Fintech Moments 20-21🤩

The Top 20 (and one) Indian FinTech Moments of 2020

Happy New Year folks! 🎈

We’re here to probably satisfy your new year resolution to read every day, on the very first day. 😉

Let’s have a throwback to the top 20 moments of Indian Fintechs in 2020!

The “Finally!” Moments:

Apparently, 2020 was not all that bad for Fintechs. So many things finally got done. Well, wasn’t that the case with all of us? Let’s appreciate the year a lil’ 😇

#1 NUE Competition for NPCI

Like we mentioned in one of our articles, NPCI was the master of everything around Digital Payments of India. Such a monopoly wasn’t tolerated by the regulator ka baap, RBI.

They finally released a paper to launch a much-awaited, for-profit, digital payment regulator called: “New Umbrella Entity”. Although it’ll take a year or two for it to be completely formed, the excitement around it is bouncing off the walls!

The story is pretty simple. RBI allowed a bunch of private players to form a consortium under the NUE for managing the Indian digital payment landscape, with not more than 40% of the share for a single promoter. 

While it’s a tough competition for NPCI, NUE was much needed to make the clustered digital payment space healthier.

To fight against this, NPCI has already started taking baby steps. With already existing commercial banks as their stakeholders, they sold another 4.63% of their stake to not only banks and NBFCs but also the likes of private digital players like PayTM, Amazon, and PhonePe. 

From the government’s side, RBI governor is going to give NPCI a chance to turn into a For-Profit Organization, in order to “level-up the grounds” with its competitor.

The space has heated up, oh speaking of which, here’s what added fuel.

#2 WhatsApp Karde

Messages, Images, Videos, Documents and now - Money. After a roller coaster ride, MarkZuck finally succeeded to launch Whatsapp Pay for the existing 400 million user base in India, in a phased manner. Let’s have a look at the ride.

Feb 2018 - Launched as a trial run for 1 million users.

Ever since then, there were multiple reasons for the launch delay. Numero uno, evidently being the upper hand it has with it’s already existing user base. The CCI wasn’t quite comfortable with this.
Secondly, it’s against the rules to launch the payments feature without adhering to the data localization norms. This case has been open since 2018. After more than 2 years, in November 2020 - 20 Million users can now have access to this one-click payment feature in an app with which they are the most comfortable with. 

This was of course followed up by NPCI placing a 30% cap on transactions via third-party UPI apps. All's well that ends well.

Oh! Just FYI, Facebook bought a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms in April 2020. 😏

#3 Mutual Funds Sahi Hai

The regulators have been pretty buddy-buddy with fintechs this year and it definitely makes us all 🥺

One such initiative was the loosening of eligibility norms for setting up an Asset Management Company (AMC) - the entity behind our pyaare Mutual Funds.

Previous Norms: Applicant must have a profitability record & a net worth of more than Rs. 50 crore.

Le Fintechs: Hum khud idhar profit ke naam pe dhakke kha rahe hai aur inko track record chahiye 😭

Revised Norms: No profitability? No problem. Net worth double karde bas Rs. 100 crore 🤪

Le Fintechs: Theek hai maan liya, pachhas (50) nahi toh sau (100) hi sahi 🙂

Now, that the leash has been relaxed we will definitely be seeing more fintech activity in the mutual funds space in the new year.

#4 Know Your KYC

Remember how every time you opened a digital account, you had to do KYC by submitting the same documents over and over again? Well, guess what, next time you’ll just have to give a 14 digit number!

Oh, the regulators! 🥺

RBI recently rolled out the CKYC norms according to which, next time when you do KYC with a Financial service firm that supports CKYC, you’ll receive a 14-digit number post submitting your documents. These documents would be sent to CERSAI (no, not Cersei. Thankfully.)

Next time you do CKYC, simply give the 14-digit number to your Financial service firm, for them to request access to your documents with CERSAI, and voila, KYC done.

