Pitch Off Season 4 is in full swing and we are witnessing one of the most exciting ensemble of investors, founders and the who’s who of the tech industry. And here we are, bringing you articles from some of most exciting and insightful discussions taking place around on. The event kicked off with a discussion on one of the hottest industries around — fintech.
The panel consisted of some of the most eminent personalities associated with the startup and fintech space in the country. The discussion saw Mobikwik CBO Vineet Singh, Adrian Johnson, MD Startup bootcamp and Rohan Hazrati, founder, Rupaiya Exchange participate in discussions moderated by Pawas Jain, co-founder and Global business development head at The TechPortal.
Questioned about the growth of fintech in recent months, MobiKwik ‘s Chief Business Officer Vinit Singh talked about an unnatural pace of growth brought about by demonetization.
Shift is happening, but not at the pace we are used to.
Adding that his business saw over 1,000 percent growth in the last months of Q4, 2016. Interestingly, MobiKwik is not the only one. Paytm had also reported similar growth last year.
Questioned about whether the Indian masses were ready to adapt to the cash free economy, he said that time, effort, money and mindset were all factors in the adaption. Elaborating, he said that we do not tend to use our credit/debit cards for small transactions. One of the major reasons behind this is of course, security along with other things. And that is exactly where wallets like MobiKwik come in.
Speaking about the state of Fintech startups in India, Adrian Johnson, of the Startup Bootcamp, said that a lot of technological shift was taking place in places like US and Europe. However, there were no major shifts. It was more about making the same things easier. India on the other hand, was at a “tipping point”, with new technologies coming in.
India is at a tipping point.You have you, aadhar, dhan Jan yojana. I think you’re going to see a lot of new fintch Technologies rising up. It is a big deal, it is a very big deal. I wanted to stress just that.
He also went on to say that India would likely see a lot of new businesses in recent years — there certainly was room for them in a market that was still growing.
The conversation then moved back to the Mobikwik founder, who said that yes, the government indeed did not have the resources as of yet. And that was why adaption was so difficult. He also touched upon how only a few people declared incomes above 10 Lakhs out of a country of 1.2 Billion. All these issues need t be addresses if a digital economy is to be brought in earnest.
MowiKwik founder said that 99.5 percent of startups in the country will fail. Bringing the attention of the audience to the fact that he was quite well-entrenched in the foundation of the startup ecosystem, he said that events like Pitch Off were important and brought opportunities to entrepreneurs.
It takes 8 to 10 years to build a business.
He went on to add that building a startup from the bottom up was not easy and required dedication and effort. Upon the way forward, the panel unanimously agreed that fintech and building a digital economy and ecosystem was the only way forward. As Rohan Hazrati, founder, Rupaiya Exchange, put it:
We know govt is positive about digitisation and fintech is the way forward. And we will see a major consolidation.
