FinTech in india:

FinTech companies are basically those business organizations that put technology to use in the
context of finance. Putting finance and technology together, they generate optimized business
results and provide better quality product/service outcome to the consumers.

Indian financial market has undergone a radical transformation that has been brought about by
technology and innovation. In India, hundreds of start-ups sprouted in the Fintech space across
the country. The Fintech industry in India expected to touch USD 2.4 billion by 2020 from the USD
1.2 billion in the Financial Year (FY) 2016.

In this article, we will talk about top 15 Fintech companies in India.

Top 15 FinTech Companies in India

#1 One97 Communications

Famously known for its e-wallet “Paytm” is India’s leading mobile-internet company. One97 also
provides mobile advertising, marketing, and payments for merchants. One Communication is
headquartered in Noida and backed by some of the biggest investors like SAIF Partners, Intel
Capital, SAP Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank and has offices in India, Middle East, and Africa.
#2 MobiKwik

This Gurgaon based Fintech startup is founded by Husband-wife duo Bipin Preet Singh with his
wife Upasana Taku. Mobikwik is an Indian digital wallet company founded in 2009. Mobikwik
provides a mobile-based payment system and digital wallet. You can transfer money from your
bank account to Mobikwik digital wallet and use that money for bill payments, mobile recharge,
and online shopping.

#3 Capital Float

This Fintech company in Bangalore is a digital finance company serving businesses in India.
Founded by Sashank Rishyasringa and Gaurav Hinduja, the startup provides flexible and
transparent working capital finance to businesses looking to grow their customer base, purchase
inventory, or manage cash flows. Borrowers can apply online in minutes, and receive funds within
3 days.
#4 BankBazaar

BankBaazar is an online marketplace for Bank Loans, credit cards, and insurance policies. Users
can compare and choose through various services from different banks over the platform. The
platform can be accessed through the website as well as the app. The company was incorporated
in 2008 and headquartered at Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

#5 Incred

Incred is web-based financial services based in Mumbai. InCred, started its operations in April
2016, through its technology platform provides personal, consumer, home, and education loans
besides lending to small and medium enterprises, or SMEs. The company uses technology and
data-science to make lending quick, simple and hassle-free.
#6 PolicyBazaar

PolicyBazar is India’s online insurance aggregator. The Fintech company was formed in 2008 and
headquartered at Gurgaon Haryana. The company began operations in 2008 as a key force in
establishing an informative online financial services platform in India. PolicyBazaar was founded
by Yashish Dahiya and Alok Bansal.

#7 Fino Payments Bank

Founded in 2006 Fino Payments Bank provides technology solutions for institutions like banks,
governments and insurance companies. The startup were among the chosen few to receive an in-
principle approval from RBI to set up a Payments Bank.
#8 CCAvenue

CCAvenue is a popular payment gateway which provides multiple options to the user to pay. It
empowers thousands of e-Merchants with real time, multi-currency, multiple payment options
online payment processing services. CCAvenue provides complete Payment gateway solution that
has the unique ability to offer the full spectrum of Internet payment options.

#9 Razorpay

Bangalore based Fintech company Razorpay offers a product suite that manages the entire
payments lifecycle for all businesses, from startups to SMEs to large enterprises. They enable
online merchants with any payment need to easily accept, process and disburse payments
through the most developer-friendly APIs, easy integration, onboarding processes and truly
involved customer support.
#10 Instamojo

Founded in 2012, Bangalore headquartered is India’s one of the fastest growing full-stack
transactional platform that is leading the democratization of payments & e-commerce for MSME
merchants. It’s flagship products are ‘payment links’ & ‘free online store’.

#11 Juspay

JusPay is an another Bangalore based Fintech company which enable the billion people in India
with secure 1-Click payments on Mobile. Juspay browser is a first in the world innovation, growing
exponentially and processing around 650k transactions per day.
#12 CreditMantri

CreditMantri is the fintech startup from Chennai which empower consumers to know their Credit
potential and benefit from this knowledge. On the CreditMantri site, customers can access their
Credit Scores, learn how they can improve their Credit health, resolve past issues, reduce current
borrowing costs and in the process discover products best matched to their credit profile.

