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).

Don’t forget to share with fellow fintech friends!

✨ Bangalore Fintech Happy Hour presented by Falcon on 27th April, 2023

Excited to bring back the Fintech Happy Hour! Cannot wait to meet founders, product builders, investors and the broader fintech industry under one roof! Last year we had 180+ people attending the Happy Hour in Bangalore and I hope to see you all again. Please share this with your friends and colleagues in fintech.

When: Thursday, 27th April, 2023, 6PM onward.
Where: Koramangala, Bangalore.
Who: founders, product managers, venture investors, senior executives and others in fintech.

Thanks to our sponsors Falcon and Sandbox by Quicko! More updates coming soon.

🐦🏆 Tweets of the Week

📈 Chart of the Week

Source: CB Insights Q1 2023

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. HDFC Bank reported net profit of INR 12,047crs ($1.5bn) (+20% YoY) for the quarter ended March, 2023.
2. Razorpay set up an advisory council with former members of regulatory bodies.
3. BankBazaar, a lending product marketplace, reportedly generated INR 96crs ($ 11.7mm) in total income in FY22 (ended Mar 2022).
4. According to a report, the top 28 fintech startups spent $672mm in marketing and advertising in FY22.
5. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is expected to issue a notice to payment gateways and fintech startups to block access to "non-permissible online games".
6. AngelOne, a retail stock broking company, reported Q4 (ended Mar 2023) revenues of INR 825.7cr ($100.7mm) (+21.3 YoY) and net profit of INR 267crs ($32.6mm) (+30.4% YoY).
7. ICICI Lombard, a non-life insurance company, grew its net earned premium by 12.3% YoY to INR 3,726crs ($453mm) for the quarter ended Mar, 2023.
8. Arya.ag, an agritech startup, claimed to have grown its loan disbursals to farmers by 2x YoY to INR 1,051.76crs ($128mm).
9. GoDigit, a non-life insurance company, has sought clarity from IRDAI (insurance regulator) on lock-in norms for its proposed IPO.
10. Emky Global received SEBI in-principle approval to launch its mutual fund business.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Bajaj Markets, a subsidiary of Bajaj Finserv, launched Pocket Insurance, an insurance protecting against UPI frauds.
2. CRED launched P2P UPI payments.
3. Plum, a group health insurance startup, launched PolicyGPT, a ChatGPT based product to answer queries on insurance policies.
4. XFlow launched Platforms, its cross border payments infrastructure product.

📝 Regulatory Updates

(There were no updates this week. Did I miss any? Email me.)

💰 Financing Announcements

(There were no fund raises this week. Did I miss any? Email me.)

ACQUISITIONS:

1. InsuranceDekho, an insurance product marketplace, acquired IRSS, an agent-driven insurance product distribution company.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Volopay received in-principle approval for a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license in Singapore.
2. DigiAsia, a fintech infrastructure startup, is planning to list its stock in the US via SPAC at a $500mm valuation.
3. UOB partnered with Lazada to launch loans and co-branded credit cards for sellers.
4. Adyen launched its payments platform in Malaysia.
5. Luno, a global crypto startup, announced shutting its services in Singapore and will continue its operations in Malaysia.
6. Funding Societies, a small business lending startup in SEA, announced that it crossed $3bn in cumulative lending in 5+mm transactions.
7. BNP Paribas Wealth Management launched its onshore business in Thailand.
8. GCash, a Philippine mobile wallet company, partnered with EasyEquities to launch US stock investing for its users.
9. Prudential, a Singapore life insurer, launched a financial advisory firm.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Bloomo Investment, a Japanese stock trading startup, raised $7mm.

🌏 International

Please find our global coverage and consider subscribing.

• US and Global, written by Nik Milanovic.
• Europe and UK, written by Michael Jenkins.
• Latin America, written by Christine Chang.
• Africa, written by Emeka Ajene.
• China written by Ning Ye.
• Policy written by Mohammad Hamdy.

And of course, our podcast series - Beyond Two Percent and Hey Fintech Friends.

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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