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).

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🐦🏆 Tweets of the Week

📈 Chart of the week

In the late 1970s, France started to require an architect for every new home with over 170 sq m of floor space. Here is the distribution of new home sizes after the change. (Source)

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

  1. RBI is reportedly working on introducing security features to make non-bank payments safer.

  2. Paytm's loan disbursal grew 169% YoY for the period Apr and May, 2023 to INR 9,618cr ($1.2bn) and its payment GMV grew 35% YoY to $32bn during the same period.

  3. A report by Google, Temasek, and Bain claimed that India's internet economy will grow to $1tn by 2030, up from $175Bn in 2022, accounting for 12-13% of India's GDP, up from 4-5% in 2022.

  4. Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Servicesgrew loan disbursements in May, 2023 by 40% YoY and 10% MoM to INR 4,150cr ($ 503mm).

  5. NBFC industry lending grew 2% YoY in Q4 FY23 (ended 31st Mar, 2023) to INR 4,46,132cr ($ 54bn) but full year lending grew 24% YoY to INR 16,93,286cr ($ 205bn).

  6. PayMate, a B2B payment automation startup, expanded to Oman, South Africa, Malaysia and Africa.

🚀 Product Launches

  1. PhonePelaunched account aggregator product for its users to access their financial data.

  2. Bajaj Finservlaunched its mutual fund business.

  3. ZagglelaunchedXPNS, a B2B DIY expense automation platform.

📝 Regulatory Updates

  1. IRDAI (insurance): Asked SBI Life Insurance to acquire Sahara Life Insurance with 200K policyholders.

  2. RBI (central bank): RBI's monetary policy committee (MPC) announced permitting banks to issue RuPay based prepaid forex cards. Released guidelines for Default Loss Guarantee.

💰 Financing Announcements

  1. Lentra, a lending management system startup, raised $27mm.

  2. RevSure.AI, an AI pipeline acceleration startup, raised $10mm.

  3. PolicyBoss, an insurance product aggregation startup, raised an undisclosed amount (Series B)

  4. RevFin, an EV financing startup, raised $5mm.

ACQUISITION:

  1. CredFlow, a small business accounting SaaS startup, acquiredTechBiz, an accounts receivables startup.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

  1. Paywatch, a Singaporean earned wage access startup, expanded to Indonesia via partnership with Bank KB Bukopin.

  2. Razer Fintechsecured Visa’s Direct Acquiring license in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, as part of a regional partnership.

  3. Aspire, a Southeast Asian digital banking startup for small biz, announced turning profitable, tripling its annual revenue and reaching $15bn in annualized total payment volume.

  4. Circle Singapore, a P2P payments company that manages stablecoin USDC, secured a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the MAS.

  5. Smart Citi Teknologi, Philippine fintech startup, partnered withXtreme Business Enterprises (XBE), a Hong Kong-based stablecoin startup, to launch stablecoin project targeting users in rural areas.

💰 Financing Announcements

  1. Thunes, a Singaporean cross border payments startup, raised $60mm.

  2. PolicyStreet, a Malaysian insurtech startup, raised $15.3mm.

  3. Finomenna, a Thai digital wealth management startup, raised $5.5mm.

  4. Klide, a Singaporean private debt marketplace startup, raised $1.1mm.

🌏 International

Please find our global coverage and consider subscribing.

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 [email protected]. I’d genuinely appreciate any and all feedback. If you liked what you read, please consider sharing or subscribing.

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