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).

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🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

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

📈 Chart of the Week

Source: Franklin Templeton

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. HSBC reported $1.5bn in profit (+19% YoY) during FY23 (ended Dec-2023) from its India operations.
2. Razorpay claimed to process $150bn in annualised payments volume.
3. India's Ministry of Finance is meeting with some Indian fintech startups post the Paytm Payment Bank situation.
4. HDFC Bank plans to continue its technology partnership with Paytm.
5. Credit Fair a personal finance startup received approval for its P2P Finance license.
6. Avanse, an education finance company, has a loan book of $1bn as of FY23with disbursements at $742mm in FY23.
7. Smallcase reported INR 31cr ($3.74mm) in revenue in FY23 (ended Mar, 2023).

🚀 Product Launches

1. CredAble, a supply chain financing startup, partnered with SBI Global Factors to launch trade financing products.
2. Razorpay launched a slew products at its FTX conference. Read the product announcements here.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. IRDAI (insurance): Approved PB Fintech's license request to convert from a direct insurance broker to a composite insurance broker.
2. RBI (central bank): Released additional steps on continuity of Paytm's UPI products.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Avanse, an education finance company, raised $132mm.
2. Vidyut, an EV financing startup, raised $10mm.
3. QuiD, a supply chain finance startup, raised $600K.
4. Dvara KGFS, a rural financial services firm, raised $27mm in debt.
5. Auxilo, an education financing startup, raised $6mm in debt.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Signzy, an identity management startup, acquired Difenz, a. banking compliance SaaS startup, for $5mm.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Grab reported disbursing SGD1.5bn in total loan value in 2023.
2. OJK, Indonesia's financial regulator, is investigating irregularities in Investree, a P2P lending startup.
3. Helicap, a debt marketplace startup, partnered with Bank Danamon, an Indonesian bank, to launch alternative financing options for Indonesian small businesses.
4. Mastercard partnered with Atome to launch payment products for Philippines' gaming industry.
5. Tonik, a Philippine digital bank, launched multipurpose loans for its customers in the country.
6. Maybank in Malaysia launched myimpact SME Hub, a new lending product offering for small businesses in Malaysia.
7. Indonesia's auto finance market is expected to grow to $51bn by 2026, growing at a 6.2% CAGR from $34bn in 2022.
8. According to a survey, 53% of Singaporeans are dissatisfied with digital banks for not offering offline touch points.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. UNOAsia, a Singaporean digital bank, raised $32.1mm (equity and debt).
2. Transparently.AI, an accounting fraud and regtech startup, raised $3mm.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Xalts, a Singaporean digital asset infrastructure startup, acquired Contour Network, a digital asset trading platform launched by 8 major banks.

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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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