BENGALURU: India’s Fintech start-ups have received a staggering $5.4 billion funding in 2019 and 2020 so far, with large deal –sizes concentrated in late stages whereas the maximum deal flow was seen in the early stages ( Angel, Seed, SeriesA), finds the second edition of India fintech report.
Currently, the country has a total number of 2,147 fintech start-ups, a majority of which were founded during 2015-2020. That apart the fintech start-up ecosystem is also the second largest in the world, after the US, thanks to massive internet penetration, Aadhar-based identity formalization, access of banks, fintech/lending players to digital platforms like UPI, IMPS, BBPS.
The top 8 funding deals in the fintech industry in 2019 was led by the country’s largest digital payments company, Paytm and its parent organization, One97 Communications. Paytm received $1,000 million in a Series G round whereas One97 raised $ 668 million in a Series G round in December, 2019.
Serial entrepreneur and CEO Navi Technologies, Sachin Bansal’s investment firm raised $395 million from undisclosed sources in April, 2020 when the deal flow slowed down in India due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the report, the second wave, or ‘FinTech 2.0’ will be led by Neobanks that aim to redefine consumer and business banking experiences.
About 405 start-ups are present in the digit payments space and digital lending is also emerging to be an attractive area especially with entrepreneurs including Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Bansal announcing their plans to foray into the microfinance sector
leveraging technology.