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).

RIP Charlie Munger.

✨ Bangalore Fintech Happy Hour presented by Falcon

Thank you for showing up, Bangalore! I'm constantly inspired meeting the people that are defining financial services in India.

Special thanks to our presenting sponsor Falcon and associate sponsors Amazon Web Services (AWS) and WebEngage.

I've been fortunate to get to know Nishchay Ag, Bhavjot Kaur, Movin Jain and Arpita Kapoor for some time now. I'm immensely grateful they all agreed to join us for an insightful panel, each bringing perspectives from operating across different sectors and stages.

Last but not least, thanks to the team that's working behind the scenes to make it all happen this year! Sneh Baxi, Tanisha Sabherwal, Madhav Raj Garg and Sapan Karia. It's been so fun!

Grateful! See you in 2024!

🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

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

📈 Chart of the Week

(Source)

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. PayU's payments business reported $ 211mm (+15% YoY) in revenue during the period H1 FY24 (Apr-Sep, 2023). During the same period, it's lending business reported $43mm in revenue with a loan book of $338mm and disbursals of $362mm.
2. BharatPe announced generating revenue of INR 1,500cr ($183mm) and that it has turned EBITDA profitable in the month of Oct, 2023. It facilitated INR 640cr ($78mm) of loans to its merchants.
3. Private general insurance companies accounted for 53.6% market share.
4. LIC is expected to launch a fintech arm under it's new project, Project DIVE (Digital Innovation and Value Enhancement).
5. According to RBI personal loans growth decelerated to 18.0% (YoY) in October 2023 (20.5% a year ago), due to moderation in credit growth to housing.
6. XoxoDay, an employee rewards management startup, reported INR 816cr ($100mm) in revenue (+20% YoY).
7. Clear, a small business accounting startup, reported INR 109cr ($13.3mm) in revenue (+85% YoY).

🚀 Product Launches

1. PineLabs launched Credit+, a credit issuing infrastructure platform.
2. BharatPe launched BharatPe Money, a new vertical for small business lending.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. PhiCommerce, a payments startup, raised $10mm.
2. UC Inclusive Credit, a small business lending company, raised $8mm.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. HSBC launched HSBC Innovation Banking in Hong Kong offering startup banking products.
2. YouTrip, a Singaporean travel payments startup, is reportedly on track to process $ 10bn in payments in 2023 (+3x YoY).
3. Seedly, a MoneyHero group company in Singapore, launched a travel insurance product.
4. According to a report, between 2018 to 2022, Islamic Banking assets grew from $1.8tn to $2.8tn and is expected to grow to $4tn by 2026.
5. OJK, Indonesia's financial regulator, released a roadmap to improve Islamic Banking in the country.
6. Standard Chartered Bank partnered with Visa to launch BNPL products in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
7. MAS, Singapore's central bank, released a notification for Digital Payment Token service providers to cease accepting locally issued credit card payments to purchase cryptocurrencies.
8. GXBank, Grab's Malaysian digital bank, launched its digital banking account for the general public.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Wind.app, a Singaporean Web3 cross border payments startup, raised $3.8mm.
2. Drutoloan, a Bangladeshi small business credit startup, raised $125K.
3. Funding Societies raised $7.5mm in debt.

🌏 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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