According to a media agency, several prominent fintech companies have decided to participate in the digital currency pilot program run by the Indian central bank. These companies include Google Pay, PhonePe, Cred, Mobikwik, and AmazonPay.
According to sources who spoke with the news agency, the corporations will accomplish this by providing e-rupee transactions.
Notably, the digital currency pilot program was launched by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in December 2022.
At first, the only financial institutions authorized to sell e-rupee through their mobile apps were the central bank. However, fintechs were also permitted to offer e-rupee transactions after RBI’s permission in April of this year.
Then, rumor has it that fintech companies are requesting the central bank clarify the norms of interaction with banks so they can implement use cases for central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Fintech companies are reportedly collaborating with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and the domestic payment authorities in preparation for the e-rupee’s launch in the coming three to four months, according to a prominent news agency’s report.
According to the research, the number of digital currency transactions has dropped significantly from over 1 million per day last year to about 1-2 lakh each day.
Use Cases for Retail CBDCs
This news arrives as reports surface that banks are collaborating with fintech entrepreneurs on a range of fronts to launch retail use cases for Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDCs).
The first round of the CBDC retail trial for NBPSOs is testing two significant use cases. One involves corporate cost management and the other involves subsidy payments for agricultural supplies.
Banks are presently focussing on deploying these use cases, and they will now also collaborate closely with fintech firms to support the CBDC trial.
Following the beginning of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) experiment in December 2022, RBI deputy governor T Rabi Sankar announced in April that 2.2 crore transactions had been handled.
What is CBDC?
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has created CBDCs, a digital token equivalent to the Rupee. Using distributed ledger technology (DLT), it could one day replace physical currency with digital transactions.
The CBDC pilot has been serving both the wholesale and retail sectors since its start in 2022, and an increasing number of institutions are rushing to become a part of it.
The country’s Central Bank unveiled new features, like the ability to make CBDC retail payments offline and using user-defined algorithms, in February of this year to boost CBDC sales.
Bipin Preet Singh, a visionary entrepreneur and the force behind MobiKwik, is a key player in the ever-changing world of financial technology. As the Managing Director, Co-Founder, and CEO of MobiKwik, Bipin has been crucial in transforming how India handles transactions, manages money, and adopts digital payments. His journey is a clear example of how determination, creativity, and a commitment to excellence can bring about significant change.
Bipin’s deep understanding of the evolving needs of the digital economy has guided MobiKwik to become a major player in the fintech industry. His leadership style, combining strategic foresight with hands-on involvement, has not only led MobiKwik to success but has also left a lasting impact on India’s fintech landscape.
Bipin’s role as the Managing Director, Co-Founder, and CEO of MobiKwik, along with being a Co-founder at ZaakPay, reflects his unwavering dedication to transforming India’s financial scene through innovation and inclusivity. His entrepreneurial spirit, along with a forward-thinking approach, has not only positioned MobiKwik at the forefront of the fintech industry but has also established him as a leader and influencer in the broader business community. As India embraces the digital revolution, Bipin’s vision and leadership are set to play a crucial role in shaping the future of financial technology in the country.
Exclusive chat with Bipin Preet Singh, Co-founder & CEO, Mobikwik
Bipin Preet Singh – Biography
Name
Bipin Preet Singh
Born
16 June 1980
Nationality
Indian
Education
B.tech in Electrical Engineering, IIT Delhi
Position
Managing Director, Co-founder, and CEO of MobiKwik
Bipin was born on 16 June 1980. He is married to Upasana Taku.
Bipin Preet Singh – Early Life
Bipin Preet Singh embarked on his professional journey by earning a B Tech in Electrical Engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, spanning from 1998 to 2002. In the initial phase of his career, he served as a Senior Design Engineer at Intel from 2002 to 2005. Here, Bipin played a pivotal role in the Whitefield project, Intel‘s groundbreaking server microprocessor design initiative in Bangalore. Starting in a 30-member team, his expertise in comprehensive hardware design expanded, encompassing logic and circuit design, formal modeling, and verification for a high-end x86 server microprocessor.
Following his stint at Intel, Bipin transitioned to a role as a Training Facilitator at Janaagraha in 2006-2007, contributing to the creation of India’s first citizen awareness program for the youth. His focus was on motivating individuals, particularly students and young IT professionals, to actively engage in the democratic process beyond just voting. The impact of his efforts is evident in one of the students he trained, who later led the renowned Jaagore campaign.
In 2006-2007, Bipin served as a Platform Architect at NVIDIA, collaborating with the global architecture team on media and communications processors. During this period, he fine-tuned a high-end memory controller for post-silicon performance and played a key role in developing the architecture for storage technologies such as RAID and SATA/AHCI. Subsequently, he took on the role of SoC Architect at Freescale Semiconductor from May 2007 to June 2009. Here, his focus was on multimedia and memory technologies for handheld devices, showcasing expertise in generating and analyzing performance models and proposing innovative features for Motorola chipsets.
Bipin’s entrepreneurial journey began in August 2009 when he founded MobiKwik, where he currently serves as the CEO. Over the past 14 years and 7 months, he has dedicated himself to building disruptive technologies that make financial services affordable and accessible to 500 million Indians, marking a remarkable trajectory in his career.
Bipin Preet Singh – Career
Bipin Preet Singh’s journey embodies the spirit of entrepreneurship. Growing up in India, he began his career fueled by a passion for technology and a talent for spotting business opportunities. Early on, Bipin recognized the potential of digital payments and aimed to create a platform to simplify and transform financial transactions. In 2009, alongside co-founder Upasana Taku, he established MobiKwik with a vision to make digital payments accessible to every Indian, marking the start of a transformative path.
