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.)

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Risckovry, an embedded insurance startup, reportedly processed INR 1,500cr ($180mm) in gross written premium.
2. Jio Financial reported consolidated net profit of INR 294cr ($35.4mm), in the quarter ended Dec, 2023 - down 56% QoQ.
3. Niva Bupa Health Insurance, owned by Bupa and True North, is planning an IPO to raise INR 3,000cr ($361mm).
4. PhonePe announced that it sold 9mm+ insurance policies since launch in Sept, 2021. It sold 4mm in 2023 alone.
5. BharatPe and its NBFC arm, Trillion Loans, raised $100mm in debt.
6. HDFC Bank applied for a universal banking license in Singapore.
7. Margin funding loan book among retail stock investors grew to $6.6bn as of 16th Jan 2024, compared to $3.5bn in Jan, 2023.
8. ICICI Lombard, ICICI Bank's general insurance arm, grew its profit after tax to $52mm for the quarter ended Dec, 2023.
9. HDFC Bank reported net profit of $1.9bn for the quarter ended Dec, 2023 up 34% YoY.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Fello, a gamified savings platform, partnered with Augmont to launch Gold Pro, a gold leasing product.
2. CapitalNow partnered with Finbox to launch digital underwriting and credit disbursement.
3. Google Pay partnered with NPCI to launch UPI payments for international travellers.

📝 Regulatory Updates

• RBI (central bank): Released a draft framework for recognising Self Regulatory Organisations.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Upswing, a banking as a service startup, raised $4.2mm.
2. InPrime, a consumer lending startup, raised $3mm.
3. Fetcch, a web3 payments and digital rewards infra startup, raised $1.5mm.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. DMI Group acquired ZestMoney.

1-min Anonymous Feedback: Your feedback helps me improve this newsletter. Click UPVOTE 👍🏽 or DOWNVOTE 👎🏽

🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Flowdesk, a French digital asset trading startup, raised $50mm to launch in Singapore and US.
2. Binance Thailand launched its crypto exchange for trading.
3. Tyme Group, a multi-country digital banking company, reported $160mm in revenue in 2023.
4. Validus, a Southeast Asian SMB financing startup, raised $10mm in debt.
5. TrueMoney, a Malaysian digital payments company, launched QR payment acceptance via DuitNow.
6. The UN flagged USDT stablecoin as the preferred cryptocurrency for money laundering and other illicit activities in Asia.
7. Trading volumes on local Indonesian crypto exchanges plummeted by 60% compared to the previous year.
8. Tonik Bank, a digital bank in Philippines, launched SME financing.

💰 Financing Announcements

(there were no fund raise announcements this week.)

🌏 Sponsor on TWIF

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.

1-min Anonymous Feedback: Your feedback helps me improve this newsletter. Click UPVOTE 👍🏽 or DOWNVOTE 👎🏽

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn