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EXCLUSIVE


INDIAN FINTECHS GARNER 42% SHARE OF $3.3 BILLION DEALS IN APAC REGION

Digital lenders topped all other FinTech categories with $1.28 billion raised
across 52 deals.

 * ETBFSI
 * May 19, 2022, 08:00 IST

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India-based FinTech companies have cornered the lion's share of $3.33 billion
raised in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region over 186 deals in the first quarter of
2022.

Geographically, India-based FinTechs dominated funding in APAC, accounting for
42 per cent and 34 per cent of total deal value and volume, respectively, in the
region.

According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, FinTech companies based in APAC
surpassed previous deal values and volumes observed in the March quarter over
the past three years.



Compared to Q1 2021, the figure reflects a 44 per cent increase in deal value
and 23 per cent growth in deal volume.

However, compared to the previous quarter, the Q1 funding levels represent a 26
per cent decline in dollar amount raised and a 9.7 per cent dip in the number of
deals.

Digital lenders topped all other FinTech categories with $1.28 billion raised
across 52 deals. It warned that funding activity may decline in the coming
months but mature FinTechs, which seem to remain attractive to venture
capitalists, may help offset some of the decline in funding levels.


Drop ahead

While the year-over-year record-high funding levels in the first quarter
seemingly paint a rosy picture of the fundraising environment for Asia-Pacific
FinTechs, the decline in funding value and volume on a sequential basis signal
otherwise and is perhaps more indicative of what lies ahead.

FinTech fundraising activity could see a further slowdown in subsequent periods
in the wake of an underwhelming public equity market and further rate hikes.

Digital lenders, the FinTech segment that was hardest-hit by the pandemic,
appear to be back in action, topping all other fintech categories with $1.28
billion raised across 52 deals, the report said.



Several established FinTechs continue to see fresh funding from new investors,
and their persistent inclination for inorganic growth in this uncertain climate
seems to suggest confidence in their ability to raise more capital.


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FINTECH

 * 2 hrs ago
   
   CRYPTO CRASH LEAVES EL SALVADOR WITH NO EASY EXIT FROM WORSENING CRISIS

 * 2 hrs ago
   
   FINTECH UNICORN SLICE WANTS TO DIVERSIFY BEYOND ITS CREDIT CARD OFFERING

 * 6 hrs ago
   
   BHARATPE LAUNCHES INVESTMENT PLATFORM FOR ITS MERCHANT PARTNERS

 * 6 hrs ago
   
   INDIAN FINTECHS GARNER 42% SHARE OF $3.3 BILLION DEALS IN APAC REGION

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 * 5 hrs ago
   
   INSURANCE BROKERS EXPLAIN WHY PREMIUM RATES ON TERM POLICIES ARE SKYROCKETING

 * 6 hrs ago
   
   INDIAN FINTECHS GARNER 42% SHARE OF $3.3 BILLION DEALS IN APAC REGION

 * 6 hrs ago
   
   FINTECH DIARY LIVE WITH SANJAY MEHTA, FOUNDER & PARTNER, 100X.VC

 * 21 hrs ago
   
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 * INDIA’S LENDING SEGMENT UNTAPPED: CASHE FOUNDER
   
   V Raman Kumar, founder and chairman of CASHe, in this week's FinTech Diary
   told ETBFSI that he believes the reason why FinTechs are opting for lending
   is because it is an untapped market in India. CASHe has a lending run rate of
   around Rs 2,400 crore, with an average ticket size ranging from Rs 10,000 to
   Rs 3 lakhs. "Proof of the pudding is how our business model works, and we
   wanted to put our money where our mouth was.. so we are a lender on record..
   so we lend on our own balance sheet, and pay the bad debts.. We are currently
   running with about a 2-2.5% of bad debts," Kumar said. Tune in..

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EXCLUSIVE


CRYPTO CRASH LEAVES EL SALVADOR WITH NO EASY EXIT FROM WORSENING CRISIS

With global borrowing costs on the rise and a big debt repayment on the horizon,
El Salvador has other fiscal headaches than the impact of the currency's swoon.
But the crypto slump has also closed some potential off-ramps from the crisis,
including the now-postponed bitcoin bond.

