BUSINESS
Offline merchants outpace online peers in digital payments, says PhonePe study
The Pulse report which is based on PhonePe’s 32 crore user base said that transactions in the July to September quarter grew by 33.6 percent QoQ to 526.4 crore. Chandigarh topped the charts in digital payments with a 50 percent QoQ growth.
BUSINESS
PayPal-backed fintech Tala raises $145 million in Series E round
PayPal-backed fintech Tala disburses loans to 6 million customers across Kenya, India, the Philippines, Mexico and the United States. the round was led by Upstart and takes the total funds raised by the company to $350 million. Tala will use these funds to rollout new products and expand its team across geographies.
BUSINESS
Cryptocurrency job postings up 37% in August 2021 versus a year ago: Indeed data
Cryptocurrency job postings increased in August this year as compared to only a 13 percent year-on-year rise seen in August last year, as per data from Indeed. India ranks second in global cryptocurrency users.
BUSINESS
Pine Labs enters online payments space with payment gateway platform Plural
The company is targeting online stores, big e-commerce companies, large-scale government institutions, and large financial services companies to partner with. Plural will help make the offline-to-online transition easier for merchants.
BUSINESS
Crypto investments now 50% of all SE Asia deals discussed at Sequoia Capital, says MD Shailendra Singh
Merchants, customers and bankers trust fintech platforms to manage their money, and this trust helps these firms to upsell and cross-sell other services, says Singh.
BUSINESS
PhonePe sees 85% jump in revenue, 44% drop in losses for FY21
The company saw a jump in revenue owing to a significant rise in transactions on the platform as it became the largest player in UPI payments in FY21. PhonePe's gross margins grew from 60 percent in FY20 to 84 percent in FY21.
BUSINESS
Started Mobikwik from my living room; we are very kicked to go public, says Founder Upasana Taku
Markets regulator SEBI has cleared the decks for Mobikwik’s Rs 1,900 crore IPO. Founder Upasana Taku takes us through the fintech’s ups and downs from its humble beginnings 12 years ago as well as its plans for the future
BUSINESS
Neo bank Open raises $100 million led by Google, Temasek, Visa, and Japan’s SoftBank Investments
This funding round values Open at $500 million and sets up the company to achieve the unicorn status in the course of the next year. Moneycontrol learns that Open may consider raising another round of funds in the next six months.
BUSINESS
M2P Fintech raises $35 million in Series C round led by Tiger Global
The Chennai-headquartered company is now valued at $335 million and intends to use these funds to grow its network to Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
BUSINESS
PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm retain UPI market share, even as WhatsApp transactions double
After WhatsApp said last month that it is adding a Rupee icon to make the payments option more visible and is on the path of scaling up, its UPI volumes grew to 10 lakh in September from five lakh in August.
BUSINESS
Can this Chennai startup disrupt India’s bond market?
Investors and industry watchers believe that the company’s platform will make it easier for enterprises to access secure loans and raise funds from the bond market. The startup raised $90 million in a Series A round led by Sequoia Capital on September 29.
BUSINESS
Weekly startup funding roundup: CoinSwitch and Licious emerge as new unicorns
Licious and CoinSwitch became the 29th and 30th unicorns in 2021. Totally, the top fundraises in the week amounted to close to half a billion dollars.
BUSINESS
With 10x growth for BNPL products during sales, fintechs gear up for a bumper festive season
Fintechs are hoping for a growth of anywhere between 50 and 150 percent in the usage of buy now, pay later products by customers for festive season purchases. Tier-II and III cities are driving demand across ticket sizes.
BUSINESS
In a first for India, Visa introduces CoF Tokenisation on Grofers, BigBasket and MakeMyTrip
Card-on-File Tokenisation replaces actual card data with encrypted digital tokens, which are then used to facilitate and authenticate transactions. This will save customers the hassle of having to enter all card details afresh for each transaction once the RBI’s PA and PG guidelines kick in on December 31.
BUSINESS
Rajan Bajaj hopes to see next Zuckerberg from 3-day work week at Slice
While IT giants are soon looking to get back to the office, startup Slice is offering techies a three-day workweek. The company’s Founder and CEO Rajan Bajaj says the program will allow the company to recruit a certain caliber of talent because it’s a perk that big tech companies like Google and Amazon don’t offer.
BUSINESS
Know more about IPO-bound Fino Payments Bank In five charts
Fino Payments Bank is likely to raise Rs 1,300 crore through the IPO. The company has incurred losses over the past three years but has seen a six-fold growth in its merchant base between FY19 and FY21.
BUSINESS
Here's how Coinswitch founder Ashish Singhal will pitch to FM Sitharaman & RBI Guv Das
CoinSwitch Kuber Founder and CEO Ashish Singhal and Sequoia Capital MD Shailesh Lakhani spoke at TiE Delhi-NCR’s India Internet Day 2021. Singhal said that the government and the crypto ecosystem must work together and not risk missing out on being at the forefront of the revolution.
BUSINESS
RBI recurring payments norms: A nightmare or an opportunity?
Regulatory clarity on recurring payments may now encourage more businesses to resort to subscription-based models, and others to break down their long-term subscription plans to monthly ones. Payments above Rs 5,000, on the other hand, can be the most affected until consumers get used to giving consent for and authorising every payment.
BUSINESS
Fintech Slice’s three-day work program for techies: Is it a sustainable model amid hiring war?
Slice is planning to hire over 1,000 engineers under its 'Code in 3' program over the next five years. With challenges of its own, the model could either be a miss or a win, say industry experts.
BUSINESS
UPI transaction value crosses Rs 6.50 lakh crore in September, volumes at over 365 crore
Since the beginning of FY22, UPI transaction values have witnessed a monthly growth rate of 5.8 percent. Overall transactions values for FY22 may cross $1 trillion if this growth rate is sustained.
BUSINESS
CRED’s Kunal Shah: Self-regulation will save fintech ecosystem
Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest, CRED’s Kunal Shah raised concerns that the ease of access to funding is reducing the average experience of fintech founders. Fintech products and timing of offering will be the key differentiator for startups, he said.
BUSINESS
Hopeful of govt announcement on MDRs soon for payments, says NPCI CEO Dilip Asbe
Speaking at the Global Fintech Fes, Asbe said that the aspiration should be for UPI to clock in transactions worth $1 billion per day in three years’ time. Sequoia India MD Rajan Anandan who was part of the panel said that funds will continue to flow into startups, including fintechs.
BUSINESS
CredAvenue raises $90 million in Series A led by Sequoia Capital India
The funding was secured at a valuation of $410 million. CredAvenue Founder Gaurav Kumar told Moneycontrol that the company aims to grow its revenue to Rs 500 crore in the next 24 months.
BUSINESS
Fintech is proving its mettle on ground as payment systems mature, says FM
Speaking at IAMAI’s Global Fintech Fest 2021, FM Sitharaman said the UN Principles for Responsible Digital Payments is the need of the hour, and that increasing participation of women in the digitisation story should be a priority.
