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

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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✨ Mumbai Fintech Happy Hour

I'm delighted to invite you to our Mumbai Fintech Happy Hour presented by Assurekit, Bureau and Mixpanel in partnership with Google Cloud and Mars Shot VC. Details below:

1. When: Tue, 07th Oct, 2025 at 6pm
2. Where: BKC, Mumbai

As always, we're excited to bring together some of the brightest minds in fintech for an informal gathering. This promises to be the best way to begin your fintech week on a high note!

🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

📈 Chart of the Week

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Jar, a digital savings app, reported INR 208cr ($24M) operating revenue and turned profitable in the last two quarters, expanding to over 35M registered users across India.
2. India's non-life insurance sector grew 1.6% YoY to INR 25K crore ($2.8bn) in August 2025, slowing due to crop insurance decline and soft passenger vehicle market.
3. Corporate India raised INR 35 lakh crore ($400bn) in FY2024-25, with nearly 49% coming from non-bank channels like equity markets, bonds, and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), marking a 3% increase over previous year.
4. Yes Bank, with backing from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (SMBC), targeted wealth management market expansion, seeking to compete in India's INR 85,700 crore ($10bn) wealth sector.
5. MobiKwik froze 2,000 merchant accounts after detecting unauthorised payment settlements of INR 40cr ($4.5M) due to a technical processing error.
6. Department of Financial Services (DFS) secretary urged Public Sector Banks (PSBs) to modernise technology, strengthen governance, and position themselves as global champions by FY2047.
7. Kerala recorded 9% inflation in August 2024, driven by steep increases in coconut oil and gold prices, significantly higher than other Indian states.
8. PayU India, Prosus-owned fintech, narrowed consolidated net loss to INR 248cr ($28M), grew revenue by 23% to INR 5,563cr ($631M), and disbursed loans worth $1.1bn in FY2024-25.
9. SAP unveiled sovereign cloud infrastructure in India, targeting secure and compliant enterprise technology innovations.
10. Paisabazaar, a financial services distribution company, expanded product offerings to include fixed deposits and corporate bonds in wealth management segment.
11. Pine Labs, a payments company, received Initial Public Offering (IPO) approval from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), targeting INR 8,550cr ($1Bn) in issue size at potentially $6bn valuation.

🚀 Product Launches

1. CRED partnered with IndusInd Bank to launch a RuPay credit card and an invite-only Sovereign membership card, targeting mass-affluent and high-net-worth individuals in India.
2. Razorpay, a payments company, launched Apple Pay integration to address cross-border e-commerce challenges.
3. SaveIN, a healthcare finance startup, partnered with TrillionLoans to triple healthcare and wellness credit growth across India.
4. PhonePe partnered with SMFG India Credit to provide Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) facilities to small merchants across Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns, targeting financial inclusion.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) eased Initial Public Offering (IPO) and foreign investment regulations, expanded investor access, and simplified governance requirements.
2. SEBI planned to engage with government for allowing banks, insurance companies, and pension funds to trade in non-agricultural commodity derivative markets.
3. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued comprehensive Payment Aggregators (PAs) regulatory directions, rationalising definitions and authorisation processes effective immediately.
4. RBI issued new regulatory mandate that compelled PhonePe, Paytm, and CRED to suspend their rent payment services.
5. RBI authorised DBS Bank India as an Agency Bank to collect Goods and Services Tax (GST) payments through its enterprise banking platform DBS IDEAL.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. FinBox, a digital credit infrastructure startup, raised $40M.
2. Pelocal, an AI-led payments orchestration startup, raised $5M.
3. Easy Home Finance, a home financing startup, raised long-term funds via Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs) to support expansion in housing districts.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. PayU, the payments and fintech arm of Prosus, increased its stake in Mindgate to 70%, a digital payments infrastructure provider processing over 10 billion monthly transactions, for an undisclosed amount.
2. Dhruva Capital Services acquired Vector Finance through 1:1 share swap, expanding into microfinance with INR 390cr ($45M) assets under management.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Atome Philippines partnered with Maya Bank to provide $48M in credit access for Filipino consumers through flexible payment options.
2. SBI Digital Markets, Samara Alpha Asset Management, and Bracket Labs partnered to develop tokenised securities infrastructure and expand investment access.
3. Ant International partnered with Google to develop Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), an open system enabling secure AI agent transactions with over 60 organisations supporting the initiative.
4. UnionPay International (UPI) partnered with Alipay to enable cross-border QR payments between China and Indonesia, linking 40M merchants and 22 mobile payment platforms.
5. SWIFT Network conducted an AI-powered fraud detection experiment with 13 global financial institutions, using synthetic data to double fraud identification effectiveness without sharing customer data.
6. Partior, Finteum, and Adhara partnered to enable 24/7 real-time Payment versus Payment (PvP) intraday Foreign Exchange (FX) swap settlement using digital network technology.
7. Fairbanc partnered with Hijra Bank, a fully digital Sharia bank in Jakarta, to digitise supply chain financing for small businesses in Indonesia.
8. Bitget launched Universal Exchange (UEX), integrating cryptocurrency, stocks, gold, and AI-powered trading tools across multiple blockchain networks.
9. S&P Global projected Indian companies would invest over $800bn in the next five years, indicating cautious approach to large private capacity additions.
10. SBI Shinsei Bank, Partior, and DeCurret DCP partnered to explore tokenised deposit settlements for Japanese yen across international networks.
11. OCBC launched Women Unlimited programme, financed 2,000 women-owned Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with S$600M in social loans across Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Indonesia.
12. PayPay Corporation expanded international payment services by launching Overseas Payment Mode in South Korea, enabling Japanese users to make payments and P2P transactions abroad.
13. CIMB Singapore partnered with Mastercard to launch Founders Card, a purpose-built credit card for sole proprietors and small business owners offering flexible financing and travel benefits.
14. HSBC launched generative AI-powered Wealth Intelligence ecosystem in Hong Kong and Singapore to enhance private banking investment advice delivery.
15. Mastercard partnered with Oracle and Westpac to launch embedded virtual card payment technology within Oracle Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for B2B transactions.
16. UOB partnered with UnionPay to launch cash back scheme offering 2-5% cash back on purchases in mainland China for UnionPay cardholders until December 31, amid 15.8% YoY growth in Singapore-China passenger traffic.
17. Validus Risk Management launched Fund Finance Ops, a tech solution to streamline debt facilities management for private capital fund managers, expanding its Horizon proprietary platform.
18. Alipay+ partnered with Grab in Southeast Asia to launch ride-hailing service integration across Southeast Asian markets, enabling users to book transportation through existing digital wallets.
19. Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen cross-border banking oversight and information sharing.
20. Huize, a Chinese insurance and wealth distribution company, acquired insurance and wealth brokerage license in Singapore to launch Poni, its international brand.
21. Singapore authorities planned to ban banking and mobile access for convicted scam mules, targeting 19,665 reported scam cases in first half of 2025.
22. MoMo, Vietnamese payments company, co-founder urged the government to establish a single fintech regulator and accelerate regulatory sandbox procedures to drive fintech innovation in the country.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Metric, a Pakistani small business finance startup, raised $1.3M.
2. Salmon Group, a Philippines-based digital banking startup, raised $50M through Nordic bonds, expanding total bond financing to $110M.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. DigiAsia announced voluntary Nasdaq delisting after receiving $400M acquisition offer from PayMate.
2. GXS Bank, backed by Grab and Singtel, expanded SME lending by 54% after its acquisition of Validus Capital, targeting Grab merchants and Singtel customers with pre-qualified financing in Singapore.

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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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