
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:
When: Tue, 07th Oct, 2025 at 6pm
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
I do not know why bank and card settlements still can't occur on weekends and bank holidays. Settlement systems should not depend on people for the most part except for exception processing, transactions and spends occur 24/7, so why does most settlement processing only occur on…— Bhavin Turakhia (@bhavintu) September 15, 2025
Most high-margin discretionary consumer profit pools concentrate in things society calls sins.— Kunal Shah (@kunalb11) September 18, 2025
Axis Bank just dropped some wild data on how its customers are transferring reward points & miles ✈️
As a points geek, I had to dig in. Here’s what jumped out at me, and it’s fascinating! 👇🧵 pic.twitter.com/HBxS5pscb3— Aadil Bandukwala (@aadil) September 17, 2025
📈 Chart of the Week

Source: Kotak
🇮🇳 India
📰 Market Updates
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.
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.
Corporate Indiaraised 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.
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.
MobiKwikfroze 2,000 merchant accounts after detecting unauthorised payment settlements of INR 40cr ($4.5M) due to a technical processing error.
Department of Financial Services (DFS) secretary urged Public Sector Banks (PSBs) to modernise technology, strengthen governance, and position themselves as global champions by FY2047.
Keralarecorded 9% inflation in August 2024, driven by steep increases in coconut oil and gold prices, significantly higher than other Indian states.
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.
SAPunveiled sovereign cloud infrastructure in India, targeting secure and compliant enterprise technology innovations.
Paisabazaar, a financial services distribution company, expanded product offerings to include fixed deposits and corporate bonds in wealth management segment.
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
CREDpartnered withIndusInd Bank to launch a RuPay credit card and an invite-only Sovereign membership card, targeting mass-affluent and high-net-worth individuals in India.
Razorpay, a payments company, launched Apple Pay integration to address cross-border e-commerce challenges.
SaveIN, a healthcare finance startup, partnered with TrillionLoans to triple healthcare and wellness credit growth across India.
PhonePepartnered withSMFG India Credit to provide Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) facilities to small merchants across Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns, targeting financial inclusion.
📝 Regulatory Updates
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) eased Initial Public Offering (IPO) and foreign investment regulations, expanded investor access, and simplified governance requirements.
SEBIplanned to engage with government for allowing banks, insurance companies, and pension funds to trade in non-agricultural commodity derivative markets.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued comprehensive Payment Aggregators (PAs) regulatory directions, rationalising definitions and authorisation processes effective immediately.
RBIissued new regulatory mandate that compelled PhonePe, Paytm, and CRED to suspend their rent payment services.
RBIauthorisedDBS Bank India as an Agency Bank to collect Goods and Services Tax (GST) payments through its enterprise banking platform DBS IDEAL.
💰 Financing Announcements
ACQUISITIONS:
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.
Dhruva Capital ServicesacquiredVector Finance through 1:1 share swap, expanding into microfinance with INR 390cr ($45M) assets under management.
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🌏 Asia
📰 Market Updates
Atome Philippinespartnered withMaya Bank to provide $48M in credit access for Filipino consumers through flexible payment options.
SBI Digital Markets, Samara Alpha Asset Management, and Bracket Labspartnered to develop tokenised securities infrastructure and expand investment access.
Ant Internationalpartnered withGoogle to develop Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), an open system enabling secure AI agent transactions with over 60 organisations supporting the initiative.
UnionPay International (UPI) partnered withAlipay to enable cross-border QR payments between China and Indonesia, linking 40M merchants and 22 mobile payment platforms.
SWIFT Networkconducted an AI-powered fraud detection experiment with 13 global financial institutions, using synthetic data to double fraud identification effectiveness without sharing customer data.
Partior, Finteum, and Adharapartnered to enable 24/7 real-time Payment versus Payment (PvP) intraday Foreign Exchange (FX) swap settlement using digital network technology.
Fairbancpartnered withHijra Bank, a fully digital Sharia bank in Jakarta, to digitise supply chain financing for small businesses in Indonesia.
Bitget launched Universal Exchange (UEX), integrating cryptocurrency, stocks, gold, and AI-powered trading tools across multiple blockchain networks.
S&P Globalprojected Indian companies would invest over $800bn in the next five years, indicating cautious approach to large private capacity additions.
SBI Shinsei Bank, Partior, and DeCurret DCPpartnered to explore tokenised deposit settlements for Japanese yen across international networks.
OCBClaunchedWomen 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.
PayPay Corporationexpanded international payment services by launching Overseas Payment Mode in South Korea, enabling Japanese users to make payments and P2P transactions abroad.
CIMB Singaporepartnered withMastercard to launch Founders Card, a purpose-built credit card for sole proprietors and small business owners offering flexible financing and travel benefits.
HSBClaunched generative AI-powered Wealth Intelligence ecosystem in Hong Kong and Singapore to enhance private banking investment advice delivery.
Mastercardpartnered withOracle and Westpac to launch embedded virtual card payment technology within Oracle Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for B2B transactions.
UOBpartnered withUnionPay 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.
Validus Risk Managementlaunched Fund Finance Ops, a tech solution to streamline debt facilities management for private capital fund managers, expanding its Horizon proprietary platform.
Alipay+partnered withGrab in Southeast Asia to launch ride-hailing service integration across Southeast Asian markets, enabling users to book transportation through existing digital wallets.
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.
Huize, a Chinese insurance and wealth distribution company, acquired insurance and wealth brokerage license in Singapore to launch Poni, its international brand.
Singapore authorities planned to ban banking and mobile access for convicted scam mules, targeting 19,665 reported scam cases in first half of 2025.
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
ACQUISITIONS:
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