#13 Chillr

Chillr is a revolutionary app thats lets you send money directly between bank accounts using just
the mobile number. Chillr works with leading banks including HDFC Bank, Bank of Baroda to make
payments super simple, secure & instant. Chillr is a mobile payment subsidiary of MobME
Wireless.
#14 Mswipe Technologies

Mswipe is India’s largest independent mobile POS merchant acquirer & network provider in India.
Mswipe link SMEs to mainstream financial services & digital commerce. Mswipe’s solution
integrates with the existing apps of customers & can post payment details directly into the
backend systems of customers to eliminate the task of reconciling payments against orders.

#15 Lendingkart

Lendingkart Group aims to make working capital finance available at the fingertips of
entrepreneurs, so that they can focus on business instead of worrying about the gaps in their
cash-flows.
Top finance company’s category, funding and Founders:

Company Funding Subcategory Founder/s / MDs

Paytm Payments
Bank
(Paytm Wallet; 2.77 billion Payments Vijay Shekhar Sharma
One97
Communications)
ItzCash Card 174 million Payments Naveen Surya

MobiKwik 161.8 million Payments Bipin Preet Singh; Upasana Taku

Financial Software & Nagaraj V. Mylandla; J. Rudhraapathy (Full-

99.5 million Payments
Systems time Director)

Capital Float 88.5 million Lending Sashank Rishyasringa; Gaurav Hinduja

Personal Adhil Shetty (CEO); Arjun Shetty (COO);

BankBazaar 79 million Finance
Management Rati Shetty (Chief Product Officer)

InCred 75 million Lending Bhupinder Singh

PolicyBazaar 69.78 million Insurance Yashish Dahiya; Alok Bansal; Avaneesh Nirjar

Lendingkart 64.4 million Lending Harshvardhan Lunia; Mukul Sachan

Fino Payments Bank

59.3 million Payments Rishi Gupta
(Fino PayTech)
Mswipe
56 million Payments Manish Patel
Technologies
Ezetap Mobile
51 million Payments Abhijit Bose; Bhaktha Keshavachar
Solutions
Electronic Payments
40 million Payments Mani Mamallan
and Services

NeoGrowth Credit 36.7 million Lending Dhruv Khaitan; Piyush Khaitan

CCAvenue 31.3 million Payments Vishwas Patel

Coverfox 29 million Insurance Varun Dua; Devendra Rane

Personal
ClearTax 15.42 million Finance Archit Gupta; Srivatsan Chari; Ankit Solanki
Management
Personal
FundsIndia 15.24 million Finance CR Chandrasekar; Srikanth Meenakshi
Management
Deepak Jain; Abhishek Kothari; Ritesh Jain;
Flexiloans 15 million Lending
Manish Lunia
 Kunal Varma; Anuj Kacker; Bala
MoneyTap 12.3 million Lending
Parthasarathy

Razorpay Software 11.5 million Payments Shashank Kumar; Harshil Mathur

CreditMantri 10.21 million Lending Sudarshan R; Gowri Mukherjee; Ranjit Punja

Personal
MoneyView 10.1 million Finance Sanjay Aggarwal
Management
Sundeep Sahi; Alok Mittal; Siddharth
Indifi Technologies 10 million Lending
Mahanot

Elizabeth Chapman; Priya Sharma; Ashish

ZestMoney 8.5 million Lending
Anantharaman

Sony Joy; Anoop Sankar; Mohamed Galib;

Chillr 7 million Payments
Lishoy Bhaskaran

LoanTap 7 million Lending Satyam Kumar; Vikas Kumar

KP Saravanan; Thiyagarajan T; Rajaraman

ChargeBee
6.2 million Payments Santhanam;
Technologies
Krish Subramanian
Rubique 6 million Lending Manavjeet Singh