Under Bipin’s leadership, MobiKwik has become a pioneer in digital payments and financial services. The company has played a crucial role in promoting digital transactions in India, providing services such as mobile recharges, bill payments, digital wallets, and more. Bipin’s commitment to financial inclusion is visible in MobiKwik’s initiatives to empower millions of users, particularly those in underserved areas, with convenient and secure digital payment solutions. His strategic vision has guided MobiKwik through the challenges of the fintech industry, adapting to evolving consumer preferences and technological advancements.
Bipin Preet Singh’s noteworthy accomplishments include guiding MobiKwik through different growth phases, securing significant funding, and forming strategic partnerships. His skill in attracting investment and building alliances with key industry players has not only helped MobiKwik grow but has also established the company as a crucial player in India’s digital economy. With a deep understanding of market dynamics and a focus on innovation, Bipin has successfully led MobiKwik to expand its services, introducing digital credit, insurance, and wealth management.
Bipin’s influence goes beyond the boardroom, he actively engages with the broader fintech community, sharing insights and contributing to discussions about the future of digital finance in India. His thought leadership is evident in public appearances, where he advocates for policy changes and technological advancements that can drive the growth of the fintech sector. Bipin’s dedication to fostering an ecosystem of innovation has not only helped MobiKwik but has also played a role in the overall development of India’s digital infrastructure.
In 2012, MobiKwik introduced a digital wallet system allowing users to deposit money online for bill payments and more. Teaming up with CashCare in May 2016, MobiKwik started offering small loans ranging from ₹500 to ₹2,500. The MobiKwik Lite mobile app was launched in November 2016, catering to users with older 2G mobile networks and those in areas with limited internet connectivity. By that time, the company had over 1.5 million merchants and 55 million users. Following the demonetization of Indian banknotes in November 2016, MobiKwik saw a 400% surge in financial transactions by late December 2016.
In February 2017, MobiKwik shared plans to invest about $45 million to increase its user base from 50 million to 150 million in 2017. By June 2017, Paytm and MobiKwik jointly accounted for 80 percent of India’s mobile wallet transactions market. In 2019, MobiKwik expanded its services internationally through a partnership with DT One. Also in 2019, the company diversified its offerings by providing loans, insurance, and investment advice.
On February 25, 2021, an Indian security researcher named Rajshekhar Rajaharia asserted that a hacker group named Jordandaven had taken the KYC details of almost 100 million MobiKwik users from a company server and posted them for sale on the dark web. The company, on March 4, 2021, refuted the claim and declared its intent to take legal action against the researcher. Subsequently, several independent researchers and users confirmed the availability of their MobiKwik data online. On March 30, 2021, TechCrunch reported that the company was hiring a third party to conduct a forensic data security audit.
Bipin Preet Singh – Achievements and Recognitions
Bipin is widely acknowledged as one of India’s top tech founders. In 2016, he made it to the ‘Fortune 40 under 40’ list of Indian entrepreneurs. Additionally, in 2018, he was recognized in the ‘Economic Times’ 40 under 40′ list of India’s prominent business leaders.
Bipin Preet Singh is the Co-founder, Managing Director, and CEO of MobiKwik.
What is MobiKwik about?
MobiKwik, India’s top digital banking platform, offers diverse financial services for both consumers and merchants, encompassing payments, digital credit, and investments.
What is MobiKwik used for?
MobiKwik has broadened its scope to cover various use cases, spanning bill payments, eCommerce, food delivery, petrol pumps, major retail chains, pharmacies, and local Kirana stores. Their platform facilitates peer-to-peer transactions through the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), MobiKwik Wallet, and seamless transfers from MobiKwik Wallet to banks.
Fintech, short for financial technology, has become a crucial part of the global economy., all financial tasks were completed through paperwork only, as a paper-based medium was considered to be the safest. But with the development of technology, the internet has emerged as the preferred platform for financial transactions.
It is essentially an economic industry composed of companies that use technology to make financial services more efficient. They are used mainly by individuals to help in mobile payments, insurance, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, stock trading, digital lending and credit, budgeting and much more. Tech-focused startups and similar new market entrants are disrupting the way in which the financial services industry conducts its operations.
India has the world’s second-biggest fintech hub with more than 2,565 startups operating currently, there were only 737 in 2014. India’s largest share from fintech startups is through ‘payments’ and is followed by lending, wealth tech, personal finance, insurtech, regtech and others.
Let’s look at the list of the top fintech companies in India.
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Paytm was founded in 2010 and is India’s largest payment company that offers consumers multi-source and multi-destination payment solutions. They allow consumers to make payments from any bank account to any other bank account free of cost, i.e., 0% fee charges. Over 8 million merchants have availed its comprehensive payment solutions.
Paytm was founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma and is owned by One97 Communications and is licensed by RBI. The Paytm app allows users to shop for both physical and digital goods, and also pay for DTH plans, bill payments, and mobile recharges.
The company partnered with Alibaba’s cloud computing arm – ‘AliCloud’ to expand its payment network on a global scale. They have investors like Berkshire Hathaway, SoftBank Group, and MediaTek and even raised an undisclosed amount from Ratan Tata in March 2015. It is arguably the biggest fintech startup in India.
2. Razorpay
Founder: Shashank Kumar, Harshil Mathur
Founded: 2013
Razorpay Logo
Founded in Bangalore, Razorpay focuses on the payment needs of startups and enterprises. With Razorpay, merchants can easily accept, process, and disburse money to and from their dealers. It was founded in 2014 by Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar.