 * Reuters

Click Here to Read This Story
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SAN SALVADOR/NEW YORK: El Salvador's big bet on bitcoin, which the Central
American nation has been buying since September, has soured in recent weeks as a
cryptocurrency rout shaved over a third of the value of the government's
holdings, Reuters calculations show.

Under populist President Nayib Bukele, a vocal cheerleader for the currency, El
Salvador went all-in on bitcoin, not just becoming the world's first country to
adopt it as a legal tender but also sketching out plans for a volcano-powered
crypto mining hub and plans to issue the first sovereign bond linked to the
coin.

With global borrowing costs on the rise and a big debt repayment on the horizon,
El Salvador has other fiscal headaches than the impact of the currency's swoon.
But the crypto slump has also closed some potential off-ramps from the crisis,
including the now-postponed bitcoin bond.



"The government's financial problems are not because of bitcoin, but they have
gotten worse because of bitcoin," said Ricardo Castaneda, senior economist and
country coordinator for El Salvador and Honduras at think tank Central American
Institute for Fiscal Studies (ICEFI). For the government, he said, "bitcoin
ceased to be a solution and has become part of the problem."

Bitcoin has fallen 45% since El Salvador officially adopted it in early
September, and 26% from its May high as crypto assets have been swept up in a
risk-off investing environment.

The combined market value of all cryptocurrencies recently fell to $1.2
trillion, less than half of where it was last November, based on data from
CoinMarketCap.

El Salvador's debt stood at $24.4 billion as of December, from $19.8 billion at
end-2019, after the Bukele administration allocated millions of dollars to deal
with the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic effects over the past couple of
years.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that the current account deficit for
its remittance and external financing-reliant economy will hover near $2 billion
through 2025.

But adopting bitcoin set the country at loggerheads with multilateral lenders
like the IMF, from which Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya said last year the
government was seeking $1.3 billion.



The fund has recommended that El Salvador ditch bitcoin altogether. Any deal for
a credit line would have to address risks including "those related to the
adoption of bitcoin as legal tender as well as risks related to economic
governance," an IMF official said on Wednesday.

Ratings agencies have warned bitcoin adoption could facilitate money laundering,
and importantly, the bitcoin risk has given bond investors another reason to
demand higher returns

As of Wednesday, they were seeking a record-high premium of 2,445 basis points
over U.S. Treasuries.

Bukele's moves to centralize power, from removing all the top judges on the
country's supreme court to muscling through authorization to seek immediate
re-election despite constitutional term limits, have helped drive the risk
premium higher.

"If there isn't potential for bitcoin-growth dividends or innovative
bitcoin-financing, then the Bukele administration will have to prioritize
spending priorities and identify financing options," according to Siobhan
Morden, head of Latin America Fixed Income Strategy at Amherst Pierpont.

Reuters calculations of a $36 million paper loss in bitcoin, enough to make at
least some of those coupon payments, is based on Bukele's tweets and an estimate
of prices on the purchase dates. The government has spent some $104.2 million on
2,301 coins now worth just $67.9 million using Wednesday's volume weighted
average price.

The country has to service $329 million in interest due on its international
bonds this year as well as $800 million in a bond set to mature in January.

ICEFI's Castaneda listed financing options including the Central American and
Latin American development banks - CABEI and CAF, respectively - as possible
patches for financing the $800 million payment due in January. Another option,
he said, is to nationalize the country's pension fund to cover the fiscal
deficit - which could be done by transferring the public's savings to a
government account.

A debt restructuring for El Salvador is "inevitable" if the country continues
with the "current policy mix," said Polina Kurdyavko, head of emerging markets
at BlueBay Asset Management. "Debt in El Salvador could be sustainable with the
right (IMF) program. But they have to act now."

The country's finance minister, Zelaya, declined to comment for this story.

Salvadoran bonds trade between 43.5 cents and 34 cents on the dollar except for
the January maturity at 75 cents, reflecting cautious optimism that the country
could make that payment.

