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

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🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. ICICI Bank introduced a 4-5 basis points transaction fee for payment aggregators using its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) services.
2. Mukesh Ambani's promoter group firms invested INR 15,825cr ($1.8bn) in Jio Financial Services to support financial services expansion.
3. MobiKwik reported standalone net sales of INR 270cr ($31M), decreasing 20.8% YoY in June 2025.
4. PolicyBazaar's parent company PB Fintech reported INR 1,348cr ($154M) revenue, growing 33% YoY and increasing profits by 42% in Q1 FY26.
5. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reported bank credit growth to industry slowed to 5.5% YoY in June 2025, with non-food bank credit growing 10.2% compared to 13.8% in previous year and notable deceleration in agriculture, services, and personal loan segments.
6. RBI reported auto loans outpaced home loans in Q1 FY26, with vehicle loans growing 4.7% quarterly and reaching INR 6.52 lakh crore ($74Bn).
7. Go Digit General Insurance reported INR 138.3cr ($16M) net profit, growing 37% YoY in Q1 FY26, driven by increased gross written premiums and effective expense management.
8. Decentro, an API banking infrastructure company, processed INR 45,000cr ($5.2bn) in annual payments.
9. SBI Cards reported net profit of INR 556cr ($64M), declining 6.4% YoY in Q1 2024, with provisions rising 23% YoY to INR 1,352cr ($154M).
10. Kotak Mahindra Bank reported net profit of INR 4,472cr (USD 517M), declining 40% YoY in Q1 2025, primarily due to previous year's one-time insurance stake sale gain
11. India's Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections grew 7.5% YoY to INR 1.96 lakh crore ($22.6bn) in July 2025, driven by higher domestic revenues and import tax collection.

🚀 Product Launches

(no product launches this week)

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) capped individual bank investments in Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) schemes at 10% and collective investments at 20% in new regulatory guidelines.
2. RBI released draft business authorisation directions for co-operative banks, inviting public comments until August 25, 2025.
3. RBI sanctioned amalgamation scheme for New India Co-operative Bank with Saraswat Co-operative Bank, effective August 04, 2025.
4. RBI governor emphasised the need for a sustainable financial model for Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
5. Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) proposed reducing retail investor allocation from 35% to 25% for Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) larger than INR 5,000cr ($573M) to improve listing stability.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Flexprice, an open-source billing platform for AI companies, raised $500K.
2. Navi, founded by Sachin Bansal, raised INR 170 cr ($20M) in debt.

ACQUISITION:

1. Zaggle, a prepaid payments company, acquired Rio Money, a UPI credit startup, for INR 22 cr ($2.5M) to enter consumer credit card market via Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. UnionBank acquired Citibank's local consumer banking business and deployed FICO platform to process 80% of credit applications in 5-15 minutes in the Philippines.
2. Revolut launched its second Asian tech hub in Manila, Philippines.
3. Singapore's Climate Impact X (CIX) partnered with Australian FinTech to develop digital infrastructure for voluntary carbon and environmental markets in Asia-Pacific, enabling cross-border trading and improving market transparency.
4. Standard Chartered partnered with Alibaba Cloud to advance artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in financial services, focusing on operational efficiency and customer engagement.
5. UnaFinancial, Singapore-based fintech, reported $5M profit in first half of 2025, grew loan issuance by 14% to $409M across six markets in Asia and Europe.
6. MUFG and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) established sustainable finance framework for co-financing with four partner banks in Southeast Asia.
7. U2U Network outlined plans to expand Decentralised Physical Infrastructure (DePIN) infrastructure in Southeast Asia after Vietnam passed digital technology law in June 2025, signalling institutional blockchain adoption.
8. Salmon Bank, a digital bank in the Philippines, grew net income by 83% to $2.6M in the first half of 2025, supported by robust digital infrastructure and consumer lending growth.
9. Adyen partnered with Atlas to provide integrated payment solutions for Singapore's F&B sector, reducing human errors by 80% and increasing direct sales by 12%.
10. Thai fintech sector expanded 82% over five years, with four fintech companies securing $860M of total $2.44bn raised in 2025, signalling growing digital financial services ecosystem.
11. Google Play partnered with Ant International and KASIKORNBANK in Thailand to enable K PLUS mobile banking users to make direct purchases on Google Play in Thailand.
12. Mastercard launched AI Card Design Studio, enabling banks and card issuers to create custom payment card designs using artificial intelligence in minutes.
13. Airwallex launched Yield, a multi-currency investment product for businesses in Singapore, partnering with Fullerton Fund Management and Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
14. Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) launched EDP and EDP+ electronic payment solutions with seven banks, preparing to retire corporate cheques by 2027.
15. Mastercard launched Receivables Manager and Commercial Direct Payments, enabling automated virtual card payments and simplified supplier reconciliation across global markets.
16. Osome partnered with Aspire to automate financial tasks, enabling 43% user adoption surge in Singapore and Hong Kong markets.
17. Grab partnered with Triple-A and PDAX to enable cryptocurrency top-ups for GrabPay wallets in Philippines using Bitcoin, Ether, USDC, and USDT.
18. Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) published detailed guidelines for stablecoin issuer regulation, effective 1 August 2025, with specific licensing and compliance requirements.
19. TerraPay registered with Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) as Independent Remittance Provider and Remittance Network Provider, enabling cross-border payments in Oceania.
20. Indonesia increased crypto transaction tax rates to 0.21% for domestic and 1% for overseas exchanges, impacting over 20M crypto users.
21. Singapore's Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) launched investigation into Tokenize Xchange for potential fraudulent trading after Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) rejected its payment services licence application.
22. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) planned to set up a $300M investment fund targeting US fintech and artificial intelligence (AI) startups.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. KUN International Digital Technology, a stablecoin-based payment platform in Hong Kong, raised $6M.

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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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