Thousands of clients use its service as it allows an online business to accept, process, and distribute digital payments through various modes like debit cards, credit cards, net banking, UPI, and prepaid digital wallets. It is one of the biggest fintech companies in Bangalore.
3. Upstox
Founder: Ravi Kumar, Kavitha Subramanian and Shrini Viswanath
Founded: 2009
Upstox Logo
Upstox provides financial services such as investments in stocks, mutual funds, derivatives, commodities, ETFs, and digital gold. It ensures full transparency in pricing by offering zero brokerage for equity trades and up to INR 20 per order for intraday, commodities, and currencies.
The founders, Ravi Kumar, Kavita Subramanian, and Srini Vishwanath conceived this idea of making trading and investing easier and cheaper and created Upstox for fellow young Indians. The Mumbai-based company is backed by industry giants like Tiger Global and Ratan Tata and currently has more than 250 employees and the fintech is striving to make trading a second nature for its users.
4. Cred
Founder: Kunal Shah
Founded: 2018
Cred Logo
Cred is a fintech startup founded by Kunal Shah, the founder of FreeCharge. The app aims to make paying credit card bills simpler and rewards you for paying them on time. The app asks for your phone number to check your credit score with Cibil, CRIF and Experian.
5. ETMoney
Founder: Mukesh P Kalra
Founded: 2005
ETMoney Logo
ETMoney is a full-stack investment platform with a wide range of products in the domains of investments, credit cards and loans, insurance, and financial tools. It aims to simplify the financial journey of retail customers.
ETMoney was founded by Mukesh Kalra in 2015. A passionate company that indulges in personal finance, has become the first fintech company in India to introduce Aadhar-based SIP payments. With more than 100 crore bank accounts linked to Aadhar, the company plans to simplify installment payments with Aadhar OTP verifications.
The company has also partnered with Google Pay for a simplified way to invest in Mutual Funds and National Pension System.
Sampad Swain, Akash Gehani and Aditya Sengupta co-founded Instamojo in September 2012. Instamojo started as a solution provider of digital payments which now has progressively grown into a robust online platform for enterprises like micro, small, and medium so that they start, manage, and grow their businesses online.
MojoCapital from Instamojo helps disperse bite-sized short-term credit loans which are worth around $2 million. MojoCapital caters primarily to its merchants on a monthly basis, and it has shown a projected growth of 25% on the month on month basis.
PolicyBazaar is an online insurance aggregator for comparative analysis of products that are offered by various insurers using parameters like price, quality, and key benefits. It helps users compare insurance policies and assists them in selecting the best or the most relevant policy that can be purchased online or offline.
PolicyBazaar was founded by Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal, and Avaneesh Nirjar in June 2008 in Gurugram. They have raised over $650 million as of 2020. The online platform began as a price-comparison website and an information portal for learning about insurance and related programs; it then expanded to become a marketplace for insurance policies.
PolicyBazaar has tied up with insurance brokers which helps it procure information such as price, benefit, insurance cover, etc. directly from the insurers for the customer to compare. They do not charge anything from the customer for their service. The revenue for the company is generated from the fees charged for the marketing and advertisement stints done by insurance companies on its platform.
MobiKwik is an Indian fintech company that was founded in 2009 by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku. It is headquartered in Gurugram. MobiKwik is a digital wallet service provider that offers services mobile and online payments, phone and DTH recharge, mobile transfers, online shopping and a lot more.
It allows users to store up to INR 50,000 in a MobiKwik wallet that can be used to recharge mobile, pay bills, and shop across various channels. Their users can also use the partial payment feature for ticket reservations and cash pick-up for bus tickets booking.
MobiKwik’s investors include Sequoia Capital, NET1, GMO Venture Partners to name a few. Post demonetization, MobiKwik has made it free to transfer money from your wallet to your bank account.
Before demonetization, they used to charge 4% for a non-KYC compliant user and 1% fee for a KYC (know your customer) compliant user. They have over 100 million users across India and many more are being added. Non-KYC compliant users can transfer from INR 1000 to INR 20,000 to their bank account. But once your KYC is done, you can store upto INR 1,00,000 in your MobiKwik wallet.
9. ZestMoney
Founders: Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma and Ashish Anantharaman
Founded: 2015
Zest Money Logo
Do you want to buy something offline on EMI but don’t own a credit card? Zest Money has a buy now pay later policy and offers an EMI option that you can use to purchase things online or offline from its partner merchants. It is another Bangalore-based startup founded by Lizzie Chapman, Ashish Anantharaman, and Priya Sharma.
10. Lendingkart
Founder: Harshvardhan Lunia and Mukul Sachan
Founded: 2014
Lendingkart Logo
Lendingkart is an online financing company founded by Harshvardhan Lunia and Mukul Sachan in 2014. Lendingkartprovides loans for working capital needs for SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises); these loans are quick and collateral-free with minimal paperwork.
The company works across1300 cities and has disbused loans over INR 3,500+ crores till date (2020). Aditya Birla Capital, Saama Capital, Mayfield Fund, Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), and Darrin Capital Management are some of its prominent funding partners. In March 2016, Lendingkart entered into a strategic partnership with Mahindra’s SmartShift – a digitally enabled aggregator for cargo owners and transporters.
Lendingkart has access to a huge amount of data from data partners dispersed across the country. These data partners provide Lendingkart with diverse information about the vendor: educational qualification, family background, reputation, competitiveness in the market, etc.
Refrens is fairly new to the fintech industry in India. It was founded by Naman Sarawagi and Mohit Jain in 2019. Refrens provides a payment gateway system for freelancers to send and receive payments smoothly.
