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

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🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

📈 Chart of the week

Source: The India Dispatch

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired a high-level meeting with bank and insurance company CEOs to review operational and cybersecurity preparedness amid rising border tensions with Pakistan.
2. India's private equity and venture capital (PE-VC) investments grew 9% YoY to $43bn across 1,600 deals in 2024, primarily driven by VC and growth investments, according to the India Private Equity Report 2025 by Bain & Company and Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA).
3. Neo, an Indian wealth manager with $6.5bn AUM, plans to hire up to 70 bankers as wealth managers by March 2026 by offering a 50-60% revenue sharing model to attract talent from rivals.
4. Paytm reported INR 1,911cr ($221M) revenue, down 16% YoY, and INR 23cr ($2.7M) net loss in Q4 fiscal year FY25.
5. Muthoot Microfin, a microfinance lender, reported INR 401cr ($46.4M) net loss in Q4 FY25, compared to INR 120cr ($13.9M) net profit YoY, due to 10x increase in provisions against bad loans amid asset quality crisis.
6. Deutsche Bank's investment arm DWS, with over USD 1.13tn in AUM, engaged in early-stage discussions with Japanese insurer Nippon Life to form an asset management joint venture in India.
7. Kotak Mahindra Bank reported INR 3,552cr (USD 416M) standalone net profit in Q4 FY25, declining 14% YoY, impacted by rising provisions and narrowing margins.
8. Zaakpay, a payment gateway owned by MobiKwik, received final authorization from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Payment Aggregator (PA) after a 29-month regulatory process.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Fibe, a consumer lending startup formerly known as EarlySalary, partnered with CheQ, a credit management platform, to offer its credit products to CheQ's 3.5M users.
2. PhonePe launched SmartSpeaker 2.0, a Made-in-India payment device with 4G connectivity to drive financial inclusion for merchants nationwide.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. RBI (central bank): Issued a framework for formulation of regulations, mandating public consultation and impact analysis before issuing new regulations. Issued guidelines for loan service providers to maintain a digital interface displaying all loan offers from partnered banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), enabling borrowers to make informed comparisons. Expected to issue draft rules on loan-to-value (LTV) computation for gold loans could hit growth prospects of gold-loan NBFCs, which reported combined portfolio growth of over 50% to INR 52,000cr ($6bn) in fiscal year 2024-25, according to Crisil Ratings. Recognised Fixed Income Money Market and Derivatives Association of India (FIMMDA) as a Self-Regulatory Organisation (SRO) in RBI-regulated financial markets.
2. SEBI (securities): Worked with the Ministry of Finance to set up a centralised Know Your Customer (KYC) system, using Artificial Intelligence tools to tackle 70K+ fraudulent investment handles and misleading posts. Amended regulations on issuing and listing securitized debt instruments and security receipts, effective from May 2025.

💰 Financing Announcements

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (SMBC), Japan's second largest banking group, signed definitive agreement to acquire 20% stake in Yes Bank for $1.6bn, valuing the bank at $8bn.
2. IndiaMART acquired the remaining 34% stake in SaaS startup Livekeeping, a Tally-based accounting software, for INR 26.78 crore ($3.1M), making it a wholly owned subsidiary.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Hong Kong's eight digital banks reported a combined 74% YoY increase in deposits to HKD 64.39bn ($ 8.3bn) in 2024, narrowing losses and expanding into wealth management.
2. Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearings Institute (KFTC) announced plans to launch a QR code payment service in Indonesia in 2025 to promote cashless payments across Asia.
3. Validus Group partnered with Fintech Nation to launch a $10M credit fund for SME financing in Thailand and Indonesia.
4. Sea, a Singapore-based tech giant, rebranded its financial services arm from SeaMoney to Monee.
5. A2D Ventures, a Thailand-based venture capital firm, partnered with We Founder Circle, an India-based angel investment syndicate, to foster cross-border innovation and investments between Indian and Southeast Asian startups.
6. Bhutan's digital bank DK Bank partnered with Binance Pay to enable crypto payments for tourism services from over 100 merchants, accepting 100+ cryptos like BNB, BTC, and USDC.
7. PayNet, Malaysia's national payments network and infrastructure provider, launched the PayNet Fintech Hub to accelerate the growth and development of Malaysian fintech startups.
8. KakaoBank, South Korea's digital bank, reported KRW 183bn ($131.09M) operating profit in Q1 2025, growing 23% YoY and 59% compared to Q4 2024.
9. Primer, a Tencent-backed fintech firm, grew 239% YoY in APAC payment volume, and launched key regional partnerships.
10. Carrot General Insurance, South Korea's first digital insurer established in 2019, posted net losses of KRW 330bn ($236M) over six years and will be merged into parent company Hanwha General Insurance, which invested nearly KRW 500bn ($358M).
11. Syfe, a Singaporean digital wealth platform managing $10bn in assets, partnered with BlackRock to provide accredited investors access to U.S. middle market direct lending strategy at lower minimums.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. XWeave, a Singaporean stablecoin based cross border payment startup, raised $3M.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Selfwealth, an Australian wealth management platform, was acquired by Syfe, a Singapore-based digital wealth manager for an undisclosed amount.

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