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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🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. PayU Payments narrowed loss to ₹248cr ($27M) with 23% YoY revenue growth in FY25.
2. Global fintech startups raised $52bn in global venture funding in 2025, marking a 27% increase from 2024 with fewer but larger deals.
3. State-run banks planned deployment of 17,350 ATMs, with over 13,100 being cash recyclers.
4. Indian banks crossed ₹ 203 lakh crore ($2.2tn) in credit for the first time, marking 14.5% YoY growth as of Dec 25.
5. Groww, a digital investment company, reported ₹1,216cr ($134M) revenue and ₹547cr ($60M) profit in Q3 FY26, marking first quarterly results post-listing.
6. The health insurance industry processed 32.6 million health insurance claims in FY25
7. Choice Wealth, a stock broking firm, partnered India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) to launch a digital investment platform.
8. Standard Chartered Bank relaunched priority banking services targeting clients with INR 50 lakh to ₹2.5cr ($55K to $275K) assets.
9. Banks reached record 82% credit-to-deposit ratio, indicating pressure on lenders to mobilise deposits amid rising loan demand.
10. Indian government directed public sector banks to adopt standardised digital lending process for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) through JanSamarth portal to expedite credit delivery.

🚀 Product Launches

1. PB Fintech unveiled new PensionBazaar platform to consolidate pension products, health cover, and long-term savings tools in single marketplace.
2. PhonePe launched PG Bolt, a device tokenization solution for Visa and Mastercard transactions, enabling one-click secure payments across merchant platforms.
3. Credgenics launched FixMyScore.ai, a consumer credit score builder app, targeting 100,000 users by March 2026.
4. DigiCert, India's SSL certificate authority, introduced a locally-hosted trust platform in India for enterprise compliance.
5. GlobalPay launched transit-led cross-border FinTech platform with integrated global payments and travel services

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) mandated live selfies and geo-tracking for onboarding users to Indian crypto exchanges.
2. Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) sought to increase pension adoption among private sector employees through flexible products and improved distribution strategies.
3. Reserve Bank of India issued comprehensive internal ombudsman guidelines for Credit Information Companies (CICs)
4. Reserve Bank of India issued new Foreign Exchange Management Regulations to promote business ease, effective from October 01, 2026
5. RBI advocated disclosure of Non-Performing Assets (NPA) and bank inspection reports, while major banks opposed transparency through Central Information Commission (CIC)
6. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) warned about compressed regulatory response times in digital finance
7. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) received in-principle approval from RBI to establish a wholly owned subsidiary in India.
8. Reserve Bank of India proposed new guidelines for banks' foreign exchange positions, aligning with Basel Committee standards.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Wint Wealth, an online bond startup, raised ₹250cr ($28M).
2. Bluecopa, an accounting automation startup, raised $7.5M.
3. GrowthPal, an AI-driven Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) copilot startup, raised $2.6M.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Polygon Labs, a crypto platform, acquired two crypto startups, Coinme and Sequence, for over $250M to build out its stablecoin strategy.
2. Groww sold 23% stake in its asset management company to State Street Global Advisors for ₹580cr ($67M).
3. CVC Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in ValueLabs for $1-1.2bn.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. K bank, a digital bank in South Korea, secured regulatory approval for its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in South Korea.
2. CoinGecko, a Malaysian crypto market data platform, explored potential sale valued at $500M.
3. Primer partnered with HitPay to help Southeast Asian merchants access international markets
4. Ascend Money disbursed nano loans using alternative data to 15M underbanked Thais.
5. Ant International processed 2 billion digital cross-border transactions across emerging markets, serving 150 million merchants and expanding AI-powered financial solutions.
6. Tether froze more than $182M in USDT stablecoins across five Tron blockchain wallets in a coordinated enforcement action.
7. Bank for International Settlements advanced multicurrency unified ledger project for faster cross-border transactions.
8. Resona Bank and JCB in Japan partnered to introduce stablecoin payments for retail transactions.
9. Monee, formerly SeaMoney, partnered with Episode Six in Thailand to launch ShopeePay Unlimited Card in Thailand, with plans for regional expansion.
10. EastWest Bank partnered with PayMongo in Philippines to provide preferential digital payment gateway services for Filipino businesses.
11. Thredd partnered with Paywith to launch flexible card programs in Australia using advanced payment infrastructure and APIs.
12. Coins.ph, a Philippine payments company, expanded its product suite to offer integrated digital asset trading, payments, transfers, and bill settlement services.
13. South Korea stalled its Digital Asset Basic Act over stablecoin issuance disputes.
14. Monetary Authority of Singapore proposed regulatory changes to simplify dual listings on SGX and Nasdaq for companies with market capitalisation above S$2bn ($1.6bn).
15. Thai SEC filed criminal complaints against five individuals for operating unlicensed Worldcoin trading services.
16. Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK) licensed International Crypto Exchange (ICEx) as Indonesia's second regulated cryptocurrency exchange.
17. Monetary Authority of Singapore intensified enforcement, recording a 579% rise in Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) fines

💰 Financing Announcements

1. WeLab, a Hong Kong based neobanking startup, raised $220M.
2. Veera, an on-chain neobank, raised $10M.
3. Mobeix, a Singapore-based digital bank platform, raised $6.8M.
4. Atome, a Southeast Asian digital lending startup, raised $345M in syndicated debt facility.

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