Digital Payment
Mr. Manan Dixit, Founder, Fidypay
Covid has accelerated the growth of Digital Payment, and during covid, we have seen unprecedented growth. Retailers, merchants from small towns have also become digital-savvy and transformed their day-to-day transactions into digital mode. We have seen a rise in UPI, AEPS space, and small-medium businesses are transacting more in the smaller cities. Would like to add on today’s RBI policy announcement on Digital payment on 8th Dec, I can comfortably say, pricing revised or standardization of pricing across the industry is indeed a good move. The will benefit the end beneficiaries and also the players in the market in long term.
From the company’s standpoint, we have signed multiple new partners from various domains. Our business has grown over 10x compared to last year. We are now serving many upcoming sectors like Government, Cooperative Banks, Micro Finance Institutions. We are now serving many upcoming sectors like manufacturing, Garments, Gaming, and so on. We have been constantly upgrading our technology that will be able to take the load of the ever-increasing volumes of online payments and make it more unified without payment failures. cyber-attacks and other such malicious acts that Merchants & Service Providers are targeted with. We constantly monitor our system and have been strictly vigilant on any such malware or attacks, we invest a great deal in our technology solutions and aim to do the best in the lot. Talking about 2022, we can expect trends like-
• Advent of Digital Banking, less physical bank branch visit
• Adoption of Blockchain in BSFI sector will be faster
• Mobile payment will drive the growth of Digital Payment more than anything
• Buy Now, Pay Later will be the preferred mode
• Payments with Reward Points thus reduce cash transactions considerably
Fintech
Mr. Vineet Tyagi, Global CTO, Biz2X
In 2021, the fintech sector matured with ample innovations that facilitated holistic financial services over a single mobile interface for Indian users across the world. Fintech has already altered the market forever and shown immense potential to close the gaps in the delivery of financial services to consumers and businesses alike. Ultimately, fintech has emerged as a disruptor, leading the next wave of technology and innovation. In the year 2021, the new-age fintech platforms offered consolidated fintech solutions to users, enabling them to carry out a range of operations such as spending, lending, investing, fund transfer, etc. Assisted e-commerce on existing B2B2C platforms is another feature that new-age fintech provided to Indian users in the year 2021. Financial companies have made huge progress. Collectively, FinTechs have reimagined the once-daunting tasks of opening a bank account, sending money to friends, applying for a loan, and planning for retirement.
Mr. Aditya Damani, Founder, Credit Fair
The onset of the pandemic in 2020 highlighted the importance of risk management and compliance for digital lenders. We at Credit Fair are glad to have outperformed on both these fronts by delivering low NPAs and showcasing our customer-centric approach with No Cost EMIs. Building on this solid foundation allowed us to grow 4X in 2021 while ensuring collection efficiency at over 99% despite the second Covid wave. We also won the trust of leading financial institutions such as Northern Arc Capital and Avanse Financial giving us the ammunition to continue our growth in 2022.
The pandemic has highlighted the weaknesses in India’s social infrastructure such as our inadequate healthcare system and the volatile job market. We’re glad to be playing our part in building the healthcare and education infrastructure for the future by powering exponential growth for our merchant partners such as Pristyn Care and Toothsi in healthcare and upskilling course providers like upGrad, Board Infinity, and Skill Lync by providing timely access to credit to their customers due to our proprietary underwriting and technology.
In 2021, we saw a boom in retail investors flocking to high-risk investment products such as crypto and equities. We believe that digital lending can provide plenty of low-risk high return opportunities for retail investors and launched a platform, Credit Fair Capital, to enable them to access secure high yield opportunities. Our initial offering is a Senior Secured Bond that can be accessed by anyone willing to invest Rs 10,000 or higher.
It has been gratifying to help over 10,000 Indians move up the credit ladder and we look forward to growing 100X in the next 3 years to help over 1 million Indians improve their finances.
Mr.Vivek Banka– Founding Team @GoalTeller
The year 2021 has been witness to a possibly watershed moment in the digital wealth/finance space, especially in India with a massive spurt in digital adoption. The pandemic is one of the primary reasons for the industry’s spike in growth. FinTech companies have leveraged access to data, technology, innovative cultures, and advanced analytics.