Juspay 5.8 million Payments Vimal Kumar; Ramanathan RV

Faircent 5.75 million Lending Vinay Mathews; Rajat Gandhi; Nitin Gupta

Early Salary 5.5 million Lending Akshay Mehrotra

IndiaLends 5 million Lending Gaurav Chopra; Mayank Kachhwaha

Online Trading
Upstox 4 million Ravi Kumar; Raghu Kumar; Shrini Viswanath
Platform

AirPay Payment Kunal Jhunjhunwala; Amit Kapoor; Rohan

3.6 million Payments
Services Deshpande

Shankar Narayanan; Parikshit Paspulati; Ravi

Active.ai 3.5 million AI
Shankar

Sampad Swain; Akash Gehani; Harshad

Instamojo 3.1 million Payments
Sharma
SecureNow
3 million Insurance Abhishek Bondia; Kapil Mehta
TechServices

RedCarpet 2.6 million Lending Sandeep Srinivasa; Kartik Venkataraman

 Personal
2.5 million
Scripbox.Com India Finance Sanjiv Singhal; Ashok Kumar E R
(disclosed)
Management
Paynear 2.5 million Payments Anil Bharadwaj; Priti Shah

TruPay 2.3 million Payments Rahul Gochhwal; Narender Kumar

Loan Frame
2.25 million Lending Shailesh Jacob
Technologies

2.2 million Alok Bhatnagar; Neeraj Aggarwala;

Easypolicy Insurance
(disclosed) Divyanshu Tripathi

CreditVidya 2 million Lending Abhishek Agarwal; Rajiv Raj

Aurko Bhattacharya; Uday Somayajula;

ePaylater 2 million Lending
Akshat Saxena;

Sathvik Vishwanath; Abhinand Kaseti; Sunny

UnoCoin 1.75 million Cryptocurrency
Ray; Harish B V

Personal
Subramanya SV (Subu); Ramganesh Iyer
Fisdom 1.6 million Finance
(Ramg); Anand Dalmia
Management

Indraneel Chatterjee; Balachander Sekhar;

RenewBuy 1.5 million Insurance
Sandeep Nanda

Sandeep Goenka; Saurabh Agrawal; Mahin

Zebpay 1.13 million Cryptocurrency
Gupta

Top Indian FinTech trends:

1.Peer to peer lending (Data-driven alternate lending)

The peer to peer lending methods has emerged to provide a way to people coming from different
working and financial backgrounds to lend money from individual investors or from a group of
investors in the P2P lending marketplace

The new guidelines of RBI and the shift towards digital transactions have put P2P Lending startup
into a sweet spot. With these, people can opt for money lending at a dignified interest rate from
individual investors. P2P Lending is a win-win method of lending for both investors and borrowers.

As of now, there are over 30 p2p lending platforms operating in India

with Lendbox and Faircent being the leading ones.

2. India stack
India Stack always has had a big hand of Government as a support. Maybe, that is the reason for
it being on the top charts of FinTech Trends. Again, the boom of digital transactions is to be
thanked. India Stack basically provides a common and unique digital infrastructure to different
ventures based out of technology and of course finance to up their market value.

Different entrepreneurs, collaborators, and creative contributors have relied on India Stack
frameworks to reform their initiatives. Working on the 4 prime layers of the technology namely
presence less layer, paperless layer, cashless layer, and consent layer, the India Stack has evolved
as one of the top FinTech trends of India.

3. Proximity-based payment
As for developed countries, the flows of cash payments have been estimated to be only 21%
wherein India sees a yearly cash flow for payments to be calculated as 80%. The digitization and
online payment methods have not only empowered smartphones but also have empowered the
proximity-based payment methods.

While these payment methods are still taking baby steps in India, this particular FinTech trend is
going to be a boom in the year 2018. The quick QR Code scanning or one-click payments is always
considered as an easy and convenient option for payment rather than sticking towards cash flow.
In India, Bharat, QR, Tez etc are some names of popular options.

