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).
Note: this edition covers news till Thur, 10th Aug, 2023.
✨ Global Fintech Fest 2023
Thank you to all those who participated in our Giveaway last week. Congratulations to Abby, Ankit, Sonakshi, Melanie and Vedika!
See you all at the Global Fintech Fest on 5th to 7th Sept, 2023.
🐦🏆 Tweets of the Week
Fascinating & telling research flagged by @andymukherjee70. The changing cost of Indian plates, quantified. Cost of vegetarian thalis - accounting for pulses and vegetable rates - up 28%. That’s the real 🥘 inflation. McDonald’s, Subway, Domino’s have made strategy or 🍅 tweaks pic.twitter.com/eRXBlduYic— Aditya Kalra (@adityakalra) August 16, 2023
How many people have seen this headline?
JUST IN: 🇮🇳 India completes first crude oil payment to UAE in rupees, officially ditching the US dollar for bilateral trade.
While this is interesting, it's only interesting if the UAE doesn't convert their newly acquired rupees into…— fintechjunkie (@fintechjunkie) August 14, 2023
Only 20% of Indian adults understand concepts such as risk diversification, inflation, numeracy, and compound interest, according to a widely cited 2014 survey. Richer countries have better scores.
With digitalization, the growth of mobile internet and online platforms, have we… pic.twitter.com/dU8NbgILbx— Ashish Singhal (@ashish343) August 17, 2023
(Note: Neither TWIF nor I endorse any views in the tweets highlighted above.)
🇮🇳 India
📰 Market Updates
A report by EYstated that PE and VC investments in July, 2023 declined 5% YoY to $3.9bn across 59 deals.
RBIrejectedCRED's application to increase its shareholding in Newtap Fin, an NBFC co-owned by Kunal Shah.
PhonePereportedly processed a record 5bn transactions in a month in July, 2023 while recording an annualised payments volume of $1.15tn.
MastercardlaunchedStrive, its global philanthropic work, to enable 500K small businesses to become digital ready by 2025.
1 in 10 women in India reportedly own crypto, according to a research by Forex Suggest.
Paygate, a payment gateway operated by Safexpay, reportedly continues to operate its payment services despite RBI's rejection of Paygate's license application and order to cease operations within 180 days.
🚀 Product Launches
IppoPay, a payments startup, partnered withLight Microfinance to launch digital lending to MSME's.
LegalPay, a litigation financing startup, launched an online dispute resolution product.
Zolve, a cross border payments startup, launched mobile plans for immigrants.
RBI, India's central bank, launchedUDGAM, a platform for retail users to search for unclaimed deposits.
📝 Regulatory Updates
RBI (central bank): Introduced a pilot project for digital lending, initially intended for banks to grant loans digitally.
SEBI (securities): Approved Zerodha's final application to launch an Asset Management Company.
💰 Financing Announcements
Vegapay, a credit SaaS platform, raised $1.1mm.
ACQUISITION:
Finix Partners, a VC firm, acquiredSlash, a payments startup.
1-min Anonymous Feedback: Your feedback helps me improve this newsletter. Click UPVOTE 👍🏽 or DOWNVOTE 👎🏽
🌏 Asia
📰 Market Updates
Singapore's central bank notified that it finalised regulations for stablecoins.
OJK, Indonesia's central bank, released data stating that default portfolio of the country's fintech lenders grew to $338mm.
DBScompleted the acquisition of Citi's Taiwan retail arm.
Bangladesh's central bank selected Fime, a local payments company, to develop the country's payments card network.
The central banks of Indonesia and Singapore are expected to introduce its cross border QR payments integration.
Indonesia's central bank introduced fund transfers and ATM withdrawal features in the QRIS QR payments system.
Robocash Group, a research firm, reported that total volume of payments in SEA with grow at a CAGR of 86% (2023-2027) to $54tn.
Atome, a BNPL startup, renewed its $100mm debt facility with HSBC for its Philippines expansion.
TrueMoney, an e-wallet payments startup, partnered with Thailand's CP group and Malaysia's Lotus Group, to launch staff benefits platforms.
💰 Financing Announcements
🌏 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 [email protected]. I’d genuinely appreciate any and all feedback. If you liked what you read, please consider sharing or subscribing.
1-min Anonymous Feedback: Your feedback helps me improve this newsletter. Click UPVOTE 👍🏽 or DOWNVOTE 👎🏽
