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🧐🏆 Posts of the Week
Nope. Future of payments is postpaid. Not prepaid.— Kunal Shah (@kunalb11) April 19, 2025
If people from a particular pincode default more on loans, or those wearing purple shirts tend to take use health insurance more, can these statistical anomalies mean that people from pincode don't get loans, or those wearing purple shirts in photos get charge more insurance…— Nikhil Pahwa (@nixxin) April 23, 2025
A fellow seed VC at a dinner today: an associate of ours brought up this AI co that is raising at $1B for their seed round!
I had to correct him: sir, firstly it’s $2B and that’s the raise amount, not the valuation!— Nakul Mandan // Audacious Ventures (@nakul) April 23, 2025
Indian women who bought nothing but gold will outperform all the technical analysis experts https://t.co/3ha2YG63uC— Niks (@niks_1985) April 14, 2025
(Note: Neither TWIF nor I endorse any views in the tweets highlighted above.)
🇮🇳 India
📰 Market Updates
Juspaypartnered withAgoda, a global digital travel platform, to provide full-stack payment orchestration and reconciliation services across multiple countries.
ICICI Bankreported consolidated net profit of INR 13,502cr ($1.56bn), up 15.7% YoY in Q4 FY25, with standalone profit up 18% to INR 12,630cr ($1.46bn) and GNPA ratio improving to 1.67%.
Yes Bankreported INR 738cr ($86.4M) standalone net profit in Q4 FY25, growing 63% YoY, with net Interest income (NII) rising 5.7% YoY to INR 2,276cr ($263M), beating estimates.
Mahindra Financereported INR 563cr ($66M) standalone net profit in Q4 FY25, declining 9% YoY, as credit costs surged 34% YoY to INR 457cr (USD 54M) and net interest margin narrowed to 6.5% from 7.1% YoY.
HDFC Bank's market valuation crossed INR 15 lakh crore ($174bn) becoming the third Indian company after Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to achieve the milestone.
National Stock Exchange (NSE) added 8.4M new active demat accounts in FY25, growing 21% YoY to over 49M total, with Groww contributing 40% of growth.
Amazoninvested INR 350cr ($41M) into its fintech subsidiary Amazon Pay India, which dropped to 8th place in UPI transaction volume with 0.6% market share in March 2025.
ICICI Securitiespartnered withTata Consultancy Services (TCS) to revamp its retail trading platform using TCS BaNCS, aiming to improve performance, reduce latency, and streamline brokerage functions.
Andromeda, a loan distributor company in India, reported INR 1.08 lakh crore ($13bn) in loan disbursals in FY25, growing 25% YoY, and set a target of INR 1.20 lakh crore ($14bn) for FY26.
Shriram Financereported standalone net profit growth of 10% YoY to INR 2,139cr ($250M) in Q4 FY25, and announced plans to enter payment services pending RBI approval.
Credit card spending in India grew over 15% YoY to INR 21.16 lakh crore ($244.5bn) in FY25, up from INR 18.32 lakh crore ($211.7bn) in FY24, driven by robust consumer demand and digital adoption.
ICRA, a ratings agency, reported non-banking financial companies' (NBFCs) credit growth is projected to moderate to 13-15% in fiscal years FY26 and FY27 from 17% in the previous two fiscals, with retail assets expected to grow at a slower 16-18% CAGR during this period.
🚀 Product Launches
Fibe, a consumer lending startup, partnered withMirae Asset Financial Services (MAFS) to offer personal loans up to INR 5 lakh ($6K) to salaried individuals.
PhonePelaunchedPhonePe 3.0, a redesigned version of its app to provide comprehensive financial services including payments, investments, insurance, and financial management tools.
Stable Money, a fixed income products startup, launchedSmartFD, a feature allowing users to split fixed deposits and withdraw partially without losing full interest or paying penalties.
