Hi fintech friends, I'm Osborne, investor in early stage startups.

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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. Razorpay, Payu, Easebuzz, and Paytm, key payment gateways in India, are under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a suspected cryptocurrency investment scam worth INR 1,000cr (USD 117.6M).
2. Navi, Sachin Bansal's fintech startup, lost INR 14cr ($1.65M) to payment gateway fraud.
3. Hitachi Payment Services partnered with IvyCamp to launch Hitachi Payments Accelerator (HPX) program, focusing on payments, lending, neo-banking and other fintech areas.
4. IDBI Bank, a public sector lender, reported INR 1,908cr ($ 224M) net profit for the third quarter (Q3 FY25), growing 31% YoY.
5. Paytm, a digital payments company, reported INR 1,456cr ($ 171M) quarterly revenue, dropping 36% YoY, with a net loss of INR 208cr ($ 24.5M) in Q3 FY25.
6. UCO Bank, a public sector bank in India, reported a 27% YoY increase in net profit to INR 263cr ($ 31M) for Q3 FY2025.
7. Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) plans to introduce pre-listing trading mechanism for Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) to reduce price manipulations in gray market deals.
8. HDB Financial Services, a small business lending company, reported net profit of INR 75.1cr ($ 8.8M) for Q3 FY25, down 27% YoY due to higher provisions for bad loans.
9. Spandana Sphoorty Financial, a microfinance lender, reported a net loss of INR 90.5cr ($ 10.7M) for Q3 FY25, breaching regulatory norms and borrowing covenants according to its financial results.
10. Paytm, a digital payments company, expanded to Singapore, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Saudi Arabia and is exploring the launch of UPI (Unified Payments Interface) and UPI-based lending products.
11. Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), and BlackRock jointly invested INR 117cr ($14M) in their mutual fund entity in India.
12. Skydo, a fintech startup, secured a license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to offer cross-border payments.
13. Jio Financial Services, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, partnered with Blackrock to incorporate its stock broking business in India.
14. Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) proposed minimum INR 250 (USD 2.94) amount for Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) in mutual funds.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Falcon, a fintech infrastructure startup, partnered with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to launch next-generation credit card innovations for domestic banks.
2. Cheq, a credit management startup, launched Wisor, India's first AI-powered credit card analyser, along with a slew of other products.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. Reserve Bank of India (RBI, central bank): Mandated new guidelines for digital lending platforms to prevent financial frauds perpetrated using voice calls and SMS, effective immediately. Eased settlement norms for Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs), resolutions could quicken.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Landeed, a land title document search startup, raised $ 5M.
2. BPR Hub, an Indian compliance management startup, raised $ 2.6M.
3. InRisk, a parametric insurance startup, raised an undisclosed amount.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Visa partnered with DealMe, a Vietnamese BNPL company, to launch cross-border card installment payments for purchases from global merchants in installments.
2. SC Ventures, the innovation and ventures unit of Standard Chartered Bank, partnered with Proxtera to launch LabaMu, a digital platform that aims to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across Asia Pacific (APAC).
3. WeBank Technology Services, Tencent's fintech/banking arm, expanded operations to Hong Kong to strengthen the Asian fintech ecosystem.
4. The Global Fintech Hub Network (GFTN), a non-profit organization, will establish a fintech hub in Odisha, India to accelerate the growth of fintech startups in the state.
5. DTCPay, a Singaporean decentralized payments network, partnered with BNB Chain to launch decentralized payments using the BNB token and accepting cryptocurrencies as payment.
6. Real-time payments networks are expanding across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, fueled by rising demand from consumers and businesses for faster and more convenient digital payments, according to a report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
7. Deutsche Bank partnered with Yonyou, a Chinese enterprise software company, to launch a corporate banking solution to support Chinese enterprises expanding globally.
8. Antom, a merchant payment and digitisation services provider under Ant International, partnered with Booking.com to launch integrated payment options across key markets in Asia, enabling Booking.com to accept popular local payment methods.
9. The Financial Services Authority of Indonesia (OJK) issued new regulations to develop alternative credit scoring systems, allowing fintech lenders to assess borrowers without traditional credit histories.
10. National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), the central bank, partnered with Visa to integrate Bakong, Cambodia's real-time payments system, with Visa's global payments network allowing Visa's merchants and clients access to Bakong's services.
11. UnionPay International, China's interbank payment network, partnered with Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN), Malaysia's largest retail bank, to launch QR code payment services, allowing over 30M UnionPay cardholders to make QR payments at BSN merchants across Malaysia.
12. Tyme, a South African digital banking startup, entered Indonesia as part of its Southeast Asia expansion, partnering with Indonesian banks like Bank Jago to offer its digital banking services.
13. Techcombank, a Vietnamese private bank, reported 20% YoY growth in annual pre-tax profit to $1.09bn for 2024.
14. Lazada, Southeast Asia's e-commerce company, partnered with Peak Re to launch a digital insurance joint venture, offering insurance products to Lazada's over 130 million users across Southeast Asia.
15. Revolut, a UK-based cross border banking company, launched a robo-advisor investment platform in Singapore.
16. PT Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN), Indonesia's largest bank, partnered with KreditGO, an Indonesian digital lending platform, to launch a home loan product, targeting millennials and the middle-income segment.
17. Hong Kong regulators discussed introducing a licensing regime for cryptocurrency platforms and a bill to regulate stablecoin activity in the city.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Cyfirma, an Indonesia-based cybersecurity company, raised an undisclosed amount.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. HDBank and VPBank, two major Vietnamese banks, acquired two smaller banks, the Vietnam Construction Joint-Stock Commercial Bank (CBBank) and the Vietnam Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VietBank), respectively.
2. Tokenize Xchange, an Indonesian crypto asset securitization company, acquired CoinSeeker, a cryptocurrency data aggregator, for an undisclosed amount.
3. Pomelo Group, a Singapore-based fashion e-commerce platform, acquired Arrow Checkout, a fintech checkout solution startup.

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