4. Blockchain + Distributed ledger

The Blockchain technology which works on the Distributed Ledger Technology abbreviated as
(DLT), has empowered its presence in the digital assets market. This year, a major exchange of
Bitcoin was empowered through the Blockchain Technology.

The two major pillars of this technology are transparency and reliability that are heading towards
the stage where the most number of people are continuing the usage of Blockchain Technology
for lending their digital currency and bitcoins. This has embarked the growth of the Blockchain
which is also termed as the backbone of internet transaction these days.

The DLT, on the other hand, keeps the secure record of a person’s identity along with a proof
receipt of the transactions done by the person.

5. Artificial intelligence investment

The AI technology has not only took over the IT industry but also proving its knack in the
investment market. In the FinTech zone too, the AI has a great potential in capturing personalized
customer experiences, needs, and expectations with a particular business venture.

As a result of which, more and more business ventures are heading towards the AI technology to
keep a track of their potential customers. Most BFSI based companies are planning to shift to this
technology in the near future to capture regular insights of their business growth.

6. Banking technology
Seeing a rough time in previous two years, the Indian Banking System has been planning to go
under a deep reform. Since everything is associating with technology trends today, so is Banking.

A number of FinTech companies have found to be collaborating with different banking

organizations and with other financial organizations to provide them with software solutions for
risk management, regulatory compliance, and fraud detection. On the other hand, some banking
organizations have been adopting recommendation engines to capture the basic user’s
requirements.

7. Insurance tech
Insurance Tech basically acts as service providers to the insurers and big Insurance giants. With
the latest technology and recommendation engines, they generate a report file for potential users
and help in improving sales.

Not only that, they also help in managing risks associated with insurance amount and thus help
in effacing profits. Insurance Tech has a huge scope to act as service providers not only for the
individual insurers but also for banking organizations and other financial institutions. The
technologies they empower are Machine Learning, AI, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to provide
solutions and to gather consumer data.

8. Crowd Funding
Crowdfunding has been able to shift its name to one of the top trends of 2018 of FinTech.
Crowdfunding operates on the idea of drawing a little portion of money from a large number of
people through the internet (mainly). Since the idea of crowdfunding financially lends a helping
hand to new business entrepreneurs and start-ups, it is becoming a wider concept.

Crowd Funding can be branched out to its two types: Reward Based which is not location based
and Equity Crowd Funding which is basically a collective effort of a group of individuals to lend a
support to a specific organization at one time.
Alternative Lending Breakout Grid:

Alternate lenders including P2P lenders, marketplace platforms, digital lending platforms are
targeting specific credit needs of retail consumers and micro and small businesses that remained
underserved by banks and NBFCs, or specific market segments including e-merchants and other
internet enabled businesses.
The alternative lending business model is built around technology that enables highly efficient
customer acquisition, approval and servicing activities within a relatively light touch regulatory
environment. Most Indian banks’ and NBFC’s operating models, in contrast, include physical
branches operating expenses, significant regulatory overheads, collections and recoveries
functions that are needed to service an aged loan book. Despite the low cost of funds enjoyed by
banks, these factors add to the average cost of a loan. The alternative lending model enjoys
significant operating cost advantage as compared to the traditional banking and NBFC business
model.

Disruption of Fintech In financial Industries:

Here are some ways in which fintech is changing the game for the financial services industry:

1. Chatbots for customer service –

Chatbots are bits of software that use natural language processing and machine learning to
continuously learn from human interactions. This is becoming a popular tool for banks to
 streamline customer-facing interactions such as handling queries or directing customers to
relevant departments. For instance, one of Japan’s leading banks is rolling out a chatbot that
will help customers find relevant information on their website. Some chatbots can even
provide investment advice such as Erica, the Bank of America’s chatbot. Robots, such as the
one used by UBS, scan customer emails for trading instructions and execute these
autonomously, reducing the time taken from 45 minutes to two minutes. The use of these
chatbots not only improves customer satisfaction and reduces costs but also frees agents in
call centres to focus on value addition.