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launchedE-KYC Setu for faster Aadhaar-based KYC across banking, securities, insurance, and pension sectors regulated by RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, and PFRDA.
Poonawalla Fincorplaunched a new consumer durables loans business and digital EMI card.
📝 Regulatory Updates
RBI (central bank): Issued revised guidelines for banks on opening and operating savings and term deposit accounts by minors, allowing those above 10 years to independently operate accounts within bank-set limits. Mandated 2.5% additional run-off rates on digital deposits for banks, improving aggregate Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) by 6% as of Apr, 2026.
💰 Financing Announcements
ACQUISITIONS:
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🌏 Asia
- 📰 Market Updates:
FOMO Paypartnered withCircle to become a design partner for Circle's new global payments network enabling real-time cross-border stablecoin transactions.
Saison Capital, BRI Ventures & CoinvestasilaunchedTokenize Indonesia, a Real-World Asset (RWA) startup accelerator in Indonesia.
Finmoexpanded its money movement services to include Malaysian Ringgit and Vietnamese Dong collections, enabling real-time cross-border payments across Southeast Asia.
Thailand's Deputy Finance Minister invitedSouth Korean investors to invest in Thailand's sustainable finance initiatives to establish Thailand as a leading financial center in Asia.
Stripeenabled new payment methods and features for Japanese businesses, including PayPay integration, card installments, 3D Secure support, and network token support.
Alipay, China's leading digital payments platform, reported its QR code-based contactless payment solution Alipay Tap! surpassed 100M users within 11 months of launch.
Thuneslaunched 'Thunes Business Payments', a new service to streamline international business transactions for enterprises, merchants, banks, and mobile wallet providers.
SWIFTlaunched Case Management Service to reduce costs and delays in investigating cross-border payment issues.
Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) are considering mandatory certifications for vendors handling sensitive financial data.
Penguin Securities, a Singapore-based financial institution, secured Capital Markets Services (CMS) licence from Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to offer investment solutions to accredited and institutional investors.
Identity fraud in Asia-Pacific (APAC) financial services grew 121% YoY in 2024, with Singapore seeing a 207% surge, according to Sumsub's APAC Identity Fraud Report 2024.
Aspirepartnered withEpisode Six to launch a multi-currency corporate card for SMBs in Singapore and Hong Kong, offering spend controls and reduced FX costs.
Krung Thai Bank (KTB), Thailand's state-owned bank, reported THB 11.7B (USD 349M) net profit in Q1 2025, flat YoY but 7% higher QoQ, beating estimates.
MoneyHero, a Hong Kong-based personal finance comparison startup, partnered withBolttech, an insurance technology company, to launch a car insurance product line in Hong Kong, enabling users to purchase insurance through MoneyHero's app.
Akulaku, an Indonesia-based Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) platform, reported a 50% drop in net profit to IDR 692B ($41M) in FY2024 due to BNPL market slowdown, but expects recovery by 2025.
Mynt, operator of Philippine e-wallet GCash, may defer its anticipated $1.0-1.5bn IPO if the US-China trade war continues to roil markets in 2025.
Juspay, an Indian payment infrastructure solutions provider, opened a new office in Singapore to support 500+ global clients.
💰 Financing Announcements
Surfin Meta, a Singapore-based payments and banking startup for the underbanked, raised $26.5M.
WeMoney, an Australian financial product comparison startup, raised $12M.
LenderLink, a Philippine credit bureau startup, raised $1.25M.
LendMN, a Mongolian SME digital lending FinTech, raised $20M in debt funding.
ACQUISITIONS:
Demyst, an Australian data workflow orchestration startup, was acquired by Feedzai, a Portuguese fraud prevention software company, for $157M.
Syfe, a Singapore-based digital investment platform, acquiredSelfwealth, an Australian investing platform, for $15M.
PeopleFund, a South Korean peer-to-peer lending platform, acquiredInvestree's credit scoring system, expanding its footprint in Indonesia's fintech market.
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