PhonePe raised $200mm and SEA group launched its digital bank | 18th March 2023

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

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. PhonePe crossed $1tn in annualised total payment value.
2. Paytm released its operating metrics for the month of Feb, 2023: $503mm in loan disbursements (+254% YoY), 4+mm loans (+86% YoY), 89mm Average Monthly Transacting Users (+28% YoY), $28.1bn in total Merchant Payment Volumes in Jan and Feb, 2023 (+41% YoY).
3. Direct tax collections grew to INR 13.7 lac cr (net of refunds) ($ 167Bn) up to 10th March, 2023 (+16.9% YoY).
4. A senior official of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) stated that India does more real time digital payment transactions than China, Europe and USA combined.
5. The Central Banks of India and UAE signed an MoU to cooperate on launching pilots for CBDCs.

📝 Regulatory Updates

• RBI (central bank): Approved PhonePe's payment aggregator license.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. PhonePe, Walmart-owned Indian payments company, raised $200mm at a pre money valuation of $12bn.
2. Yellow Metal, a loan against gold startup, raised $3mm.
3. Finsire, a loan against financial securities startup, raised $1.3mm.
4. I-CampusBuddy, an educational institute ERP, raised $500K from IppoPay.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Acko, a general insurance company, acquired ParentLane, a digital health platform for recent parents.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. SWIFT Network announced that 18 central and commercial banks globally completed sandbox testing of API based CBDC connector, with the conclusion that the project has "clear potential and value".
2. OJK, Indonesia's financial regulator, stated that Indonesia accounts for around 40% or $77bn of the total digital economic transaction value in Southeast Asia.
3. Ajaib, a stock broking startup in Indonesia, removed fees for bitcoin trading from its crypto arm.
4. Hijra Bank, an Indonesian Shariah-compliant digital bank, claimed its app’s user base grew 2x since launch in December 2022 and transaction volume has 3x.
5. MAS, Singapore's central bank, stated that Singapore's banking system has “insignificant exposures” to failed US banks.
6. FWD Group Holdings, an Asian insurance group, is filing for an IPO for the third time.
7. SEA Group launched its digibank Mari Bank on an invite-only basis.
8. Coinbase partnered with Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore to launch bank transfers to and from the crypto account for Singaporean users.
9. Lendable, a UK-based credit fund, raised a $110mm credit fund to lend to small business lending startups in SEA.

💰 Financing Announcements

• Broom, a used care financing startup, raised $10mm.

🌏 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 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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