It offers free invoicing, payments, and expense management systems. For freelancers, it becomes easy to enable options like adding payment methods, offering discounts, etc. for their clients. It is so easy to use that it is possible to create an invoice in just 30 seconds.
Pine Labs is a Gurugram-based fintech platform that provides PoS (Point of Sale) software solutions for offline retailers and brands. It was founded in 1998 by Lokvir Kapoor, Rajul Garg and Tarun Upaday.
They initially offered a smart card-based payment and loyalty solution for the petroleum sector. It then introduced a PoS machine for offline merchants. Its ‘Plutus PoS’ solution is a cloud-based software that can be integrated with a generic POS terminal to allow retailers to accept debit and credit cards, e-wallets, QR codes, and UPI-based payments.
Pine Labs’ offerings include marketing tools, reporting and analytics, payment gateway API solutions, mobile payment solutions (via myPlutus), loyalty and gift card programs, value-added solutions like EMIs, discounts, pay by points, loyalty solutions, e-wallets and others.
The mobile app of Pine Labs is available on Android and iOS and can be used for targeted promotions, dynamic currency conversion and more. In 2017, Pine Labs launched its complete suite of services in Southeast Asian markets; it is present in Malaysia.
13. MoneyTap
Founders: Bala Parthasarathy, Kunal Varma, and Anuj Kacker
Founded: 2015
MoneyTap Logo
MoneyTap is India’s first app-based credit line. It provides you credit and you can repay your credit amount in flexible EMIs of 2 to 36 months. MoneyTap aims to make credit accessible to the Indians who use internet banking.
It uses customers’ details to evaluate the user’s eligibility and decide the credit limit. MoneyTap was launched in 2015 by Bala Parthasarathy, Kunal Verma, and Anuj Kacker.
14. Khatabook
Founders: Ravish Naresh, Dhanesh Kumar, and Jaideep Poonia
Founded: 2017
KhataBook Logo
Founded in October 2018, by Ashish Sonone, Dhanesh Kumar, Vaibhav Kalpe, Jaideep Poonia, and Ravish Naresh, Khatabook is the world’s fastest-growing SaaS company. It has become India’s leading business management app for MSMEs with 20M+ downloads in a remarkably short period of time.
This Bangalore-based mobile app service shares WhatsApp and SMS reminders to users when money is due to be paid or collected. Khatabook enables micro, small and medium merchants to track business transactions safely and securely.
Capital Float is a Bangalore-based digital finance company founded by Sashank Rishyasringa and Gaurav Hinduja that provides working capital loans and term loans to small businesses via a technology-led loan origination and credit underwriting platform.
Capital Float offers loans ranging from INR 1 lakh–INR 1 crore with terms between 1 – 12 months. The offered loans are based on cash flows, expected receivables, financials, CIBIL scores, and bank statements. Individuals can apply online for the loan and once the loan is approved, it is disbursed to their bank account.
If you have ordered from well-reputed corporate customers, you can borrow up to 80% of the value of an outstanding invoice, and repay only after you receive payment from your customer. The company has partnered with startups like Shopclues, Paytm, and Uber.
16. Shiksha Finance
Founders: V L Ramakrishnan and Jacob Abraham
Founded: 2014
Shiksha Finance Logo
Many individuals have the potential to become great students but the exorbitant tuition fees of educational institutions hinder them from pursuing education. Shiksha Finance provides short-term loans to students for their fees. The loan ranges from INR 10,000-INR to 30,050 and must be paid within 6-10 months. For a private school or college, the loan can range from INR 1 lakh-INR 73.5 lakh and can be paid within 6 months to 5 years. It was founded by Jacob Abraham in 2014.
Founded by Chandu Sohoni and Poorna Nayak in 2013, Amigobulls provides solutions to wealth management-related problems. You can get the daily stock analysis in the form of short, personalized videos.
The personalized videos are created automatically using Amigobulls’ technology; thousands of videos can be created in a few minutes. This fintech company offers investment advice and news to stock market investors through a patent-pending video generation technology.
18. KredX
Founders: Manish Kumar and Anurag Jain
Founded: 2015
KredX Logo
KredX isIndia’s first invoice discounting marketplace platform. It helps businesses gain quick access to working capital in around 24 to 72 hours by selling their unpaid receivables while providing investors with an opportunity to earn low-risk high returns through a unique short-term investment.
Founded by Anurag Jain, the company provides a technological platform that connects investors, both institutional and individual, with high-growth businesses looking for working capital through invoice discounting.
KredX’s objective is to facilitate short-term working capital to the SMEs raised against blue-chip companies to a network of financiers. KredX’s recent acquisition of Hummingbill, a New York-based startup – to strengthen technological capability has assisted the former to progress its growth curve in the lending space.
Founded by Ranjit Punja, Gowri Mukherjee and Rajasundaram Sudarshan in 2011, Credit Mantri is a credit facilitator which uses data and technology to help people make better financial decisions. It provides an Equifax credit score that is one of the four credit bureaus authorized in India by the RBI.
Anyone who needs credit can create a credit profile on CreditMantri’s website to apply for loans and credit card offers based on his or her credit profile. The Equifax score is used by CreditMantri to analyse the individual’s credit profile
Headquartered in Mumbai, Mswipe provides software solutions and payment devices to merchants. Mswipe works with all kinds of bank accounts; hence, merchants don’t have to open a new account for their devices. The company was founded in 2011 by Manish Patel.
21. Financial Software Systems (FSS)
Founders: Nagaraj Mylandla
Founded: 1991
FSS Logo
Financial Software Systems Pvt. Ltd. was founded in 1991 and is a Chennai-based fintech venture that provides electronic payment and financial transaction processing solutions and services globally. Financial Software Systems records all of the financial activities within a business organization.
