BENGALURU: India has topped among Asia-Pacific (APAC) countries in fintech investment, bagging deals worth over $2 billion in 2020 when the funding ecosystem was disrupted by Covid-19.
Investments into the fintech landscape of India was almost double than China (more than $1 billion), a report by S&P Global Intelligence said.
Countries like Japan and Australia fared much lower on the investment index.
India’s burgeoning smartphone user base, deeper internet penetration and cheapest data has paved the road for fintech revolution led by digital payments like UPI.
The tech startups have also expanded their financial services offerings to insurance, micro-credit or loans, investments and payment banks to tap the underpenetrated markets beyond tier 1 and tier 2 towns.
Recently, the Reserve Bank of India invited applications for granting licenses to set up an alternate digital payment framework called National Umbrella Entities (NUE).
Currently, only National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)performs this role.
Sources said companies like Reliance, Tata Group and Ola are keen in securing licenses to own an entity with powers at par with NPCI.
The S&P’s report suggested that the payment firms have attracted the most investments during 2020.
According to the report, the total number of deals in India’s fintech sector stood at 120 last year whereas for neighbouring China, there were a total of just 70 transactions within the segment.