#5 O(!)CEN

After all the rosy digital payment era, it’s time for the digital lending era. Isn’t it evident by all the attention it’s been getting from the VC’s lately, eh?

Well, here’s a little throwback to one of India’s biggest fintech events - Global Fintech Fest 2020 (GFF20’). Open Credit Enablement Network urff, OCEN was one of the most intriguing launches made here, by the man himself - Mr Nandan Nilekani. For those who don’t already know him, he’s the brains behind Aadhar architecture. 

While we covered OCEN like a dip in the ocean in our last article, here’s an overview. 

Going ahead in this article, you’ll see how big techs are entering Fintechs. A support for the barely sailing ship of these big techs is OCEN. These companies can leverage the oh-so-important-data and partner with NBFCs/Banks or Fintechs to provide loans seamlessly on their platform, taking some help from the Technology Service Provider (TSPs).

We like to call it a lil’ lending fantasy land. 🎩

Let’s see how our very own Jio can live this moment.

#6 The Ubiquitous Jio

If there’s something that made it to the news more than COVID or Sushant Singh this year, it has to be our own Motabhai’s Jio. With so much happening around Fintech, how could he miss it?

In the grand AGM bang in the middle of COVID, Mr Ambani announced his plans to expand Jio Platforms into a whole new trajectory by adding NBFC services which include insurance broking and mutual fund products by partnering with various Fintechs. The plan is to initially serve and cater the Kirana stores with a push from the big hit - JioMart.

Imagine lending to these small vendors, especially once the OCEN system is up and running. Ah, magically easy.

#7 Cryptic Much?

The story of cryptocurrency regulations in India is as volatile as the price of the commodity itself. 2018 saw the RBI ban cryptocurrency trading which received a lot of "hey, WTF man!" from the crypto community. The community and especially the cryptocurrency exchanges were quick to refute with a lawsuit and thus began the tedious process of getting justice.

Well, March 2020 emerged with a sweet sweet victory for the crypto nerds of India - cryptocurrencies were made legal by the Supreme Court overruling the RBI ban. Thus began the victorious boom in cryptocurrency trading in the country. Exchanges & cryptocurrency wallets recorded growth in leaps and bounds.

"The win in court prompted an almost 450% surge in trading in just two months since March, according to TechSci Research, reviving concerns as more Indians risk savings amid job losses and an economic slowdown worsened by the coronavirus pandemic. Bitcoin marketplace Paxful reported 883% growth between January to May 2020 from around $2.2 million to $22.1 million. WazirX, a Mumbai based crypto exchanger grew 400% in March 2020 and 270% in April 2020 on a month-on-month basis, according to TechSci" Source: Economic Times

Now, while this has been a wonderful run, there are some dark clouds looming on the horizon. September saw new information coming in about a new crypto regulating law that would make the commodity illegal all over again. The jury's still out on this particular decision and it remains to be seen how things progress in the parliament. The two ways it could go would be back to square one with a ban or a more progressive approach with rules brought into places to regulate illegal activities while still encouraging investing in alternate assets like cryptocurrencies. We're definitely hoping for the second one. 🤞🏼

The Filmy Moments 🎥

These were a few of the Bollywood x Fintech crossovers which we had to talk about

#8 Download Cred Baby🎶

If you already sang this to the tune of the advertisement then you know what we're talking about. The Indian Fintech jock that either people love to hate and can't stop talking about (both love and hate) - CRED.

CRED's ad campaign took over the IPL season this year with its catchy tunes and A-List cameos. Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor, Govinda, Alka Yagnik, Daler Mehndi, and Bappi Daa??! Daaaaaamn, CRED, daaaamn.

These advertisements took no time to go viral and we loved every bit of it. Some called it pointless some called it genius. But at the end of the day all good or bad, publicity toh publicity hai boss. If there was only a certain percentage of the population that knew about CRED, we're sure they ended up at least doubling their reach if not more. It's all about the traction, baby, and CRED's got it down to the T.