2. Machine learning and AI for fraud detection –

Identifying fraudulent transactions is the main goal of anti-money laundering departments.
For most banks, this involves a combination of software and people. Security software
generates alerts on the possibility of a fraudulent transaction or a virus attack. Then, it is up
to human investigators to determine whether the transaction or attack is a false positive or a
real threat. With the increasing sophistication of attacks, this time-consuming process can
cost banks millions of dollars, loss of data and customer confidence, and negative brand
reputation. According to McKinsey, the adoption of data aggregation platforms, machine
learning-driven statistical modeling and process automation can transform AML operations
by infusing new efficiencies. For instance, data aggregation platforms can mine unstructured
transaction and account data to provide a 360-degree customer view and enable faster
transaction validation. More importantly, machine learning algorithms can leverage historical
records to determine patterns and predict the possibility of fraud and attacks before they
occur, reducing manual effort by nearly 50%.

3. Omni-channel banking and obsolescence of bank branches –

As banking shifts from being a branch-specific activity to one that permeates all digital channels
(mobile, social and online), the importance of having several brick-and-mortar bank offices
decreases. In fact, studies show that the adoption of omni-channel banking is driving several
banks to reduce the number and size of their branch offices. In the European Union alone, nearly
9100 bank branches were shut down by the end of 2016 owing to higher adoption of electronic
payments and online/mobile banking.

4. Biometrics for stronger security –

There is a lot of interest in finding ways to use biometrics such as vocal patterns, irises,
thumbprints, facial recognition, etc., to add an extra layer of authentication for transactions.
Biometrics promotes usability by enabling quick authentication, avoiding the frustration that
comes with remembering multiple passwords. In fact, several banks are investing in biometrics-
based authentication solutions that use the forward-facing camera to scan one’s iris or the in-
built thumbprint scanners in smartphones to strengthen security.

5. Blockchain for digital transactions –

Cryptocurrencies are taking the banking world by storm by providing users with faster and
cheaper ways to transact. The distributed ledger system of blockchain leverages stringent controls
enabling smart contracts and auditable data. According to NASDAQ, the most notable application
of blockchain will be in how it transforms payments for banks as well as customers by reducing
the cost and time taken to transfer money. Additionally, by building inherent trust, blockchain
provides the perfect trading platform for securities exchanges. It does this by ensuring
transparency, thereby minimising risk, human errors and transactional fees.

6. Design Thinking
Synechron says that “design thinking” needs to be combined with creative engineering to bring
the UX vision to reality. Banking providers will focus on a few key use cases and technologies
where customer-first design is key, like account opening and augmented reality. Augmented
Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) will benefit from developments in immersive UX design aimed
at improving the customer experience. The account onboarding process will see a boost from UX
design technologies in the form of a more interactive and gamified experience with natural
language processing and machine learning.

7. RegTech
With an increasingly complex regulatory environment, financial institutions will also start looking
at AI to gain meaning from larger and larger volumes of regulatory data. With newer regulations
like Fundamental Review of Trading Book (FRTB) and Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) compliance,
a tech-first approach will become necessary. RegTech has a vital role to play as firms move beyond
initial MiFID II compliance and gain more long-term benefits from the regulation and take a tech-
first approach to their compliance efforts. This will lay the foundation for greater economies of
scale across data, analytics, and related risks.

8. Big Data and analytics

Big data initiatives are pushing more sophisticated and more open business models with better
data tools and visualizations. While the beginning efforts for data standardization have already
started, financial institutions are still relying on legacy data architecture and infrastructure.
Stepping forward with future systems is a priority for data in 2018. Additionally, this requires new
data infrastructure to comply with the upcoming new data requirements like General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Payment Services Directive II (PSD2). With those changes, new
ways of extracting additional value from data have emerged, such as data virtualization, data
lineage, and data visualization.
9. Connecting With Third-Party Providers to Drive Customer-
Centricity
Through open APIs, banks and credit unions will go through significant changes in the way they
provide CX-based processes. Fintech companies are becoming players in the customer journey,
and banks and credit unions are no longer in control of the customer journey. Customers are
increasingly adopting fintech offerings for better services, leaving banks and credit unions no
choice but to adapt – or get left behind.