The cost to insure investors against a Salvadoran sovereign default over the
next five years on Wednesday hit its highest level since 2020, according to S&P
Global data.


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EXCLUSIVE


FINTECH UNICORN SLICE WANTS TO DIVERSIFY BEYOND ITS CREDIT CARD OFFERING

Along with diversification into UPI, Slice will also push direct merchant
checkouts as well as NFC- based payments ( contactless payments) on its app to
simplify user experience, Bajaj said in an interaction with ETtech.

 * Tarush Bhalla
 * ETtech

Click Here to Read This Story
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Bengaluru: Fintech unicorn Slice is shifting its focus to unified payments
interface (UPI) and other payment methods on its app, as it looks to diversify
from just being a card-based credit line business, according to company founder
and chief executive Rajan Bajaj.

Along with diversification into UPI, Slice will also push direct merchant
checkouts as well as NFC- based payments ( contactless payments) on its app to
simplify user experience, Bajaj said in an interaction with ETtech.

The plan is to cater to as many new customers, especially those on the waitlist
and provide newer offerings to them. These are people who have been kept out of
the credit-card user list.



At present, Slice claims to have close to 10 million waitlisted customers on its
platform.

While, for now the focus is on consumer payments it will look to also launch
merchant-related payment services in the near term.

Founded in 2016, Slice focuses on new-age millennials and Gen Z customers, who
have largely been refused credit cards due to inadequate credit scores. “ While
we will continue to be selective in giving out credit cards, we want our larger
base of waitlisted customers to have the same experience as our credit users on
the app. We are achieving profitability in our credit card vertical and will use
the cash flows to grow in payments,” said Bajaj to ET.

“The idea is to make the payment experience differentiated by helping the user
not go through multiple steps or have any advertisements on the app,” Bajaj
added.

This comes even as regulatory uncertainty continues for new-age card-based
credit fintechs with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) consulting players and the
wider industry to understand the space and create operating guidelines them.

However, Bajaj in an interaction said that the decision to diversify into UPI
payments was something the company was planning since 2021, before the
regulatory uncertainty set in.



While Bajaj did not disclose absolute numbers, he added that credit card
issuance on the platform is growing at 10%-15% on a monthly basis.

In November, last year, Slice raised $220 million in funding led by New
York-based investment firms Tiger Global and Insight Partners, valuing the
startup at $1 billion.

It actively competes with the likes of OneCard and Uni, which are in midst of
fundraising talks, as competition in the sector heats up.


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EXCLUSIVE


FINTECH DIARY LIVE WITH SANJAY MEHTA, FOUNDER & PARTNER, 100X.VC

Catch our new initiative - FinTech Diary Live - this Thursday at 2 pm, where we
will be interviewing Sanjay Mehta, Founder & Partner, 100X.VC.

 * ETBFSI

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Today, at 2pm, tune in to our social media platforms to catch a live and candid
interaction with Sanjay Mehta, Founder & Partner, 100X.VC.

In case you miss the interaction at 2pm, you can visit this link post 3 pm,
where we will update it with the video.


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EXCLUSIVE


BHARATPE LAUNCHES INVESTMENT PLATFORM FOR ITS MERCHANT PARTNERS

BharatPe aims to facilitate investments for more than 20 lakh merchant partners
over the next 12 months via the new platform, it said.

 * ETtech

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Bengaluru: New Delhi-based fintech firm BharatPe has launched a new investment
platform for its merchant partners as it looks to ramp up its wealth management
play. The platform will give merchants the option to invest in fixed deposits by
Unity Small Finance, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Last year, a partnership between financial services major Centrum and Resilient
Innovations, parent of BharatPe, received the central bank’s nod to set up Unity
Small Finance, a small finance bank.

BharatPe aims to facilitate investments for more than 20 lakh merchant partners
over the next 12 months via the new platform, it said.



The fintech’s merchants will be able to access the investment platform on the
BharatPe merchant app by clicking on the Investments tab. BharatPe has also
partnered with peer-to-peer (P2P) non-banking companies LenDenClub and
Liquiloans to and deploy their savings against loans on these platforms for up
to 12% interest.