To top it all off, in November, the Kunal Shah-led startup already raised an $80 million Series C funding at a valuation of $800 million. We spy a very very soon to be unicorn. Until then… download CRED babyy 🎶 (no sponsorship from CRED on this, it's just a catchy tune you know)

#9 In the air..Fielder coming..AND TAKEN! 🏏 (Insert: Sunil Gavaskar’s voice)

Confused? Well, here’s a hint:

We’ve seen the “shaan” of Indian cricket become the brand ambassador of countless brands. 

But there’s a different story between Mahi and (what we like to call) one of our wobbly unicorns: Khatabook.

Moving ahead from being just a face for Khatabook, he’s also their money man!

In 2020, our budding little fintech community managed to gain some attention from some big names of the decade-old cricket kingdom.

Let’s say the former captain got inspired by the current captain: one and only (baby awaited), Virat Kohli. He and Anushka Sharma invested INR 2.2cr in another one of our soonicorn - Digit Insurance, making them the owner of a 0.25% of Digit’s shares.

Here’s to the Indian cricketers officially betting on Indian Fintechs. 😉

The Proud Moments 🥺

Being a part of a community means being proud and happy for every accomplishment made by the community as a whole or even a fellow member. Here are some Indian fintech achievements that made us feel very proud. 

#10 UP(I) UP(I) & Away 🎈

The star in the digital payments hall of fame and Indian fintech ki shaan. We wrote an entire piece on it (our first ever!) ICYMI. 

Year on year and month on month, transactions on the UPI platform have been skyrocketing like a spaceship with unlimited fuel. While the early-April lockdown induced slump was evident, the platform recovered and how! From going below the one billion volume mark in April 2020 to crossing the 2 billion mark in just 6 months in October 2020, UPI is on fiyyyyaaahh 🔥

Not only that, the platform now has 200 banks live on it, from the largest public and commercial banks to regional and rural ones alike. If that doesn't speak volumes of the power of UPI, we don't know what can. 

Sagrika found this little shop in a remote location at Mukteshwar which was accepting UPI payments. Leaves us truly in awe of the reach of this payments network!

#11 Unicorn OK Please

If you've been following Fintech Femme, you already know our love for the unicorns. If you're new - read these 🤓 (Fintech Unicorns & Soonicorns)

2020 has been a good one for unicorn valuation ($1 billion+) and definitely a good one for fintech unicorns.

We had three new additions to the Indian Fintech Unicorns league:

1. Digital payments facilitator Pine Labs inaugurated 2020 with a sweet sweet unicorn crown right after a corporate funding round in January. And it might sound too good to be true, but they closed 2020 with an equally big bang - new funding and a $2 billion valuation. Matlab alag level ka swag hai boss.

2. The Bootstrapped Discount Broker - Zerodha. It has been a long time of knowing glances and shy smiles about Zerodha being a unicorn. Given their success story, who could even doubt it? In June this year, the fintech finally shrugged off its humble veil and proudly donned on its unicorn status while announcing ESOPs buyback. We'd say the $1 billion valuation is still pretty conservative, but at least the fintech is getting the recognition it deserves.

3. Payments Processor RazorPay. This one became a unicorn right in front of our eyes as we were predicting the to-be-unicorns of India in October. We had a very surprising yet proud told-you-so moment right then. Our estimate was that given Razorpay had raised $125M in funds at a $450M valuation (back in September), it would be a couple of rounds before it reached the one billion mark, but boy were we wrong, and honestly, it felt good to be wrong. We couldn't be more proud!

#12 Indian Fintechs on CB Insights

What Vogue is for Fashion and Bon Appetit is for Food, CB Insights is for Fintech.

And imagine the glory of being featured in one of their lists. 20 Indian fintechs were just that lucky and promising this year to make it to the Fintech 250!

From big guns like RazorPay, CRED, PineLabs, and PolicyBazaar to up and coming startups like IndWealth, Fyle & MoneyView, Indian fintechs shine bright on the map. We are proud indeed!

