The FinTech startup sector saw a series of launches this quarter that has been encouraging overall growth.
The news has been good for Indian FinTech lately. Even as the industry looks forward to Paytm parent One97 Communications’ upcoming initial public offering (IPO) on November 8, there have been other developments as well.
Read more: Cascading growth ahead as FinTech adaption will cause tectonic shifts in the industry
Last week, Madhya Pradesh-based industrialist Vibhu Maurya has acquired 40.01% stake in Onesource Ideas Venture Ltd. in a deal value of nearly INR 2 crore and has launched an open offer to acquire another 26.02% to take majority control of the company.
As innovation leads to adaption, FinTech startups have been reporting good results.
Recently, the board of Niyogin Fintech Limited, a publicly listed fintech platform, approved a hypergrowth business plan entailing an investment up to INR 1 billion to create a comprehensive financial inclusion platform offering in the market. The move is projected to set the company up for exponential growth over the next two years.
The company announced its results for the second quarter and half year ended September 30, 2021, and are celebrating the results, which include total consolidated revenues at INR 259.9 million, up 230.5% YoY and debt free and net cash balance sheet with cash and equivalents at INR 1,714.3 million.
The past quarter has been seeing much growth and innovation, with some FinTech startups working to solve nagging problems in various ecosystems
In October, Indian social investment platform StockGro crossed five million app downloads. Also, Zolve, a neobank enabling global access to financial services, announced the closing of INR 300 crores in Series A funding, one of the largest within the FinTech space in India.
Indian FinTech has been going global as well. In September, Newgen Software, a low code digital transformation platform, partnered with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to deploy an enterprise-wide content repository and a multi-channel, multi-lingual communication suite for the Banking Service Bureau (BSB) in Israel.
The past quarter has been seeing much growth and innovation, with some FinTech startups working to solve nagging problems in various ecosystems.
A Systematic Investment Plan for Precious Metals Like Gold & Silver
In September, OroPocket, a FinTech solution that tokenises real-world assets like gold, silver, and other precious metals into digital assets, launched the Auto Invest Plan (AIP). AIP, available both on the web and as a mobile application, is a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) for precious metals like gold and silver to enable secure investments for Indian investors, making investments in digital assets more accessible to the masses.
Users can invest as low as INR 100 per day along with one tap liquidation via UPI, which ensures no lock-in periods. This attractive option comes at a time when many other safe investment options like fixed deposits and recurring deposits have a definite lock-in period of 3-5 years and have minimum balance requirements that go as high as INR 1000.
Furthermore, users can set up automatic payments i.e., auto mandate from their bank account, for easy and timely payments.
Another striking feature of this platform is that users can compare their return on investment (ROI) achieved from Auto-Invest directly with other investment instruments through the mobile application itself by using the AIP calculator feature on it. Thus, they can make the right decision with a reliable plan of their choice and the security of blockchain.
“As against the traditional investment in gold around a festive season or special occasion, we have witnessed that millennials are now investing in gold year-round as a safe investment. In fact, in India as per market analysis, digital gold sales have surged by 70%. The reason is ease of investment along with high level of liquidity and being relatively cheaper than buying physical gold,” said Tarusha Mittal, COO and Co-Founder, OroPocket and UniFarm.
A Mobile App to Help Lenders/Managers Track Collection Agents
The same month, Credgenics, an Indian SaaS-based debt resolution and legal automation platform, launched CG Collect, a mobile application to help lenders/managers track collection agents, monitor their activities, and evaluate their performance.
Alongside this, it helps agents navigate to the borrowers’ location with ease, schedule visits with a couple of clicks, showcase legal notices to the borrowers, and access e-receipts for proof of payments, among other benefits.
This Feet-On-Street (FOS) loan recovery app can significantly improve the productivity of collection agents.
The mobile app closely integrates with the Credgenics web platform and allows features like navigation to the applicant provided address, the direct calling of borrowers, geo-tracking of the agent’s live location, logging collection details (like recovered amount, collection mode, and status for successful and failed recoveries), collection and visit proof, single and multiple loan deposit to the lender’s bank/company branch, and collection receipt’s integration with the communication channels like email, SMS, WhatsApp, etc.
Recently, Credgenics received US$25 million in Series-A round and multiplied its valuation by 5.5 times to US$100 million.
A New Capability to Protect Elderly & Vulnerable Consumers
In October, BioCatch, a behavioral biometrics company, launched Age Analysis, a breakthrough account opening protection capability designed to prevent costly forms of financial fraud.
The technology has lately gained considerable traction among select financial institutions. This capability allows for a customer-centered fraud prevention solution that is designed to protect vulnerable customers, especially elderly users who are often targeted by cybercriminals while enabling positive digital experiences.
Read more: The pandemic has ensured that future of FinTech is contactless
Age Analysis helps protect financial organisations and their customers against a host of fraud threats that focus on account origination for credit cards.
The cycle of innovation and adaption becomes a favourable cycle of growth for any industry. FinTech has been snuggling into this sweet spot of leveraging the demand created by adaption as digitalisation gains a good name.