Its products include card management, merchant management, mobile payments, financial inclusion, messaging middleware, and value-added solutions. FSS also offers software services that include systems integration, offshore development, project management and implementation, and 24/7 global helpdesk support services.
22. BankBazaar
Founder: Rati Rajkumar
Founded: 2008
BankBazaar Logo
BankBazaar is a Chennai-based online financial platform founded in 2008 by Adhil Shetty, Arjun Shetty, and Rati Shetty for product distribution and comparison analysis. It enables users to buy personal loans, home loans, auto loans, and education loans.
BankBazaar also offers debit and credit cards, life insurance, health insurance, auto insurance, travel insurance products, mutual funds, fixed deposits, and savings accounts. With multiple offers from multiple banks, you can compare offers and check your eligibility in minutes.
Users only need to provide basic details to apply for a product online and can track its status. BankBazaar’s revenue comes from application-based commissions from banks. Customers don’t need to pay any charge.
23. Active.Ai
Founder: Ravi Shankar, Parikshit Paspulati, Shankar Narayanan
Founded: 2016
Active.Ai Logo
Active.Ai provides chatbot solutions to all types of banks and other financial institutions. Although it is a Singapore-based startup, it has a lab in Banglore and was founded by 3 Indians – Ravishankar, Shankar Narayan, and Parikshit Paspulati in 2016. The main focus of Active.Ai is on the banking sector.
24. Finly
Founder: Vivek Alike Ganapathy
Founded: 2017
Finly Logo
Finly lets companies and startups analyse their expenses. Besides expense management, Finly also eases the process of fund disbursement, vendor payment, and helps with the automation of collection. It builds financial software products to save the companies money and time. It was founded in 2015 by Vivek AG.
25. Ezetap
Founder: Byas Nambisan
Founded: 2011
Ezetap Logo
Ezetap, co-founded by Abhijit (Bobby) Bose and Bhaktha Keshvachar, provides businesses and financial institutions with smart technological transaction solutions. The Company develops and commercializes a mobile point of sale (PoS) solution that allows mobile devices to be converted into PoS terminals by connecting a card-reader to the headphone jack of the device.
Financepeer helps to pay the entire year fees upfront to the School in one installment and collects fees in 3 to 12 monthly installments from parents at 0 Interest and 0 Cost. It is a Google incubated School (K-12) Fee Financing Company.Rohit Gajbhiye, Naveesh Reddy, Sunit Gajbhiye and Debi Prasad Baral launched Financepeer in 2017 to cater to an audience that cannot afford to pay the school fees all at once.
Loanwalle.com was founded by Sachin Mittal in 2015. It deals in payday loans which are quick emergency loans disbursed in 30 minutes from the time it is applied for. To fulfill the fast money requirements of the customers, the loan approval process is fully automated and is based on an algorithm that assesses the applicant’s creditworthiness.
28. Money View
Founder: Puneet Agarwal and Sanjay Aggarwal
Founded: 2014
Money View Logo
Money View was launched in 2014 by two IIT friends, Sanjay Aggarwal and Puneet Agarwal. Money View is a loan financer, and also helps in planning overall finances. Itcaters for the user with personal finance management, to keep a check on everyday finances and also provides loans ranging from INR 10,000 to 5,00,000 within a day or less. The application provides the user with a view of their bank balance, income spends, and income dues by pulling from their SMSes.The app runs and is updated even without internet connectivity.
29. Cube Wealth
Founder: Satyen Kothari
Founded: 2016
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Cube Wealth was founded by Satyen Kothari in 2016, who had previously founded Citrus Pay. Cube Wealth provides comprehensive portfolio management solutions to help busy professionals achieve their goals through investments.
The app helps individuals to invest in multiple asset classes including equities, mutual funds, P2P lending, gold, and even charitable investing to build a well-rounded portfolio. It is a subscription-based automated wealth technology application that works on the concept of disciplined long-term wealth creation.
Goal Teller founded by Vivek Banka in 2020 is a financial planning platform that allows users to build their own financial plans. It is a fintech startup in the investment planning space and is operating in the B2C space.
31. Kuants
Founders: Ayush Gangwar, Mohit Bansal
Founded: 2017
Kuants Logo
Kuants was founded in the last month of 2017, by Ayush Gangwar and Mohit Bansal. Their inspiration for the startup was to ensure that technology never acts as a barrier to a stock trader while exploring the domain of algorithmic trading. Kuants is a Fintech startup based in Gurugram, making algorithmic trading easy for those who cannot code themselves.
Akshat Saxena, Aurko Bhattacharya and Uday Somayajula are the founders of ePayLater. ePayLater provides credit at the point of sale. It offers a simple checkout experience by providing customers with the ability to conclude a transaction with just one click of a button. It is a ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ solution through which customers can get access to an instant credit limit to make faster purchases.
PayKun was launched by Nikunj Yadav, Prashant Kambad, Vijay Yadav, Deepak Dabhi and Nirav Solanki, who were five friends from Gujarat. It was founded in the year 2018, with the primary intention to introduce ease and integrity into the online payment system. PayKun is an online payment gateway integrator that allows merchants to integrate any payment gateway they prefer. It is an affordable and secure solution for sellers. And what’s more, it does not require the user to have any technical skills to use it.
PaisaDukan was established by Rajiv M Ranjan in 2017 . It is a P2P platform that acts as a mediator between investors and borrowers. The company serves as a digital marketplace to enable borrowers to meet their financial needs, provide investors with a safer and smarter investment option and aid financial inclusion.
