This Week in Fintech - Asia | 16th Apr, 2022
Fintech news, updates and fund raise announcements from Asia for the week ending 16th Apr, 2022.
Hi fintech friends,
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).
Editor’s Note: If you’re an early-stage startup founder raising equity, I may be able to help - reach out to osborne@thisweekinfintech.com.
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🦉🏆 Tweets of the Week
🇮🇳 India
📰 Market Updates
Coinbase temporarily disabled UPI as a payment option to buy cryptocurrencies in India after NPCI, India's retail payments quasi-regulatory body, released a statement that it is not aware of the integration.
Mobikwik's payment gateway license is yet to be approved by RBI. Mobikwik reportedly is yet to meet with the minimum capital requirements.
NPCI, India's quasi-regulatory retail payments body, mandated all UPI ecosystem participants to enable reversal processing for Online Dispute Resolution.
Crypto trading volumes in India collapsed ten days after new tax regime came into effect - WazirX - 72%, ZebPay - 59%, CoinDCX -52%, and BitBns -41%.
RupiFi claimed to have crossed 1mm B2B BNPL transactions.
BankBazaar claimed to be growing 100% CAGR YoY with an annualised revenue run rate of INR 156 Cr ($ 20.5mm) in FY22 (ending March, 2022) while achieving profitability in the month of March, 2022.
OfBusiness plans to raise $2bn via an IPO later in 2022.
NPCI, a retail payments quasi-regulatory body, approved WhatsApp to have up to 100mm users for its payments business.
PhonePe claimed to process 100mm payment transactions a day recently.
RBI approved the first fintech-led NBFC-Factor license of 121 Finance, an invoice factoring service.
🚀 Product Launches
KredX partnered with ICICI Bank to launch Cash Back Commercial Card for B2B payments.
Razorpay partnered with Trustly to launch B2B payments to Europe.
LendDen Club, a P2P lender, launched LendDen Club Alpha, a fintech venture fund.
📝 Regulatory Updates
RBI (central bank): Released guidelines for establishment of digital banking units. Released a framework for the compliance function and the role of a Chief Compliance Officer for NBFC's in the Upper and Middle Layers.
SEBI (securities): Introduced a risk management framework for the electronic gold receipt (EGR) segment on recognized stock exchanges.
💰 Financing Announcements
MyShubhLife, a gig worker financial product aggregator, raised $13mm.
EximPe, a SMB cross border payments startup, raised $3.5mm.
Hubble, a goal based savings startup, raised $3.4mm.
iTribe, a social investing startup, raised $1mm.
Leaf Round, an alternate investment startup, raised $300K.
BeyondIRR, an agent SaaS platform wealth product distribution, raised an undisclosed amount.
ACQUISITIONS:
Pine Labs acquired Mosambee, an offline digital payments acceptance startup for $100mm.
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🌏 Asia
📰 Market Updates
Coda Payments, a Singaporean entertainment payments company, is raising funds at a valuation of $2.5bn.
Tranglo, a Malaysian cross border payments company, launched its All-In-One Business Payment Solution.
Vietnam's central bank expects to regulate fintech banking and has been developing a sandbox for fintech banking to draft a regulation.
A report by ASEAN Global Connections and the University of Cambridge specifically cited Ripple and Nium as most notable in cross-border payments.
Ajaib, an Indonesian stock investment startup, increased its ownership in Bank Bumi Arta, an Indonesian local bank, from 24% to 40%.
FOMO Pay, a Singaporean payments company, launched crypto payment acceptance for Singaporean businesses.
KoinWorks, an Indonesian SMB lending startup, launched Neo Card, a credit card, in partnership with Mastercard and BNI.
Pakistan received an all-time high inward remittance of $2.8bn in March, 2022.
DBS Bank partnered with the Ministry of Education in Singapore to roll out payment terminals at all schools across Singapore.
WeChat is reportedly testing in-app digital Yuan (China's CBDC) payments.
Xendit, a Indonesian payments unicorn startup, plans to acquire a local bank.
💰 Financing Announcements
Voyager Innovations, the Philippine owner of PayMaya and Maya Bank, raised $210mm at a valuation of $1.4bn (the country's second unicorn).
Julo, an Indonesian retail credit startup, raised $30mm.
Honest Bank, an Indonesian retail credit startup, raised $17mm.
ZA Tech, a Singaporean tech company, invested in Aladin Bank, an Indonesia's first Sharia compliant digital bank.
Diamond Protocol, a Singaporean crypto investment's vault platform, raised $500K.
🌏 International
Please find our global coverage and consider subscribing.
US and Global, written by Nik Milanovic published on Friday’s and Saturday’s.
Europe and UK, written by Michael Jenkins published on Monday’s.
Latin America, written by Christine Chang.
Africa, written by Benjamin Dada.
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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