In January, BharatPe's cofounder Ashneer Grover became embroiled in a major
controversy after an expletive-laden audio clip featuring him and a Kotak
Mahindra Bank employee went public. The matter escalated over the next two
months, with the board roping in auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and
Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) to audit the firm for financial irregularities and
corporate governance lapses. This eventually led to Grover tendering his
resignation and the compmany sacking his wife Madhuri Jain, who was the head of
controls at the firm.

BharatPe was last valued at $2.8 billion after it raised $370 million in a round
led by Tiger Global in 2021.


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EXCLUSIVE


COINBASE INDIA HEAD TO RELOCATE TO US AMID HIRING SLOWDOWN

The crypto exchange has announced it is slowing down the hiring process
globally, including in India, amid the downturn cycle of the cryptocurrency
market.

 * ETBFSI

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Amid the regulatory crackdown on cryptos in India, US-based crypto trading firm
Coinbase plans to slow down hiring even as its CEO would relocate to the US.

“To ensure we’re best positioned to succeed during and after the current market
downturn, we’re announcing we’re slowing hiring so we can reprioritize our
hiring needs against our highest-priority business goals," Coinbase President
and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Emilie Choi said in a blog post.

Coinbase India site head Pankaj Gupta is relocating to the US, according to
reports.



“Headcount growth is a key input to our financial model, and this is an
important action to ensure we manage our business to the scenarios we planned
for, specifically the potential Adjusted EBITDA we are aiming to manage to," she
added.

In April, Coinbase's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Brian Armstrong had said in a
blog post that the company is planning to quadruple the number of employees in
India by year-end, adding 1,000 to the existing 300 staff at its Indian tech
hub.

The company had then announced that India will be the firm's technology hub to
develop global products and half of the new hires will be engineers. It had said
India will account for a quarter of the total 2,000 people that Coinbase plans
to hire across product, engineering and design in 2022.



Regulatory crackdown

Recently in the company’s earnings call, Coinbase CEO and Co-founder Brian
Armstrong said that informal pressure from the Reserve Bank of India led the
global crypto exchange to disable UPI deposits, a few days after its India
launch.

Armstrong had said that Coinbase hopes to be back in India in relatively short
order. “The company’s preference is currently to work with the authorities and
focus on relaunching. There are several paths that the company has to relaunch
with other payment methods there and that’s the default path going forward for
Coinbase,” he added.



Last month, Coinbase disabled UPI integration on the platform stopping all buy
orders in India. However, people were still able to sell cryptos and trades were
being processed through IMPS fund transfer. The company has suspended all
payment methods in India including both buying and selling of crypto.


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EXCLUSIVE


WALMART BUYS WAY INTO INDIA WEALTH MANAGEMENT TO TAKE ON AMAZON

PhonePe will buy WealthDesk for about $50 million and OpenQ for nearly $25
million, two sources directly aware of the matter said on Tuesday, declining to
be named as the specifics are private.

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Walmart Inc.’s Indian payments unit PhonePe will acquire two wealth management
firms for a total enterprise value of $75 million bringing the retail giant
head-to-head with Amazon.com Inc. in the country’s rapidly-expanding money
management segment.

PhonePe will buy WealthDesk for about $50 million and OpenQ for nearly $25
million, two sources directly aware of the matter said on Tuesday, declining to
be named as the specifics are private.

PhonePe confirmed it was acquiring WealthDesk and OpenQ. A spokeswoman, however,
declined to discuss the financial details of the deals.



“The founder of WealthDesk and the entire team will be working as a part of the
PhonePe group and both the platforms will remain independent,” PhonePe said in a
statement. “Post acquisition, OpenQ will be instrumental in creating the wealth
ecosystem for the PhonePe group.”

WealthDesk, founded in 2016 and headquartered in India’s financial capital of
Mumbai, allows customers to invest in stocks and exchange traded funds. OpenQ
also offers retail and institutional investors trading baskets and investment
analytics services.