#13 Indian Fintech <3 Gates

You know how when you've worked hard on a group project and you think the professors might not notice or appreciate your work, but then they do and it feels so amazing? That's how this particular incident made us feel.

Bill Gates in Singapore Fintech Fest 2020 said: “India is a great example” for the Fintech space. He appreciated our UPI mechanism and made us all go: 

The Viral Moments 😵

Covid-19 was not the only thing viral about 2020. We had Dalgona coffee, Among Us, and then we had these:

#14 HumansAndBulls

Lockdown surely gave us all a “baithe baithe kya kare?” moment. Turns out, for more than a million people, the answer was - Stock Markets.

Yes, just March, April, and May saw a million new Demat accounts. And, for our headlines, we have seen a surge in the user base of two of our very own discount brokers: Zerodha and Upstox. So much so that they are the top 2 companies by active user base, surpassing the traditional leader, ICICI Securities. For both these discount brokers, the user base has nearly doubled in the period of March to September.

Nithin Kamath says he has seen 2,00,000 new users every month since April. It has been growing 100% MoM..wait for it...without any direct marketing! No wonder Zerodha got horned, eh?

The virus wasn’t the only viral thing, after all.

#15 Bade Bade Shehron Ki Choti Choti Tickets

Last year it was Rangolis & Diyas and this year it was Varanasi & Goa. We all have Google Pay to thank for giving us a virtual India Darshan through their addictive Go India game. This virtual game that had users clawing each other for tickets & kilometres, was all the rage during Diwali this year among Google Pay users.

Truth be told, we all know it’s just a game, but we also did play it like our lives depended on it. The funniest part was Google Pay India's posts on social media. People anonymously exchanging tickets, asking money for tickets, designing hacks, and what not! 

Gamification is the ultimate frontier of customer engagement and Google Pay just keeps proving that again and again.

#16 Aar Ya Paar, Number 4

Did we say no Rangoli & Diya stickers this year? Oops! Paytm came to the rescue with its Diwali Tambola. Another virtual game on the lines of Google Pay's Diwali quests, this one too had people opening their Paytm app as if it were Instagram and Twitter.

Say what we may about these games being pointless, we have to give it to these companies for knowing how exactly to tap into the Indian mentality - games and free cash rewards. 

If you look zoom out and look at the sheer brilliance of the strategy it'll blow your mind with the increase in user engagement and spending brought on just by these activities. While the official numbers aren't published, we can definitely wager they are hefty %s given the hype we saw in our own friend groups for these games. 

(Afshan & Sags are still bitter they didn't get their one last ticket to finish Go India 😢)

The FOMO Moments 😨

This year wasn't big on FOMO given we were all sitting at home and wasting away, but there still was a bit of FOMO. (Yes, we're looking at all of you who were chilling in Goa 👀)

#17 System Update: Fintech

Non-Fintech companies like Amazon, Ola, Zomato, and many many started offering small fintech products on their platform. We like to call it Fintech as a Feature/Service. 

2020 saw Amazon launching pay later services and partnering up with Acko for providing insurance services.

While Ola Money has been trying to set a fintech mark in India for a long time now, they haven’t been welcomed with a very pleasant Hola! However, the BNPL trend created such FOMO moment, even Ola Money launched postpaid services after having a dicey credit card response.

Our midnight craving saviour, Zomato has also started to step in the Fintech space by launching a credit card of their own by forming a strategic partnership with RBL Bank and MasterCard. Yep, you got it right. A credit card just for food. Rewards on every spend and of course, annual Pro membership. 

Can’t wait to see what FOMO brings for us in 2021!

#18 Hum Saath Saath Hai

Speaking of FOMO, Indian financial institutions have been experiencing this for quite a while given the long strides fintechs have been taking in comparison. Also, we won't be too proud to deny that fintechs need FI partnerships just as much to jump over regulatory hurdles and launch products quickly.

So it's only natural that the two decided to join forces and bring forth the best of both worlds.

