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🔝 Top Story of the Week

Groww moves into fixed income products

About: Groww is launching an online corporate bond platform and will apply for SEBI’s Online Bond Platform Provider (OBPP) licence, enabling retail investors to buy and trade listed corporate bonds inside the same interface they use for equities and mutual funds.

What it means

1. Full-stack ambition ahead of IPO: Groww filed confidential IPO papers targeting up to $1 bn. Adding bonds diversifies revenue (distribution fees + spread) and positions the firm as a one-stop wealth platform alongside Zerodha and Dhan.
2. Retail debt market lift: India’s listed-bond turnover is <2 % of equity turnover. A 50-million-user fintech front-end could deepen the retail pool, lowering funding costs for mid-cap issuers that struggle in private placement markets.
3. Competitive heat for specialists: Bond-only startups Wint Wealth and Grip Invest could face customer-acquisition pressure unless they double down on higher-yield, structured products or secondary-liquidity niches.

🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) in India saw investments grow 32% YoY to INR 5.4 lakh crore ($62.4B) by the end of Q4 FY25.
2. Recovery rate under Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC) improved to 33% in Q4 FY24-25, up from 31% in Q3 FY25, according to CareEdge report.
3. Bank frauds in India tripled with over half occurring in digital transactions according to RBI's latest annual report.
4. ICICI Bank and Axis Bank explored alternatives to DreamFolks Services for direct airport lounge access partnerships after service disruptions.
5. Groww, a stockbroking startup, planned to apply for an Online Bond Platform Provider (OBPP) licence from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to offer corporate bond trading.
6. Only State Bank of India (SBI) fully migrated to ISO 20022 SWIFT messaging standard ahead of November 2025 deadline, risking severe disruptions and penalties for non-compliant Indian banks according to officials.
7. FamApp, a payments startup for teens, turned profitable with INR 90-100cr ($10-12M) revenue in FY25.

🚀 Product Launches

1. RentenPe partnered with MyGate, an Indian security and community management solution provider, to digitize rent payments for 3M+ homes across 25,000 gated communities in India.
2. XFlow, a cross-border payments startup, launched cross-border payments for 30K+ Indian exporters.
3. Bureau, a risk and identity management startup, expanded its device intelligence capabilities to detect coordinated fraud across multiple industries and geographies.
4. Jio BlackRock, a joint venture between Jio Financial Services and BlackRock, launched Aladdin, an investment analytics and risk management platform.
5. Axis Bank partnered with BoAt and Mastercard to launch Wave Fortune, an NFC-enabled smartwatch allowing contactless payments up to INR 5,000 ($58) without PIN, using Mastercard's tokenization technology.
6. Xflow launched WhatsApp-based payments feature to simplify cross-border transactions for customers in Brazil and India.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued directions for financing project loans, effective from October 2025.
2. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked Indian fintech startups to develop solutions to prevent digital arrests and cyber frauds at the Digital Payments Awards 2025 ceremony.
3. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) directed Unified Payments Interface (UPI) app providers to reduce transaction processing time from 30 seconds to 10-15 seconds, which took effect from June 16, 2025.
4. Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) proposed allowing all KYC Registration Agencies (KRAs) to function as accreditation agencies and enabling Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) to provisionally onboard investors, pending public consultation until July 8, 2025.
5. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) launched a pilot project in coordination with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and select banks to validate the enhanced Consent Registration Function (CRF) framework for curbing spam communications, prioritising the banking sector.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. SarvaGram, a rural credit and financial services startup, raised INR 565cr ($67M) at a valuation of INR 1,785cr ($206M).
2. Aspora (fka Vance), a remittances startup for Indian diaspora communities, raised $93M.
3. Mahaveer Finance, a Chennai-based non-banking finance company (NBFC), raised INR 200cr ($23M).
4. Renewbuy, an insurance broking startup, raised INR 86cr ($10M).
5. Techfino Capital, a SME finance company, raised INR 65cr ($7.5M).
6. Saswat Finance, an agri finance startup, raised INR 20cr (USD 2.6M).
7. Seven, a contactless payments startup, raised INR 4cr ($0.5M).
8. Chop Finance, an AI platform for finance and accounting professionals, raised an undisclosed amount.
9. Dugar Finance, a non-banking financial company (NBFC), raised INR 26cr ($3M) in debt.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Partners Group, a Swiss private equity firm, acquired a 75% stake in Infinity Fincorp, a Mumbai-based NBFC providing micro-loans to MSMEs, for INR 1,990cr ($230M).
2. UGRO Capital, an MSME-focused NBFC, acquired Profectus Capital for INR 1,400cr ($162M).
3. Razorpay acquired a majority stake in POP, a rewards-first UPI payments app, with an investment of INR 259cr ($30M).
4. InCred Money, the retail wealthtech arm of InCred Group, acquired Stocko, a stock trading company, for INR 300cr ($35M).

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Philippine's Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) launched a campaign against exploitative online lending applications (OLAs) in the Philippines after receiving over 13,000 complaints in April-May 2025.
2. StraitsX, the Singaporean stablecoin-native settlement layer startup, launched Dedicated Virtual Accounts (DVA/+), delivering compliant USD banking access and real-time stablecoin connectivity to crypto-native institutions.
3. Vietnam's National Assembly approved the Law on Digital Technology Industry, introducing a legal framework for digital assets including crypto, set to take effect from January 2026.
4. OSTTRA and Baton Systems announced Partior connected to their on-demand FX payment-versus-payment settlement network, enabling financial institutions to settle FX transactions using tokenised commercial bank deposits with 24/7 access.
5. Bitget Wallet partnered with AEON to enable crypto payments via Vietnam's national QR code standard VietQR, accepted by 2M+ merchants, with plans to expand to Southeast Asia and Latin America.
6. Thailand's government approved a five-year personal income tax exemption on profits from digital asset sales conducted through licensed platforms from January 2025 to December 2029 to promote the country as a global digital asset hub.
7. KuCoin in Thailand launched a new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved cryptocurrency exchange following its acquisition of local exchange platform ERX.
8. Paydibs, a Malaysia-based digital payments firm, launched all-in-one payment device, accelerated settlement, and embedded financing options for small businesses.
9. DBS Bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) to help Australian firms expand into Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
10. United Overseas Bank (UOB) and its subsidiary UOB China signed agreements to become direct participants of China's Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), to launch cross-border renminbi transactions.
11. Visa partnered with Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) to launch Visa Flex Credential in Vietnam, allowing ACB cardholders to switch between debit and credit cards via the ACB One app.
12. Thailand's Ministry of Finance granted virtual bank licenses to three consortiums - Krung Thai Bank, AIS and PTT Oil; SCB X, WeTechnology, and KakaoBank; and ACM Holding Company - to commence operations by June 2025.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Instapay, a Malaysian payments startup, raised $3M.

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