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🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

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

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Credit monitoring report showed women borrowers grew 22% since 2019, with non-metro regions leading the growth in India.
2. Indifi, an MSME lending platform, grew to INR 300cr (USD 35M) in revenue in FY24.
3. ICRA, a credit rating agency, reported that increasing the deposit insurance limit beyond INR 5 lakh (USD 5.7K) will impact the profits of Indian banks due to higher insurance premium outgo.
4. Some Indian banks are in discussions to transition from SWIFT to a new cross-border payment system developed by Russia's Central Bank.
5. NPCI, an umbrella organization for operating retail payments in India, reported RuPay, India's homegrown card network, accounts for 16% of credit card spending in India.
6. Phi Commerce, a payment gateway startup, posted INR 81 crores (USD 9.5M) revenue in FY24.
7. Bank lending growth in India slowed to 11% YoY in January, while retail loans grew at 12.6% YoY.
8. Jio Financial Services, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, acquired State Bank of India's (SBI) stake in their payments bank joint venture for an undisclosed amount.
9. CareEdge Ratings, an Indian credit rating agency, projects the housing finance market in India to grow at a 15-16% CAGR until 2029-30.
10. The credit card industry in India saw a slowdown, with new credit card disbursements falling to a 4-year low according to a report.
11. Nippon Life Insurance Co., Indian insurance company of Japan's largest private life insurer, is considering acquiring a stake in IndusInd Bank Ltd., an Indian private sector bank.
12. M2P Fintech, a fintech infrastructure company, reported INR 382cr (USD 45M) revenue for FY24, declining 13% YoY.
13. Safexpay, a payment gateway company, reported INR 88.5cr (USD 10M) revenue in FY24, shrinking 67% YoY after a cyber attack.
14. NoPaperForms, an Indian workflow automation platform, hired bankers for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to raise INR 500cr (USD 58.8M).
15. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to introduce stricter norms for NBFCs providing gold loans.
16. EaseBuzz, a digital payments company, reported INR 650cr (USD 75M) annual revenue, growing 2x YoY.
17. Large Indian banks are seeking to partner with fintech firms to provide loans to SME's.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Poonawalla Fincorp launched unsecured 15-minute loans of up to INR 1 lakh (USD 1,150) for individual borrowers.
2. MoneyView, an Indian retail lending startup, launched UPI payments for its users.
3. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) partnered with Qatar's QNB Group to launch UPI payments in Qatar, targeting 1M users in the first phase.
4. CRED launched Cash+, a loan against mutual fund product, offering loans up to INR 10 lakh (USD 11,500).
5. Paytm launched automatic payment deduction from bank accounts for equity trading.
6. Razorpay, a payment gateway startup, launched in Singapore, strengthening its presence in Southeast Asia.
7. Superfam, a shared payments startup, launched its product out of stealth.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. RBI (central bank): Imposed a monetary penalty of INR 76.6 lakh (USD 90K) on four P2P companies for non-compliance with certain regulatory guidelines.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. InsuranceDekho, an online insurance distribution company, raised $70M.
2. Beacon, an enterprise AI workflow startup, raised $7M.
3. Deciml, an Indian micro-investing startup, raised $3M.
4. CredResolve, a digital debt collections startup, raised INR 11cr ($1.3M).
5. Resolv, a digital debt collections startup, raised an undisclosed amount.
6. Leap Finance, an overseas education finance startup, raised $100M debt facility from HSBC.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. MintOak, a small merchant payments startups, acquired DigiLedge, a CBDC payments platform.
2. M2P Fintech, a fintech infrastructure company, acquired Mad Street Den, an AI startup.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Vietnam's Ministry of Finance released a draft decree outlining a legal framework for crypto asset trading and usage.
2. Mastercard partnered with Mashreq Bank to launch a digital bank in Pakistan, enabling payments and other banking services.
3. Qashier, a Singapore-based payment facilitator, secured a Major Payment Institution License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
4. Digift, a Singapore-based crypto investment platform, received a custodial license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
5. Hex Trust, a Singapore-based crypto startup offering digital asset custody and banking services, received a Digital Token Issuance License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
6. CapBay Thailand, a supply chain finance company, partnered with the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP) to increase access to alternative financing for SMEs.
7. Singapore will implement caning as a punishment for scammers who cause victims to suffer significant financial losses or psychological trauma.
8. Tonik, a digital bank in the Philippines, disbursed loans to 1M+ users.
9. Maybank, a Malaysian banking group, reported $2.2B net profit for 2024, growing 7.9% YoY.
10. upay, a mobile financial service in Bangladesh, partnered with Zaytoon Business Solutions to launch merchant payment solutions, enabling over 300,000 merchants to accept digital payments.
11. TPBank, a Vietnamese bank, launched AI and social banking initiatives to accelerate digital engagement.
12. MoneyHero, Singaporean personal finance and insurance company, launched a three-click travel insurance purchase feature.
13. Indonesia reported that its cryptocurrency transactions surged 104% in January 2025 compared to December 2024.
14. Funding Societies, a Southeast Asian peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, partnered with Boss Boleh to launch a digital lending platform for Malaysian SMEs.

💰 Financing Announcements

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Kredivo, Indonesia's leading 'buy now, pay later' company, acquired GajiGesa, an earned wage access platform, for an undisclosed amount.
2. Airwallex, a gross border payments startup, acquired CTIN Pay, a Vietnamese payment company, for an undisclosed amount.

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