35. Cashfree
Founders: Reeju Datta, Akash Sinha
Founded: 2015
Cashfree Logo
Cashfree, a full-stack payments solution is incubated and backed by PayPal and YCombinator respectively. Cashfree helps global and Indian businesses collect and disburse payments via 100+ payment methods including MasterCard, Visa, RuPay, UPI, NEFT, IMPS, Paytm, and other wallets.
It also claims of being India’s leading API banking platform. Other than payment gateway products, Cashfree has products such as UPI auto pay, Refunds Suite, Auto collect options and Marketplace settlements. Cashfree has integrated with major platforms such as Shopify, Amazon Pay, PayPal, Google Pay, and Ola Money.
36. CoinDCX
Founders: Sumit Gupta, Neeraj Khandelwal
Founded: 2018
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Founded by IIT Bombay alumni Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal in April 2018, CoinDCX is a beginner-friendly crypto exchange platform.Investment in cryptocurrency has been made easy by CoinDCX. The platform also enables users to access a wide range of financial products and services backed by insurance protection.
The crypto platform with 1 lakh active users has a more than $40 million trading volume. Backed by hedge fund giant Polychain Capital, the platform offers crypto transactions at no cost to investors. For those who trade, it charges a fee of 0.1%.
The company recently launched CoinDCX Go. This product runs on the 7M framework which studies and analyses the depths of the crypto market and predicts future threats. On this platform, crypto assets are listed with uncompromising listing criteria. The product accommodates currencies like Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Tron, Bitcoin Cash, Matic, Litecoin, etc.
Easy Home Finance is a housing finance company that offers home loans through a paperless route. The Mumbai-based company was founded by Rohit Chokhani. It is registered under National Housing Bank Act as a housing finance company and aims to tap the market using a paperless experience.
Its products include home loans, home construction/extension loans, loans against property, and loans through Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana. They also have a pre-approved property database for home options and instant loan approvals.
The company, backed by Harbourfront Group, aims to streamline the onboarding, assessment, and management of home loans through an AI-based lending platform. Easy Home Finances is focused on providing home loans to first-time buyers and women who wish to enter the property market and also targets customers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across India. It is also set to launch a Product-as-a-service (PaaS) with co-lenders and other financing companies.
38. Recko
Founder: Saurya Prakash Sinha
Founded: 2017
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Recko is a Bangalore-based fintech startup that is into the reconciliation of companies. It offers financial services to e-commerce companies, banks, and insurance providers who have huge volumes of transactions. It is a third-party transaction layer that ensures authenticity and transparency in all recorded transactions. Recko’s workings mainly rely on AI models to comprehend and collect data, connecting payment gateways, banks, and customer management systems.
Backed by Prime Ventures Partners and several angels, Recko was founded by Suarya Prakash Sinha and Prashant Borde. The fintech company claims to have reconciled accounts worth $5 billion to date and has integrated with big names in the fintech industry such as Myntra, Pharmeasy, Meesho, Dunzo, Townscript, and Grofers.
39. FypMoney
Founder: Kapil Banwari
Founded: 2021
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Owned by Pockket Payment Technologies Ltd, FypMoney is a platform introduced for financial literacy in teenagers. The platform aims to target the age group 11-19 who comprise 15-20% of smartphone users. In a seed funding round, it has raised $2 million from angel investors including Leberatha Kallath, Mukesh Yadav, and Dinesh Nagpal.
FypMoney takes into consideration the concerns of parents with teenagers and has introduced features like instant pocket money transfers, tracking spending patterns with real-time transaction alerts, and setting transaction limits.
As for teenagers, it is equipped with quick transfer options like UPI, referral bonuses, Fyp Debit card, online investments in Mutual funds, savings, and a social community to interact with FypMoney users. The founder, Kapil Banwari believes that this platform will make teenagers aware of financial aspects, get them into a habit of saving and educate them about personal finance.
40. Avail Finance
Founder: Ankush Aggarwal
Founded: 2017
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Avail Finance is a fintech startup based in Bangalore that exclusively focuses on the blue-collar workforce and aims at introducing credit facilities and financial literacy to them since they’re seldom aware of it. It provides them with a neo-banking platform and includes every individual on a credit hunt, under the financial umbrella.
The startup aims to reach that segment in the financial market that is oblivious to credit card penetration, has no credit history, and has a low to almost zero CIBIL score. The platform offers other financial services including savings, insurance, and investment products. Founded in 2017 by Ankush Agrawal and Tushar Mehndiratta, the startup has raised around INR 85 crore in a funding round led by Alpha wave Incubation.
Upwards is a fintech company that offers personal loans up to INR 2 lakhs within 24 hours to salaried individuals with no credit history and whose earning capacity is at least INR 15000 per month. The fintech has a wide range of personal loans that cover weddings, travel, studies, medical emergency, and home renovation. The company charges an interest rate of 18-32% on its financial products.
The Mumbai-based startup is currently active in more than 30 cities including Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. Founded in 2017 by alumni of IIT Delhi Abhishek Soni and Nimesh Verma, the company has disbursed INR 4 crore since its year of inception and is 40% of its credit demand coming from smaller towns of Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu.
KreditBee is a personal loan platform for self-employed and salaried professionals where they can avail of a loan starting from INR 1000 to INR 2 Lakhs with minimal paperwork and tenures from two to fifteen months. It offers loans to even those without a credit history. It hosts multiple non-banking financial companies (NBFC) that are licensed by the Reserve Bank of India. This includes KrazyBee Services Pvt Ltd which is a non-deposit financial institution that offers innovative technology and availability of credit.