10. The Cloud computing

In 2018, adoption of the cloud in banking will increase, but with the focus on security and
regulatory compliance continuing to be front and center. Expect to see enterprise-wide middle-
and bank-office applications start to move into the cloud. Banks and credit unions will feel the
push to create more cloud-enabled business models in 2018, while the use of open APIs will drive
consumer applications to the cloud even more.

Key Challenges in Indian Fintech:

The Indian FinTech sector faces common challenges that could impact its growth momentum.
Most of these are structural and are likely to have an impact on most of the FinTech segments.

1. Regulations: Balancing Act to foster innovation

Regulation will be a double edge sword for Indian FinTech companies, as increased regulation
could stifle innovation – the hallmark of FinTech and drive up operational costs. However,
regulatory clarity will strengthen the sector in the long run, help it gain customer trust, and
thereby attract more capital. As FinTech companies, scale-up, they are likely to face more scrutiny
from regulators. A number of interventions have been undertaken including Bharat Bill Payment
System (BBPS), Payments Bank Licenses, Unifed Payment Interface (UPI) etc. RBI has also adopted
a consensus driven approach to introduce regulations for new sectors, including P2P and
aggregators. The key challenge for the regulator is to create an environment that fosters
innovation, while adequately addressing concerns on customer protection, data security and
privacy. Due to the accelerated rate of innovations, regulators end up playing catch-up and may
have a knee jerk response to certain market activities.

02. Gain trust and improve perceptions through literacy

Trust has always been an important factor in the Financial Services industry. Indian consumers
are known to have a conservative mindset and traditionally had more comfort in physical
transactions, including the use of cash. Although the percentage of population under the ambit
of banking has increased, the unbanked and underbanked segments have limited knowledge of
banking services. Hence, it’s a challenge to build trust and adopt services offered by FinTech
companies. FinTech is a relatively new segment and it is yet to gain trust as a reliable financial
services alternative. Changing the way consumers perceive and avail financial services is
fundamental to the widespread acceptance of the FinTech sector. It is equally important to
educate the target audience about the merits of availing financial services through FinTech, and
the onus will lie on FinTech to improve literacy and perceptions.

03. Financial Infrastructure and utilities

Building a new-age FinTech business calls for building data and infrastructure, which is not easily
available in India. FinTech companies need more data to create a value proposition for customers.
Currently, only a small percentage of the working population is represented by credit bureaus or
traditional banking channels. Further, most of the companies are focused on consumers/ payers
with less emphasis on acquiring infrastructure by broader base of merchants. Non-availability of
digital infrastructure at merchants, is a major challenge. There is an urgent need to expand digital
infrastructure at merchants. The Government, in the last three years, has taken major steps to
expand digital infrastructure, such as internet penetration, and Merchant QR code in the country.

04. Cyber and Data security

As Indian FinTech companies scale up in number and sophistication, they are likely to establish
interfaces with banks and other information sources such as the UID database. Interfaces
between systems could present cyber vulnerabilities, and data security issues. Moreover, as
FinTech companies embark on data based differentiation, the issues of data privacy and customer
protection have to be paramount. FinTech companies will not have access to sensitive financial
information about customers, but are likely to collect personal customer information in their
quest to know more about the customer. Interfaces and APIs that facilitate seamless data hoops
with multiple applications may also be most vulnerable and create prospects for malware
propagation, in case of cyber-attacks. Developing strong defense mechanisms and procedures to
address these concerns will be an imperative for the FinTech sector, just the way it is for
incumbent banks and financial institutions.