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).

🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

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

📈 Chart of the Week

Source: X/AnkurMittal

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. BillDesk, a payment gateway company, reported 10% YoY growth in revenue to INR 2,678cr ($ 321mm) in FY23 (ended Mar, 2023) and -5% degrowth YoY in net profit to INR 141.9cr ($17mm).
2. Innoviti, Vegaah, Concerto and CCAvenue received RBI approval for license to operate payment aggregator businesses in India.
3. BharatPe reported 77% MoM increase in merchant sign ups in February, 2024 following RBI's action on Paytm Payment Bank.
4. Indian startups raised $1.6bn in Q1 2024 with fintech startups raising the most, led by Credit Saison raising $100mm.
5. According to a report by Care Ratings Indian banking sector Gross NPA's could improve to 2.1% by the end of FY25 from 2.5-2.7% in end FY24 and 3% in Q3 FY24 (ended Dec, 2023).
6. Foreign Investors (FPI's) invested net INR 2tn ($24bn) in equities and INR 1.2tn ($14bn) in debt in FY24.
7. Axis Bank card customers faced fraud attacks from foreign attackers attacking the Axis Bank BIN (bank identification number).
8. An RBI notification to currency traders will go into effect on 5th April requiring proprietary traders and retail investors to demonstrate positive currency exposure to participate in the currency derivatives segment.
9. Standard Chartered is selling its entire holding of 7.2% of CDSL, India's largest depository entity. The deal is valued at INR 1,250cr ($150mm) and values CDSL at $2bn.
10. JM Financial and IIFL Finance will undergo a special audit by RBI to probe regulatory breaches by the two firms.
11. 99 out of 248 equity mutual funds (i.e. 40%) beat benchmarks in FY24.
12. Zerodha Fund House reported crossing INR 1,000cr ($120mm) in total AuM within 40 days of launch.
13. Fibe (fka EarlySalary) is raising $50mm in primary and secondary capital valuing the company at $600-650mm.
14. Indian banks reported INR 5.3tn in value and 462K in number of frauds between FY2014 to FY2023.
15. According to a report by IDfy, 5 out of 10 Indian banks failed to specify the purpose when seeking user consent to share the data with third parties.
16. RBI released data on the sectoral deployment of bank credit for the month of Feb, 2024. Personal loans growth moderated to 18.1 per cent (y-o-y) in February 2024 (20.6 per cent a year ago) due to decelerated growth in vehicle loans and other personal loans.
17. DSP Asset Management applied to the RBI for an NBFC license.
18. ICICI Securities, the brokerage arm of ICICI Bank, received shareholder approval to delist the brokerage and merge with the bank.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Recur Club partnered with InCred to launch a INR 300cr ($36mm) debt fund for early stage startups.
2. PhonePe launched cross border UPI payments for non-residents in UAE.
3. Rupyy, a CarDekho group digital lending arm, launched personal loan products.

📝 Regulatory Update

1. RBI (central bank): Relaxed guidelines of provisions to be made by banks, requiring provisions to be made only up to the amount invested by the AIF, in which the bank is an investor, not the entire amount invested by the bank in the AIF. Approved implementation of an interoperable payment system for internet banking transactions of Bharat Billpay.
2. IRDAI (insurance): Retained status quo for charges to surrender life insurance policies and the insurance company's boards will ensure "fair pricing". Approved the creation of ONDC-like platform for insurance product distribution. Approved the health insurance license of Galaxy Health.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Avanse Finance, a education financing company, raised $120mm.
2. Kreditbee, a consumer credit startup, raised $9.4mm.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. PasarPolis claimed to have grown Gross Written Premium (GWP) by 250% and revenue by 2x YoY.
2. Mastercard signed a strategic partnership with Singapore Airlines to be the preferred partner for all of the airlines' cobranded card programs across key markets in Southeast Asia.
3. Juanhand, the personal finance arm of FinVolution in Philippines, partnered with SeaBank in Philippines, for a %5.4mm credit facility for Juanhand's users in the country.
4. ZaloPay, a Vietnamese e-wallet company, partnered with CIMB Bank to launch fixed deposit products for its users.
5. DBS Bank in Indonesia partnered with Mekaar and PT PNM to issue a revolving credit facility of $63mm (IDR 1tn) to small businesses.
6. ANT Group committed to invest SGD 200mm ($148mm) in ANEXT Bank, its wholly owned subsidiary SME digital bank in Singapore.
7. Philippines' central bank is planning to proceed with its ban of Binance.
8. Philippines, South Korea and Thailand are making moves to create crypto and blockchain friendly environments.
9. GCash launched GCash Overseas, a payment product for Filipinos in 16 markets globally.
10. Central Banks of South Korea and Nepal partnered to launch cross border QR payments acceptance.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Qoala, an Indonesian insurance startup, raised $47mm.
2. LinkAja, an Indonesian BNPL company, raised an undisclosed amount.
3. Soft Space, a Malaysian payments company, raised an undisclosed amount.
4. Akulaku, a consumer credit startup, raised $100mm in debt.

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