Founded in May 2018 by a bunch of intellectuals from various IITs across India, KreditBee currently has more than 1200 employees and a user base of 20 million. Through its holding entity Finnov, KreditBee has recently raised $70 million which it says will be utilized towards scaling up the lending portfolio beyond personal loans.
43. Finin
Founders: Suman Gandham and Sudheer Maram
Founded: 2019
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Finin is a fintech startup that has launched itself as a “neobank”, in partnership with SBM bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the State Bank of Mauritius in India. It is a platform that focuses on saving rather than lending. The “neobank” has an AI-driven experience for its users which gets insights from your spend-save behaviour. It can be linked to all your bank accounts and keeps a track of your transactions and budgets. Users also receive customized investment options and hyper-personal financial tips that take into consideration your pay cheque, lifestyle, marital status, and more.
Finin users have to rely on SBM branch networks for banking activities and the physical branches which are currently operating in Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. Going against the flow, founder and CEO Suman Gandham believes Finin will make more revenue from wealth management services rather than lending services.
Founders: Samant Sikka, Sanjeev Sharma and Dhananjay Singh
Founded: 2016
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Sqrrl is an investment and wealth management platform for young individuals and professionals. The company is registered under AMFI and SEBI and is available in 9 Indian languages. It encourages Indians to save and invest better while guiding them towards building an investment portfolio with baby steps.
The company uses machine learning, AI, and data science to offer one-on-one assistance encouraging users to invest in high-performing mutual funds based on the risks, their goals, and requirements.
Based in Gurgaon, Haryana, Sqrrl has a team of 40 people including the founders namely Dhananjay Singh, Sanjeev Sharma, and Samant Sikka.
45. Moneyfront
Founders: Mohit Gang, Anil Bang, and Puneet Mehta
Founded: 2015
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Moneyfront is a wealth management platform that allows you to invest in funds and keep a track of them. While many other platforms offer the same, Moneyfront uses a comprehensive database, news, and statistics and lays out the best options for its users. It provides model portfolios so that you have more options and you can measure your risk appetite and choose what’s best suited for your goals.
The fintech company tied hands with Niyogin Fintech, which provides collateral-free credit to MSMEs. Reportedly, Niyogin has acquired a 50.1% stake in Moneyfront for INR 12 crore.
Founders: Archit Gupta, Srivatsan Chari, Ankit Solanki, Raja Ram Gupta
Founded: 2011
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ClearTax is a financial services platform that helps individuals, tax experts, SMEs, and enterprises streamline income tax returns, GST, Invoicing, Billing solutions, and more. Cleartax helps businesses save 2-7% of their net GST every month while individuals have saved up to INR 86000 by filing their tax returns through them.
The company recently launched a GST-compliant billing and e-invoicing product called ClearOne. ClearOne is an easy, affordable, and compliance-proof solution for all the challenges faced by SMEs. Founded by Archit Gupta, Srivatsan Chari, and Ankit Solanki, ClearTax is helping millennials pay their own taxes in a simple and hassle-free manner.
47. Groww
Founders: Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain
Founded: 2016
Groww has become the unicorn in the fintech industry by raising $83 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global. The company has raised $140 million as capital so far. With a freshly acquired unicorn status, Groww is an investment platform that allows individuals to invest and trade in stocks, mutual funds, US stocks, and Gold. it also has fixed deposit options for conventional investors.
Backed by a huge force of investors such as Sequoia Capital India, Ribbit Capital, Y Combinator, Kauffman Fellows, Propel Venture Partners, and Kairos, Groww plans to deploy its funding into introducing financial educational content for its 1.5 crore registered users.
LoanTap is an NBFC registered under RBI that offers flexible personal loans which are EMI-free (partial repayments of principal amounts), and allows personal overdraft and debt consolidation loans that are best suited for your lifestyle and requirements. Whether it’s an upcoming holiday, a wedding, a loan repayment, a new vehicle purchase, or a business loan, LoanTap covers it all.
The Pune-based company recently tied hands with the Bank of Maharashtra into a co-lending agreement. This agreement would help the bank meet its priority lending target through a digital lending platform like LoanTap by avoiding visits to the branch and easier loan disbursals.
49. RevFin
Founder: Sameer Aggarwal
Founded: 2018
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Founded by an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, Sameer Agarwal, RevFin is a digital lending platform that offers loans through its own NBFC. Its products include regular personal loans and Revloans, which is an unsecured credit limit that a customer can use at any time as per their convenience. RevFin has currently financed E-Rickshaws in several towns across India which include Kolkata, Jhansi, Dehradun, Hisar, and Delhi.
Headquartered in Delhi, RevFin was founded in 2018 and has captured the sector of vehicle loans for three-wheelers and two-wheelers. The fintech is backed by several angel investors including Harsh Jain, Anil Goyal, Anil Lamba, and Krishna B Singh.
50. PayU
Founders: Jose Velez, Martin Schrimpff, Arjan Bakker, Grzegorz Brochocki, Nitin Gupta, Shailaz Nag
Founded: 2002
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PayU is one of the best fintech companies in India that provides a payment gateway and payment solutions for online merchants. The platform provides a seamless experience when users check out a particular website or mobile app. It integrates various gateways such as net banking, Visa and MasterCard, UPI, and wallets.
PayU has integrated with giants like Netflix, Myntra, and Cred with unique payment solutions where customers can choose any payment option on any platform or website. It also enables customers to accept payments outside India from 100-plus countries.