The acquisitions will help PhonePe widen its offerings in a lucrative payments
market where tech giants including Google, Amazon and SoftBank Group
Corp.-backed Paytm compete.

Amazon last year made its first investment in India’s booming wealth management
space as it participated in a $40 million round by fintech startup Smallcase
Technologies Pvt. Google has partnered with key Indian banks to grant consumer
loans online.

PhonePe, founded in 2015 and led by Sameer Nigam, became part of Walmart after
the retailer’s acquisition of Flipkart Group in 2018.

Flipkart owns about 87% stake in PhonePe, while its parent Walmart owns about
10%.


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EXCLUSIVE


VOLOPAY HIRES NIRVIKAR JAIN AS GLOBAL BUSINESS OFFICER

Jain has an MS (Sloan fellow) from Stanford GSB and is co-authoring an MIT press
book on fintech-led disruption. He has scaled businesses across his career and
has worked at Citibank, First Abu Dhabi Bank (India CEO), and Bank of America.

 * Sreeradha Basu
 * ET Bureau

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Business-to-business (B2B) fintech company Volopay which recently completed a
Series A funding round, has appointed Nirvikar Jain as the global business
officer.

Jain has an MS (Sloan fellow) from Stanford GSB and is co-authoring an MIT press
book on fintech-led disruption. He has scaled businesses across his career and
has worked at Citibank, First Abu Dhabi Bank (India CEO), and Bank of America.

Rajith Shaji, Co-founder & CEO, Volopay, said in a statement: “We’re really
looking forward to Nirvikar’s involvement in Volopay’s future. It takes a keen
eye for financial technology and market insights to be able to recognize
potential opportunities – and he gives us exactly that.”



Jain’s portfolio has also included founding strategic roles and investments in
Indian and American startups,. His experience will play an important role in
strategising Volopay’s scalability by bringing in a fresh industry perspective
and influencing the company’s expansion framework.

Nirvikar Jain, Global Business Officer, Volopay, said, “I am excited to work
with the Volopay team. There is a lot of scope for what can be done with the
product; we will continue building adjacent offerings and customizations that
will solve multiple problems for finance departments worldwide. The key is to
execute it well and I want to play a role in making that happen.”

Aside from hiring, some of the upgraded features of the Volopay platform have
also been geared towards benefiting APAC businesses. These include custom
integrations with accounting software such as Zoho, and Tally, as well as more
cost-effective usage models. These are designed specifically to help streamline
the accounting process for many Indian businesses and cut down on the grunt work
associated with reconciliation and bookkeeping.

Volopay is also offering a line of business credit to companies that need
smarter spending resources in order to scale.


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EXCLUSIVE


FINTECH FUNDING: INDIAN STARTUPS STRUGGLE TO RAISE FUNDS IN APRIL; COINDCX
RAISES THE MOST

For the third consecutive month in April, home-grown startups struggled to raise
capital compared with previous months, showed data collated by PGA Labs. Indian
crypto exchange CoinDCX’s funding led in April, with a Series D funding round
raising $135 million, followed by Turtlemint, Finova Capital, Vivriti Capital
etc. Here's the complete list.

 * Sheersh Kapoor
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Leo CapitalCrypto trading exchange CoinDCX raised the most in the month of April
in a series D funding round of $135.9 million (about Rs 1,000 crore) from
investors Pantera Capital, Steadview Capital, others, doubling its valuation to
$2.15 billion in less than a year to become the most valued crypto trading
platform in India, PGA data showed.

InsurTech platform Turtlemint came in as a close second raising $120 million,
led by Amansa Capital, Jungle Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners, at a current
valuation of $900-950 million, said a person in the know.

The Indian startup ecosystem continued to thrive in 2021 and somewhat during the
first quarter of 2022.



However, a decline in funding, especially for larger deals, and the number of
unicorns and ESOP buybacks in April indicated a slowdown yet again, where
home-grown startups struggled to raise capital compared to previous months.

According to reports, Indian startups have raised $2.65 billion across 121 deals
in April, a 33.75% decline from $4 billion in the previous month.


