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.)

📈 Chart of the Week

Source

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. India's loan securitisation market grew 24% YoY by value to hit a new record of INR 2.35 Lac Cr ($27.26bn) in FY25, according to market reports.
2. Shriram Finance, a non-banking finance company (NBFC), applied for a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) license to underwrite government debt securities.
3. BharatPe's payments arm received RBI approval to operate as a payments aggregators.
4. The Indian government received INR 74,000cr (USD 8.7B) in dividends from Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in fiscal year 2024-25, growing 52% YoY.
5. Moody's Analytics, an economic research firm, lowered India's 2025 GDP growth forecast to 6.1% from previous 6.4%% projection, citing high inflation, rising interest rates will heavily impede the trade balance.
6. Wise, UK-based cross-border payments platform, opened new technology hub in Hyderabad.
7. Revolut, a UK-based cross border payments startup, received approval from the RBI to launch Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) and wallets in India.
8. RBI said it's PRAVAAH platform for license applications has seen steady progress and has so far facilitated submission of more than 3,000 applications/requests.
9. Enkash, a business credit and payments startup, received RBI license to operate a prepaid payments instrument (PPI).

🚀 Product Launches

1. Jio Financial Services, the non-banking financial company (NBFC) arm of Reliance Industries, launched 'Jio Loan Against Securities' to provide loans of up to INR 1 crores ($120K) against securities in 10 minutes.
2. XFlow, a cross border payments startup, partnered with Zoho Books and SaveDesk, to allow their merchants to accept payments internationally.
3. Recur, a debt marketplace startup, launched Recur Card, a credit card for startups.
4. Decentro, a fintech infrastructure startup, partnered with DigiAlly, a Singaporean firm, to launch a business credit underwriting product, targeting expansion across South Asia.
5. Razorpay partnered with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to launch Turbo UPI Plugin, enabling instant UPI collections with zero integration effort.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. RBI (central bank): In its MPC Meeting announced:
   1. Increased Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transaction limit up to INR 2 lakhs (USD 2.4K) from the current INR 1 lakh
   2. Introduced use of 'Digi-Locker' for loan documents
   3. Made recommendations for simplifying Interest rates on lending for banks and fintech startups.
   4. New norms for gold loan lenders, capping the loan value at 75% of the gold pledged.
   5. Reduced repo rate by 25 basis points.
2. SEBI (securities): Introduced new 1600 phone number series to combat fraud and enhance investor protection in the securities market.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Credit Saison India, a Japanese financial services company operating in India, raised USD 300M.
2. Juspay, a payments technology company, $60M.
3. EaseBuzz, a payments startup, raised $23M.
4. Keeper, a small business book keeping startup, raised $588K.
5. Jai Kisan, an agritech and financing startup, raised an undisclosed amount.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. 77% of APAC consumers switch remittance providers to get better rates and ease of use, according to a report by Visa.
2. DBS Bank and Bank of China, two banks in Singapore and China respectively, were impacted when their vendor was reportedly hit by ransomware attacks by the Lockbit 3.0 gang, according to cybersecurity reports.
3. Tenity, a European fintech innovation ecosystem, partnered with GFTN (Global Finance and Technology Network) in Singapore to explore strategic collaboration across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
4. DBS Bank in Singapore launched a new merchant banking product targeting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore that includes waived fees for card payments and access to cashflow tools.
5. Aspire is scaling back in Indonesia to focus on global growth, especially in the US.
6. JuanHand, a Philippine lending startup, partnered with NetBank to launch business loans targeted at small and medium enterprises.
7. Airwallex is planning to apply for a US and UK banking license to expand into lending.
8. FOMO Pay launched VND virtual accounts for cross-border payments in Vietnam.
9. SmartStream has formed a strategic partnership with Finastra to expand collateral management capabilities for financial institutions.
10. Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao, founder and CEO of Binance, was appointed as Strategic Advisor to the newly-established Pakistan Crypto Advisory Council by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).
11. AXA, a French insurance company, partnered with Ant Bank, owned by Ant Group, and AlipayHK, Ant Group's mobile payment platform in Hong Kong, to launch insurance products using Ant Bank's virtual banking capabilities and AlipayHK's distribution channels.
12. BizCap, an Australian business lender, launched operations in Singapore.
13. BNM, the central bank of Malaysia, and NBC, the central bank of Cambodia, announced that Cambodia joined the Regional Payment Connectivity Initiative to facilitate seamless cross-border payments between Malaysia and Cambodia.
14. METACO, a Swiss digital asset custody technology provider, expanded in Asia, with teams in Singapore and Hong Kong.
15. WeLab, a Hong Kong-based digital banking startup, partnered with the Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries (HKIC) to enhance adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in corporate governance and compliance functions.
16. Instapay, a Malaysian payments startup, partnered with Mastercard to launch cross-border payments for Malaysia's migrant workers.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Haball, a Pakistani supply chain finance and payments startup, raised $52M.
2. Salmon, a Philippines-based banking startup, raised $20M in debt.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Fiserv, a global payments and fintech solutions provider, acquired Pinch Payments, an Australian payment solutions company, for an undisclosed amount.

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