Hi fintech friends, I'm Osborne, investor in early stage startups.

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✨ Thank you for showing up, Mumbai

We hosted our 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗛𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗿 in Mumbai and it turned out to be one of the most vibrant gatherings of the ecosystem we at This Week in Fintech hosted yet.

Over 300 founders, investors, unicorn builders, banking executives, and global fintech leaders came together for an evening of meaningful conversations, collaboration, and community. 🚀

It was incredible to see the energy in the room, from early-stage founders exchanging ideas to seasoned leaders sharing insights on where fintech is headed next.

A huge thank you to our amazing partners who made this possible:

🤝 Assurekit, Bureau, Mixpanel, and Xflow
☁️ In partnership with Google Cloud and Mars Shot Ventures

Here’s to building a stronger fintech ecosystem, one conversation at a time. 💫

🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Tata Capital launched Initial Public Offering (IPO) of INR 15,512 crore ($1.7bn), which received 2x oversubscription.
2. Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) sold equities worth INR 23,885 crore ($2.7bn) in September, marking third consecutive month of withdrawals.
3. Bajaj Finserv rebranded insurance businesses to 100% Indian-owned entities after acquiring Allianz SE's 26% stake.
4. Cashfree, a digital payments company, posted INR 640 cr ($72M) revenue in FY25, with net losses rising 14% to INR 154 cr ($17M).
5. Amazon Pay India reported INR 2,097cr ($236M) operating revenue in FY2025, declining 8.3% YoY, with losses contracted by 5% to INR 866cr ($97M).
6. India's government initiated discussions with insurers to develop a nationwide parametric climate insurance programme, targeting rapid payouts for extreme weather events.
7. The organised gold loan market grew to INR 11.8 lakh crore ($133bn), with banks capturing 82% market share and projected to reach INR 15 lakh crore ($169bn) by March 2026.
8. State Bank of India (SBI) granted INR 74K cr ($8.4bn) in digital loans to 225K MSMEs through its SME Digital Business Loans platform in FY25.

🚀 Product Launches (GFF Special)

1. Finsire, a digital infrastructure platform, partnered with City Union Bank to launch loan against mutual funds product with low interest rates and direct NPCI UPI integration.
2. Mysa introduced AI-powered Smart Scan technology enabling intelligent bill processing across 20+ Indian languages with 99.9% accuracy.
3. INDmoney partnered with HDFC Bank to launch embedded digital banking services, enabling seamless account opening and investment transfers within the INDmoney mobile application.
4. Easebuzz partnered with NPCI Bharat BillPay to launch Banking Connect IBMB, an interoperable platform enabling instant fund transfers and cross-bank transactions across India.
5. HSBC launched Innovation Banking in India and allocated $1 billion for non-dilutive startup debt financing across various growth stages, targeting Indian technology ecosystem.
6. Nandan Nilekani announced Finternet digital infrastructure initiative targeting 20 global ecosystems across four continents by 2026, leveraging tokenisation, AI, and regulated finance.
7. EbixCash partnered with Banking Circle to accelerate international money transfers, enabling faster and more transparent cross-border transactions across UK, EU, US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and GCC markets.
8. Revolut launched its payments platform in India after investing INR 470 cr ($54M) for localisation, targeting 20M customers by 2030 through UPI and Visa partnerships.
9. Pine Labs launched Banking Connect, offering standardised and simplified online banking integration for businesses and customers.
10. Razorpay launched Agentic Payments, an AI-native commerce solution integrating with UPI for frictionless, conversational transactions.
11. Pine Labs launched Online D2C Growth Suite, featuring instant launch, intelligent checkout, and growth tracking capabilities for Indian online businesses.
12. Pine Labs launched Offers Engine, a comprehensive dashboard for managing and tracking marketing offers across multiple channels.
13. Razorpay launched innovative Banking Stack solution to transform digital banking infrastructure and product development capabilities.
14. Wise launched its travel card product targeting Indian travelers spending abroad.
15. Razorpay introduced an AI-powered conversational dashboard enabling merchants to interact with business data using natural language, reducing task completion time by 40%.
16. PhonePe partnered with Mastercard to launch device tokenisation solution, enabling secure one-click online payments across merchants using biometric authentication.
17. Razorpay partnered with YES Bank to launch India's first RBI-compliant biometric Access Control Server (ACS) for card payments, replacing OTPs with fingerprint and face ID verification.
18. PhonePe launched SmartPOD, a digital payment device combining Point-of-Sale (POS) and SmartSpeaker functionalities, enabling card and QR payments for small merchants.
19. Paytm launched AI Soundbox, a multilingual business device supporting 11 local languages and providing real-time payment insights for merchants.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced offline Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) enabling digital payments without internet connectivity.
2. RBI launched four digital payment initiatives including AI-powered UPI HELP, IoT Payments, Banking Connect, and UPI Reserve Pay to enhance customer convenience and transaction capabilities.
3. RBI proposed draft directions for standardised capital charge calculation and Expected Credit Loss (ECL) based provisioning framework for scheduled commercial banks.
4. RBI launched pilot enabling individual customers to purchase US dollars against Indian Rupee through digital channels of Axis Bank, Federal Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, and Yes Bank.
5. RBI mandated new risk-based authentication guidelines for digital payments, introducing dynamic verification methods beyond traditional OTPs.
6. Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) proposed a quantum-safe cryptography strategy targeting implementation by 2028-2029 to prevent potential password breaches from quantum computing technology.
7. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) introduced biometric authentication for UPI payments using Aadhar-linked facial recognition and fingerprints.
8. RBI initiated a pilot project for certificate of deposit tokenisation using wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
9. International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) initiated real-time forex transaction settlement in GIFT City, targeting domestic banks and reducing settlement timelines from 24 hours to 30 seconds.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Dhan, an Indian stockbroking platform, raised INR 1,065cr ($120M).
2. Truhome Finance, an affordable housing finance company, raised additional INR 500 crore ($56M).
3. GreyLabs AI, a voice AI startup for financial institutions, raised INR 85 cr ($9.6M).
4. Satin Finserv, a Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) lending company, raised INR 60 crore ($6.7M).

