions will provide loans worth $313.4bn to finance carbon cutting projects in the country.
6. Julo, an Indonesian personal credit startup, launched healthcare financing product of up to $3,000 for medical expenses.
7. Grab partnered with Triple-A to launch crypto payments in Singapore.
8. Tyme Group's South African neo bank Tyme Bank raised $78mm.
9. According to a report by Airwallex, 62% of consumers in Singapore plan to ramp up their international online shopping over the next 6 to 12 months, surpassing the global average, which stands at 54%.
10. GoTo in Indonesia partnered with TikTok to launch BNPL products on TikTok.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Tokenize Xchange, a Singaporean digital asset exchange, raised $11.5mm.
2. Zed, a Philippine neo bank, raised $6mm.
3. Accredify, a Singaporean identity management startup, raised an undisclosed amount.

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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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