PayU India is the flagship company of Naspers Group, based in London. It has also launched an alternate lending platform called LazyPay to offer credit solutions such as Small ticket credit (Buy now pay later), App-based Loans, and Point of sale credit (Merchant EMI).
Conclusion
Startups work hard on their products, marketing, and other business activities but forget about one crucial aspect: finance. Managing one’s finances is of utmost importance. Business is all about money, you can’t run a business if you don’t think about money. This list of fintech startups in India should help you understand the advancements in the world of Finance and give you an insight into India’s biggest and top fintech to keep an eye out for.
There are more than 2000 fintech startups in India as of 2022.
What are some of the biggest fintech startups in India?
Some of the biggest fintech startups in India are,
Paytm
Cred
Razorpay
Instamojo
Lendingkart
MoneyView
Paykun
PaisaDukan
Mswipe
Kredx
What is FinTech Company India?
Financial technology is abbreviated to FinTech and it comprises companies that use technology to offer financial services. It has emerged as a relatively new industry in India.
What are examples of FinTech?
Some examples of FinTech are mobile banking, mobile payments, trading, cryptocurrency, insurance, trading, and lending to name a few.
Over the last four years, the Indian entrepreneurship ecosystem has risen from 35K startups in 2016 to more than 55K startups in 2020 with more than $48.7 billion being raised during the revealed rounds of investment. As a result of the exponential growth in consumer demand and the increased use of digital goods and services by individuals and firms, more than 15+ unicorns have arisen in India since 2018. The word Soonicorn applies to start-ups that could become Unicorns whereas a unicorn is a startup carrying a value of up to $ 1 billion.
Now let’s take a look at a list of the Soonicorns of India:
MobiKwik is an Indian organization founded in 2009 offering a digital wallet and a mobile payment system. Online wallets may be used for purchases to add money to their clients. The Bank of India reserve approved MobiKwik’s e-wallet to be used by the company in 2013 and began providing customers with small loans for its service in May 2016.
CRED was founded by Kunal Shah in November 2018, after an investment of $1 M in Bangalore, India. CRED is an Indian credit card bill transferring app. CRED has been mentioned among the future unicorns by CB Insights in June 2020.
PayMate provides a cloud-based network for big businesses and SMBs to move from slow, expensive forms, such as cash and checks, to digital payments in real-time. It digitizes the entire payment period to boost overall performance and minimize time, commitment, energy, and costs by more than 50 percent.
BharatPe plans to make the deal via (15-day) deposits due to the dealer commercializing interest. In case of an emergency, dealer partners can, in 15 days from the deal, cancel the settlement by paying a withdrawal charge of 1 percent.
5. Capital Float
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Capital Float was formed in 2013 and became the country’s largest digital lender. SMEs working in sales, trade, and logistics are given working capital loans. They also fund online and offline customer transactions by way of various A-list alliances.
6. Acko
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Acko is an Indian general insurance company that is in the private sector. In line with a digital model, Acko offers a digital forum for all market activities for the company. The business seeks to promote startups as well. Acko expanded the financing of Amazon, Accel Partners, SAIF Partners, and Catamaran Ventures by 274 crores in 2018.
7. Lendingkart
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Lendingkart Finance aims to ensure credit availability for SMEs who either have no or currently lack capital access to credit. The organization plans to pay out loans within 72 hours with limited paperwork. It seeks to transform small business loans by making it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to access lending. Data security is very important for Lendingkart Community. All the details are kept private.
KhataBook is a smartphone application that helps small business owners and Kirana stores handle their books in India by helping them track the money owing by means of a digital directory. Both data collected on the Khata Book App are kept safely in the maintained database. Password-protected access to the database is tightly restricted. In accordance with technical advances, the security procedures are checked and revised periodically.
9. Fino Paytech
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Fino Paytech is an innovator, industry pioneer, and entrepreneur for organizations such as banks, government, and insurance companies.
They are a corporate and technical banking network in combination with a wide variety of services. They even facilitate end-to-end consumer procurement and maintenance as an alternative banking platform. Innovation has tackled the problems of the serviceability and scalability of existing banking networks.
The goal of Vivriti Capital is to build the largest and most significant financial network service that serves a customer base for institutions, corporations, small businesses, and people lacking efficient access to financial services. Their site CredAvenue is a one-stop solution to prospect, assess, conduct, and track debt. It’s an interactive business debt network.
Soonicorns are tech companies, fintech, or businesses with the potential to become Unicorns in the future.
What is a startup unicorn?
In the venture capital industry, the term unicorn refers to any startup that reaches the valuation of $1 billion. The term was first coined by Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy ventures when she referred to the 39 startups that had a valuation of over $1 billion as unicorns.
Is there any Unicorn in India?
India now has 37 unicorns, having added 16 to the list in 2020. It stands third in global country rankings, well behind the US and China, but ahead of the UK and Germany.
What is a tech unicorn?
Unicorn is the term used in the venture capital industry to describe a startup company with a value of over $1 billion. Some popular unicorns include Airbnb, Uber, SpaceX, Robinhood, and SoFi.
Conclusion
In 2021 the startups that are performing well and are the most profitable will turn soonicorns. By the market size of these startups, we can expect new startups emerging as unicorns this year. Startups into Fintech, EdTech, and MedTech domains are in much demand due to the Covid-19. There is high demand for these startups and have the potential to grow in the coming days. We are seeing more startups in the field of FinTech. Fintech is the lead because digital payments have profoundly infiltrated metro and Tier 1 cities and now, other financial digital assets, such as finance, insurance, and neobanking, are more likely to become the addressable basis. In particular, lending firms and payments have been the main contributors to our soon-to-be-finished list.
Avantika Bhardwaj