The partnership frenzy kicked off with COVID-specific insurance schemes from fintechs and e-commerce players:

• True Balance partnered with ICICI Lombard

• Airtel Payments Bank partnered with Bharti AXA General

• Flipkart joined hands with Digit & ICICI Lombard

Next came the wave of partnerships for utilities and essentials. This saw Yes Bank partnering with Chalo for a contactless card for bus commuters, and with Affordplan for a co-branded health card. Swiggy hopped on the mobile wallet train with an ICICI Bank partnership to make payments seamless on the food delivery app.

These partnerships apart, we saw a lot of partnerships emerge between fintechs and social commerce platforms as well. GooglePay & Dunzo tied up to boost grocery & essentials deliveries while True Balance & Shop Clues partnered to take eCommerce to the next billion.

All in all, it was a good year of collaboration and we hope the friendly energy amplifies in the years to come.

The Yikes! Moments 😶

Some moments had us cringing and face-palming to no end, but like always it ended up being killer meme material

#19 Fir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani

This year was quite a tense one for the relations between India and China - the unrest at the borders and the resulting Chinese apps ban had people boycotting anything and everything closely related to China. 

And guess which fintech darling got caught in the crossfire? Paytm.

Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant has a 30% in the parent company of Paytm, One97 Communications, and has been an early investor since 2014. A lot has been theorized about the level of influence and control of the Chinese giant in Paytm. Given the tensions that arose this year, fuel was added to the theoretical fire, and Paytm faced quite a bit of backlash to its brand.

Aur jale pe namak chidakne ke liye, their competitors weren't far behind. Mobikwik made quite a bold move by publishing this campaign right on the front page of a national newspaper. Yikes indeed!

#20 Gambling or Not - You Decide

We're guessing this year sucked as much for Paytm as it did for all of us, if not more. As if the China connections backlash wasn't enough, the Paytm app was take off from the Google Play Store in September for violating certain gambling policies with one of its cashback campaigns.

Again speculation began on the Paytm & GooglePay rivalry and Indians were quick to storm the internet with some witty memes. A few of our favourites 😂: 

While the ban didn't last for long, the Paytm app was back on the Play Store and Vijay Shekhar Sharma ended the feud with a strong statement - Gambling or not? You decide.

#21 Mel-Milaap

2020 saw some bold acquisitions from fintechs in India. First up is Navi - the consumer lending startup, a brainchild of Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal. This startup has made some of the biggest moves in Fintech over the past two years and we wouldn't have expected any less from such a strong founding team. 

Over $500 million in funds raised and already becoming one of the biggest consumer lending fintech in the country, these big strides by Navi have certainly been enabled by its build vs buy growth strategy. 

The story began in 2019 with Sachin Bansal acquiring a majority stake in micro-lender Chaitanya India Fin Credit, which got rebranded to Navi. The new entity also applied for a universal banking license which is yet to be determined. Moving on, in 2020, Navi acquired DHFL General Insurance to make its foray into insurance. Taking these strategic acquisitions into account Navi was a big smartie in the growth hacking game. Now it sits with two perfectly licensed businesses and an opportunity pool of business with India's buzzing population.

Navi wasn't the only one making big moves - In July 2020, Paytm also took a piece of the insurance cake by acquiring Raheja QBE for Rs 586 crores. This move closely followed its announcement of becoming a licensed insurance broker in March and clearly makes sense as the financial super app adds another gem to its financial gauntlet.

Another M&A deal that happened right at the start of the year as PayU's acquisition of PaySense for $185 million. The plan would be to merge PayU's existing credit division, LazyPay, with PaySense to fortify its lending arm for scaling up. As payment fintechs look to expand to lending as the next frontier of growth (read more about it in our last piece 🤗), PayU's strategic move makes us go all:

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That's it from us for this one, folks.

Leave a comment below and let us know what you'd like to read from us in the coming months. We are super excited to see what 2021 holds for FinTech!

Here's to a better year ahead filled with fun things, fun times and funnier memes. 😉