The next 5 years promise to see a paradigm shift in the way we manage our investments with traditional methods, avenues, and products being replaced by digital trends. The Indian FinTech industry is witnessing a phase where large financial institutions, governmental bodies, regulators, and FinTech companies are coming together to revolutionize the financial ecosystem that operates in the country. A pertinent example of this would be the Account Aggregator network that is seeing a phased rollout by the entities mentioned above collectively.
For GoalTeller, 2021 was a massive catalyst in our vision of the future which has been compounded by regulatory and demographic changes that continue to take place and promise a future that is very exciting for platforms like ours. The role of FinTech firms like ours is expected to rise following the increased adoption of digital financial services, fuelled by intelligent algorithms.
In the coming year 2022 and the following years, we will continue to witness many more fintech companies and platforms get seeded. India is home to several successful FinTech companies and we will also be seeing a lot of consolidation as larger banks and financial institutions are buying into fintech startups in their quest for going ahead of the competition.
Hospitality Industry
Ms. Ankita Sheth, Co-Founder, Vista Rooms
It’s been a year in which we have gone from strength to strength, with the support of a strong villa-owner community and loyal guests. Vista is becoming synonymous with villas. At Vista, we have built the largest hospitality brand for villa rentals in India. We have grown by 300%, crossing over 100 cr of revenues. This has been driven primarily by a high rate of repeats and referrals. Over 50% of our guests have come to us without spending a rupee in acquiring them. We are no longer just a choice of a getaway but a way to live. Guests are staying with us for multiple weeks to several months with over 20% of guests staying for extended time periods.
We see 2022 as a year to further cater to our guest’s needs and preferences. Our guest feedbacks help us plan and iterate constantly. We are expanding our network of villas across the country while being extremely
selective and curated in the options offered to guests. We plan to grow from roughly 400 villas to over 750, adding over 1500 rooms. Additionally, we are looking to expand our curated list of culinary experiences and activities at each home, mixing local as well as global elements that guests seek to deliver a holistic experience and not just a stay.
Sustainable Fashion
Mr. Kapil Bhatia, CEO & Founder, UNIREC
2021 has been a year where businesses have returned to normalcy and are now looking to stabilize and grow from hereon. We have just started UNIREC our new garments brand where we manufacture garments from recycled plastic bottles. We are looking at exponential growth as the awareness of sustainability and climate change is greater than ever before and customers are looking for options now where they are doing their bit for the environment along with being fashionable.
So right now we do not have a sustainable fashion industry. However, that is all beginning to change because of consumer behavior, awareness from the brands, and the overall increase in the number of new brands that are coming up in this space. We plan to keep increasing our product lines as we are all set to launch our shirts and our women’s collection in the next quarter. Within the product lines, there is a massive scope to improve and we keep adding new products and styles every fortnight to our collection.
Saas based E-commerce
Mr. Punit Sindhwani, CEO, Paxcom
The year 2021 brought with it an array of newer opportunities & technological advancements that changed the way people shop. From being highly dependent on offline retail and local mom & pop stores to getting comfortable with the idea of eCommerce becoming an inseparable part of our lives, 2021 was a game-changer. About 2 years ago, only 13.6% of sales occurred online. Today, that number is closer to 19.5%, a 45.8% increase in eCommerce market share over two years. eCommerce in India is experiencing a very exciting period of continued growth and constant innovation. Given that our eCommerce penetration is still in the single digits, there is significant headroom for expansion. Now, more than ever is the time to evaluate, strategically plan, and build to scale your digital business for growth, in 2022 and beyond
Technology is referred to as the backbone of eCommerce and now it is evolving to be more human, preparing e-commerce for a better experience than ever before. Be it artificial intelligence or voice search commands, it has marked its flags everywhere, making it easier for customers to make their purchases. While numerous industries have profited from digital sales, some are still struggling to compete in this arena. However, 2022 will be the year of game-changing technologies in eCommerce. We’ve already seen some of them in action, and others are on their way to disrupting the sector. Quick commerce, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, Web3.0, voice search commands, live streaming, omnichannel sales, and chatbots are the top trends expected for 2022. All these emerging trends have one thing in common: their end goal is to make a customer’s shopping experience easier and more enjoyable. Shortly these trends will be a part of our daily routine, start optimizing your business before it becomes obsolete.