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

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🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) conducted INR 2.5 lakh crore ($29bn) variable rate reverse repo (VRRR) auction to absorb INR 9 lakh crore ($105B) liquidity surplus in the banking system.
2. Cred processed INR 14,000 ($162) per bill payment on average, 75% higher than PhonePe's average of INR 3,000 ($35) per bill.
3. Credit bureau CRIF Highmark reported less than 25% of fresh retail loans were disbursed to first-time borrowers in most categories in fiscal year 2024-25, reflecting lender caution amid rising asset quality concerns.
4. Indian banks reported muted credit growth in Q1 FY26, with private banks growing loans at less than half the pace YoY, while public sector banks outperformed by being more aggressive on pricing.
5. CRISIL Ratings estimated education loan assets under management of NBFCs to grow 25% to around INR 8,000cr ($925M) in FY26, down from 48% growth in FY25 and 77% in FY24, due to policy uncertainties in the US and stricter student visa rules in Canada.
6. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company (AMC), India's second-largest asset manager, filed for INR 10,000cr ($1.2B) Initial Public Offering (IPO), structured entirely as an offer for sale by Prudential Corporation Holdings.
7. Kreditbee, a consumer lending startup, reported INR 473 crore ($55M) profit, growing 66% YoY, and INR 2,712 crore ($317M) revenue, growing 40% YoY, with Assets Under Management (AUM) growing at 72% CAGR over the last 3 years.
8. Jio BlackRock Asset Management, a joint venture between Reliance Industries and BlackRock, raised INR 17,800cr ($2.1B) from over 67,000 retail and 90 institutional investors in its debut mutual fund offering.
9. IIFL Home Finance raised $100M from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) at 8.58% for 5 years to fund affordable housing developers and retail home loans in India.
10. Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved 360 ONE group's acquisition of UBS AG's portfolio management, stock broking, and financial product distribution services in India.

🚀 Product Launches

1. NPCI International Payments (NIPL) expanded Unified Payments Interface (UPI) acceptance in the UAE through partnerships with NeoPay, Network International, and Magnati.
2. Fi Money, a neo-banking startup, launched a structured, consent-driven AI feature using ChatGPT and Gemini for users to get personalised financial advice.
3. Skydo launched Payouts, a payroll solution enabling bulk transfers that are instantly split into fully compliant payouts.
4. Screener, India's investment research platform, launched Screener AI, an intelligent tool that extracts key insights from company documents like annual reports and earnings call transcripts in seconds, empowering faster and smarter research.

📝 Regulatory Updates

(no regulatory updates?)

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Credit Wise Capital, an Indian NBFC focused on two-wheeler and MSME lending, raised INR 200cr ($23M).
2. InPrime Finserv, a lending startup focussed on underserved customers in informal economy, raised INR 50cr ($5.8M).
3. Belong, a financial platform for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), raised INR 43.25cr ($5M).
4. Neurofin, a GenAI enterprise platform for compliance and underwriting, raised INR 14cr ($1.6M).

ACQUISITION:

1. Partners Group acquired a majority stake in Infinity Fincorp Solutions, an Indian Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC), for INR 1,974cr ($230M).

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Credit card debt in the Philippines reached 425% of average monthly income, indicating 'severe financial stress'.
2. Crypto adoption surged 32% in Asia driven by practical use cases and developer growth in emerging markets, contrasting with speculation-driven adoption in Western markets.
3. Southeast Asia fintech companies raised $776M in H1 2025, down 22% YoY from $1B in H1 2024, but up 31% from $593M in H2 2024, driven by a 113% surge in late-stage funding offsetting declines in early and seed stages.
4. Indonesia's Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) and consumer credit market grew 41% YoY, reaching 8M credit accounts as of June 2025.
5. 85% of Singapore's fintechs were denied or delayed access to essential banking APIs by incumbent banks, impacting SME innovation and growth.
6. BRI Bank in Indonesia recorded $18bn in consolidated revenue in 2024, growing 18.6% YoY.
7. The Royal Government of Bhutan transferred $24M worth of Bitcoin to Binance exchange, continuing its strategic pattern of selling during price peaks, reducing holdings to 11,711 BTC ($1.3B).
8. Hantec Group launched its new South East Asia Regional Office in Bangkok, Thailand, marking a significant milestone in its Asia-focused expansion strategy.
9. DBS, OCBC and UOB collaborated with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to launch a study on the financial implications of nature-related risks, focusing on the palm oil industry in Southeast Asia.
10. Kasikornbank (KBank) Private Banking, a Thai bank, launched a front-end relationship manager tool developed by Synpulse8.
11. National Bank of Cambodia and Payments Japan Association launched cross-border QR payment link between Cambodia's KHQR and Japan's JPQR systems.
12. Revolut partnered with Ant International to enable its 50M global customers to send money to China in Chinese Yuan using Alipay.
13. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) launched a Singapore-headquartered agentic AI venture led by Ahmed Mazhari, committing JPY 800B ($6B) to digital transformation with JPY 50B ($360M) for generative AI initiatives.
14. Circle partnered with OKX to enable easier USD to USDC conversions for OKX's 60M global users.
15. 2C2P partnered with ShopeePay to enable merchants across Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand to accept cash-free payments and increase sales conversions.
16. Railsbank partnered with Aspire to offer SGD bank accounts to complement Aspire's digital banking for SMEs in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
17. 1Pay partnered with mobile operators to enable merchants to collect payments from users in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia by charging payments to users' phone bills, providing an alternative to low credit card penetration in the region.
18. Razer Fintech partnered with Rely to offer Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services to Razer Merchant Services (RMS) merchants in Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea.
19. South Korea planned to launch climate insurance in 2026 to compensate outdoor workers unable to work during extreme heat, with payouts of KRW 84,800 ($62) per day.
20. Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) imposed penalties totalling $18M on nine financial institutions, including UOB, Credit Suisse, and UBS, for breaches related to anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) requirements.
21. ShopBack, a Singapore-based shopping and rewards platform, received a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), enabling it to provide regulated payment services through ShopBack Pay.
22. Ant International evaluated applying for stablecoin licenses in several countries to streamline international payments.
23. Finmo, a Singapore-based fintech company, received approval from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to operate as an Authorized Electronic Money Institution (EMI).
24. Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued cease and desist orders against Pacific Union (PU Prime) and Fortune Wave Solution Hub OPC (Fortune Wave) for illegal investment schemes and unregistered securities.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Atome Financial, a Southeast Asian digital financial services platform, secured $200M in a syndicated credit facility led by HSBC to accelerate expansion of its regional portfolio and products in key Southeast Asian markets.

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