Here's a list of top fintech funding rounds that took place in April, 2022,
based on the data collated by PGA Labs.



FinTech Description Funding Amount ($ million) Investors Finova Capital NBFC
focused on micro and small business
65Norwest Venture Partners,Maj Invest, and Faering Capital.Belstar Investment
and FinanceProvider of scalable microfinance services to entrepreneurs
37.5Affirma Capital, Muthoot Finance and Maj InvestVivriti CapitalMarketplace
for small enterprises and individuals that lack efficient access to financial
services
55Lightrock India and Creation InvestmentsEnKashCorporate spend management and
cards fintech
20Ascent capital, Baring India Private Equity, White Ventures Tortoise Online
savings platform for individuals2.3Vertex Ventures
Card91Offers plug & play payment infrastructure as a service for the businesses
who want to issue, control, view and approve payments
13Infinity Ventures CoinDCX Crypto exchange app 135Kindred Ventures, Pantera
Capital and Steadview Capital Management LLC, Kingsway, DraperDragon, Republic,
along with existing backers B Capital Group, Coinbase, Polychain and
CadenzaFinbots.AI AI-envisioned firm that brings innovation to banks and
financial institutions.3AccelKinara CapitalMSME fintech company
50 Nuveen Global Impact fund, Triple JumpTurtlemint Online comparison platform
for life and non-life insurance120Amansa Capital, Jungle Ventures, and Nexus
Venture Partners.Vested finance Online investment platform that develops an
avenue for Indian investors to invest in the U.S. stock market12Ayon
CapitalEximePeB2B fintech platform3.5Leo CapitalStockalFractional trading &
investment platform focused on stocks
9Hashed, ARC Group Ventures (venture capital arm of ARC Group), Trica, 7Square,
AZ Ventures, Czar Capital, Riso CapitalFinancepeerOnline Lender for Education
Loans
38QED Investors,Aavishkaar Capital,Ardent Ventures, DMI AIF – The Sparkle Fund,
9Unicorns, LC Nueva AIF and Maxar.vc.SaveINDigital bank for consumers4Goodwater
Capital, Y combinator



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EXCLUSIVE


INDUSTRY DIVIDED OVER SEBI'S PROPOSAL TO BAN CELEBRITIES IN CRYPTO ADS

According to multiple media reports, the capital markets regulator said public
personalities could be held accountable if crypto ads are found to be violating
regulations.

 * Pawan Nahar
 * ETMarkets.com

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New Delhi: After a new set of guidelines for the crypto advertisement laid down
by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) in February earlier this
year, market regulator Sebi has now proposed to bar celebrities and public
figures from endorsing cryptos.

According to multiple media reports, the capital markets regulator said public
personalities could be held accountable if crypto ads are found to be violating
regulations.

However, the ASCI said it isn't discussing changing its guidelines on crypto
advertisements, clearing the air on its position as an important stakeholder on
a suggested ban on Indian celebrities endorsing crypto products.



Sebi had submitted a written report to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on
Finance, Hindu Businessline reported.

The move is likely to be rolled out due to the rising restrictions and curbs on
the crypto space in India, such as taxations on gains, TDS and other measures
taken by the government in the last few months.

Industry players have a mixed opinion on the proposal. A few of them believe
that investment decisions are not influenced by a celebrity or renowned
personality, whereas others think that the government should not hurry to take
any such action.

It might not be prudent for institutions to jump the gun while the government is
doing a detailed study on regulating the crypto industry, said Vikram Subburaj,
CEO, Giottus Crypto Platform.

"This would just undermine the work of the regulators. A holistic approach to
the industry, guided by regulations, will be the best way forward for both the
consumers and the industry," he said.

Sathvik Vishwanath, Co-Founder & CEO, Unocoin said the same is already true for
stock and mutual funds broking firms. "As we are dealing with money and returns
directly, it is important that a common man does not get influenced by
celebrities," he added.



However, neither the ASCI, nor the Sebi has the authority to ban celebrities
from endorsing products. The power completely rests with the government of India
alone.

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