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Funding Societies, a Singaporean small business digital lender, reduced net losses to $39M and grew revenue 11% YoY to $54M in 2024.
2. Ant International expanded Alipay+ platform, connecting 1.8bn users across 100 markets and increasing cross-border mobile transactions by 30% using AI-powered travel services.
3. Capital A in Malayasia, partnered with Ant International to leverage Falcon Time-Series Transformer Model, reducing AirAsia's foreign exchange hedging costs by 40% and improving cash flow forecasting accuracy.
4. Bank of Singapore launched Source of Wealth Assistant (SOWA), an agentic AI tool that reduced Source of Wealth report generation time from 10 days to one hour while improving accuracy and regulatory compliance.
5. DCS in Singapore expanded securitisation facility to $456 million, secured AAA rating from Fitch, attracting investments from Manulife, DBS, Santander, Apollo, and PIMCO.
6. HSBC expanded its Tokenised Deposit Service (TDS) to Singapore, enabling 24/7 instant cross-border digital token payments between corporate wallets for SGD and USD transactions.
7. Vietnam's digital payments surged 67% annually, with QR code transactions increasing 107% in volume and 59% of consumers preferring cashless methods.
8. Bitcoin spot ETFs attracted USD 2.7B in inflows, triggering profit-taking and causing XRP, DOGE, and SOL to decline in trading session
9. Singapore's digital economy grew by $12bn, contributing 18.6% to GDP and generating 214,000 tech jobs, with significant growth driven by non-tech sector digitalisation.
10. Igloo partnered with Skyro and MIC Insurance to launch climate protection products in Philippines and Vietnam, addressing $86.5B annual natural disaster risks.
11. Ant International partnered with DANA and Konservasi International in Indonesia to launch Ocean Buddy, an interactive in-app conservation initiative targeting marine ecosystem protection among 200M Indonesian users.
12. TerraPay partnered with Fipto to enable stablecoin-native cross-border payment flows, reducing settlement times and working capital pressure through a year-long pilot.
13. HitPay partnered with Ingenico to launch an all-in-one payment system targeting 10,000 Philippine SMEs, enabling seamless digital payment acceptance across multiple payment methods.
14. Australian Banking Association (ABA) supported the new draft legislation to modernise payment service provider regulations, ensuring consistent consumer protections across payment platforms.
15. Singapore's major banks implemented automatic digital transfer blocks for accounts over $38K, pausing transactions exceeding 50% of balance to prevent potential fraud.
16. Vietnam's digital asset trading pilot program received zero applications, with government targeting launch before 2026 and estimating 17M crypto traders generating $100B in annual transactions.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Yup, a Southeast Asian digital bank, raised $32M in C-1 funding to expand services across Hong Kong, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

ACQUISITION:

1. SBI Holdings, a Japanese financial services conglomerate, acquired 5% stake in PT Bank Amar Indonesia Tbk, positioning itself as third-largest institutional investor in the bank.

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