Hi fintech friends, Osborne here!

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).

🐦🏆 Tweets of the Week

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

📈 Chart of the Week

(source: Care Ratings)

(Source: RBI Monetary Policy Committee, Oct, 2023)

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. National Stock Exchange, one of India's stock exchanges, grew its active client base to 33.4mm in Sept, 2023.
2. PhonePe reported INR 2,914cr ($ 355mm) of consolidated in FY23, growing 77% YoY.
3. Of the estimated 70mm merchants on UPI, 15-20% of them have requested their bank partners to disable Credit on UPI transactions, owing to MDR's.

🚀 Product Launches

1. SafexPay, a cross border payments company, launched NeuX, a neo banking platform.
2. Cashfree Payments partnered with Global Trade Plaza to launch cross border payments.
3. Google launched "DigiKavach" an early threat detection and warning system for financial fraud.
4. Google partnered with Axis Bank to disburse personal loans to its retail users.
5. Google partnered with ICICI Bank to disburse loans to is UPI merchants.
6. NPCI launched B2B payments feature in Bharat Bill Payments platform.
7. Yubi, a debt facilitation platform, launched Aspero, an online bond platform.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Neo, a wealth management startup, raised $35mm.
2. Tap Invest (formerly Leaf Round), a fixed income investment platform, raised $2mm.
3. HiWi, a cross border banking startup, raised $915K.
4. Niyo, a neobanking startup, raised an undisclosed amount (brand capital).

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Bajaj Finance acquired 26% stake in Pennant Technologies, a lending management platform, for INR 267.5cr ($32.6mm).
2. Aurionpro, a banking IT platform, acquired OmniFin, a loan management system, for $9.8mm.
3. Vastu Housing Finance closed a secondary transaction of $30mm from Faering Capital.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. UpBit, a South Korean crypto startup, received final license as a Major Payments Institution in Singapore.
2. Bolttech, a Singaporean insurance infra company, is considering an IPO in US.
3. Tonik Bank in Philippines launched Payhingya, a life and disability product for borrowers.
4. UBS SEA launched a digital platform for structured products for its users in Singapore and Hong Kong.
5. Goto and Bank Jago launched the bank account offering.
6. Julo, an Indonesian consumer credit startup, launched education financing product.
7. Nium, a global payments company, launched B2B travel payments via virtual cards in APAC.
8. MAS, Singapore's central bank, released Guidelines on Transition Planning, a supervisory set of expectations for financial firms to have framework to transition to net zero climate change mitigation.
9. Igloo, a Southeast Asian insurance platform, partnered with Oppo to launch smartphone protection plans.

💰 Financing Announcements

(there were no fund raise announcements).

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Bolttech, a Southeast Asian insurance infra company, acquired Digital Care, a Polish insurance infra company.

🌏 International

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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