Sathish says India has been a significant contributor to the Global technology advancement
NPCI platforms UPI, IMPS, AePS and BBPS are being studied by governments across the world as payment models for their own countries, according to Mandar Agashe, Founder, Sarvatra Technologies.
These are truly world class platforms while the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ensures that there is never a systemic risk by regulating banks and Fintech, he said.
“The government, by creating India stack and Aadhaar national level infrastructure, has played a crucial role in creating the Fintech revolution in India,” Agashe said at a webinar session on India: The World’s ‘Fintech Lab’.
Elaborated Agashe, “In India, the regulator, banks and Fintech work very closely and in sync. It has been critical for the growth of Fintech in the country.
“The regulator has played a positive role in the betterment of Fintech. The innovation that RBI has done along with NPCI is genuinely commendable.
“There is a level playing field for the entire ecosystem with smart regulation, including banks and private companies,” Agashe said.
The session, hosted by the US-based LendIt, was to drive deeper and insightful conversations on the Indian Fintech ecosystem.
Speakers at the session gave their takes on India being at the epicentre of a global ‘lab testing’ environment which has ushered in a new wave of technological advancement leading to the creation of several innovative business models, products and other opportunities in the Fintech space.
Speaking on the Indian Fintech market and its evolution, Sathish N, Chief Product Officer at Zaggle, said, “India has been a significant contributor to the Global technology advancement in the last 30 years across industries and domain.
“However, in the last 8–9 years, the transformation growth in the product space for Fintech and startups alike is more evident.
“2021 has been a great year for Fintechs, we have seen significant growth in the number of new Fintechs, investments that have come in and unicorns in the last financial year.”
Varun Malhotra, Partner, Quona, said, “Since 2013, Fintech has been on a very strong run, which has been further accelerated over the last 3 years; whether its regulatory climate or maturing of the ecosystem with density of top-level talent increasing.
“2021 in particular was a phenomenal year in the Indian ecosystem, which clocked huge funding and about a third of it was invested in Fintech.”
Talking about regulations, Sathish highlighted that the initiatives laid down by the government and the policymakers have created the right environment and platform for Fintech to thrive in solving problems
Echoing a similar sentiment, Malhotra added, “The regulator played an important role in this by laying down the right cards and foundational aspects for the Fintech space.”
While discussing about the talent availability in India and the overall growth potential of the sector, Malhotra illustrated, “It is definitely a sector that’s attracting top level talent where we see a lot of innovation and founder activity taking place, and the venture funding is just a reflection of it.
“The demonstrable growth in the ecosystem achieved in the past few years including good value exits, IPOs and multiplication of shareholders value is driving higher funding in the country.”
The Fintech market in India is one of the world’s fastest growing. By some estimates it is the third largest behind the US and China.
The webinar discussed factors beyond a ‘lab testing’ environment. Multiple factors like the size and scale of the market, regulatory and operating environment and talent availability were also discussed.
The webinar was conducted by LendIt Fintech in partnership with Adfactors PR, according to a release on 18 April 2022. fiinews.com
