Top 5 Fintech startups in India
In this article we are going to discuss about
- What is a Fintech Company?
- Factors that caused a boom in Fintech Industry
- Top 5 Fintech Companies in India
What is a Fintech Company?
As the name suggests the word fintech displays the short form of Financial Technology.
In simple language all those companies that are providing financial services such as online payment, payment gateway, insurance or stock broking services using technology are known as fintech companies
These startups are making it easy and simple to access financial services with the help of the latest technologies like AI, Blockchain, Data Science, Machine Learning, etc.
The adoption of fintech services is rapidly increasing in India even by common people, be it Online Payment, UPI services, borrowing loans, or Investing Money in Equity, Debt, Bonds, or Fixed deposits.
In 2020 total of 12 startups got unicorn status that was considered as the year that gave birth to the highest number of Unicorns in India, but in 2021, till May only, 13 startups have already got this status.
Fintech Startups like Digit Insurance, Cred, Grow and Zeta also entered the Unicorn list this year.
Factors that caused a boom in Fintech Industry
The boom in Fintech Industry in India can be seen because of three reasons:
Demonetization
8 November 2016 was the date when the Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi announced, ‘old notes of 500 and 1000 will be invalid from midnight.’
One of the reasons behind this decision was to encourage the Cash Less Economy.
This caused exponential growth of the Fintech Industry and enhanced the adoption of online payment methods in the country. When there was not enough cash in the market then people had to use the services offered by Fin-tech startups.
Increasing Accessibility of Internet
India is considered as the country having the cheapest price of internet on the planet. This could happen after Jio launched its free offer on the initial days to acquire more customers.
Even when the offer lapsed the price was kept at such a low rate that even a person falling below the poverty line can adopt it without any hesitation.
Because of Reliance Jio, all the other companies also had to reduce their price to remain in the market and that fast-paced the adoption of High-speed Internet and Fintech services like Online Payments and Online Investments.
World-Wide Pandemic
The worldwide pandemic hit the economy very hard, and many people lost their job during this period. But at the same time, it worked as a blessing in disguise for the fintech industry.
Because of nation-wide lockdown, people couldn’t go outside for shopping, cinema and on work that resulted in increasing adoption of Online Shopping. OTT platform replaced cinema and Work from home took place of physical traveling.
All the factors in combination encouraged people to adopt Fintech Services.
Fintech startups had made it very easy to get loans, invest in various instruments, online payment without much hassle, and instant payment in any corner of the world.
Top Indian Fintech Companies
Here are Top 5 Fintech startups of India that have contributed a lot to strengthening the Indian Economy.
Paytm
Paytm was founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in August 2010. It has raised funding from organizations like Alibaba Group, Soft Bank, and Berkshire Hathway that is owned by Warren Buffet.
Funding and shareholding
| Shareholders | Shareholding |
|---|---|
| Vijay Shekhar Sharma | 14.67% |
| Alibaba Group | 29.71% |
| SoftBank Vision Fund | 19.63% |
| SAIF Partners | 18.56% |
| AGH | 7.18% |
| Berkshire Hathway | 2.76% |
| Others | 7.49% |
| Total | 100.0% |
Paytm offers various kinds of services from UPI payment, Paytm Wallet, Paytm Mall, Paytm Bank, Paytm Money to Paying Phone Bills, Electricity Bills, Booking Rail Tickets and Air Tickets.
It is the 2nd most valued startup in India with a valuation of $16 Billion after Byju’s, having a valuation of $16.5 Billion.
It got the First Mover advantage and that is the reason it became the second name of Online payment whether through Paytm Wallet or Paytm UPI.
Phonepe
It was founded in the year 2015 by Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari.
In 2016 Flipkart acquired PhonePe. It offers smooth UPI transactions and its users can invest in Mutual Funds, Tax Saving Funds, Buy Insurance, Recharge Mobile, DTH, and can Pay Electricity Bills as well.
It gained the highest market share of 45% when it comes to Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in April.
After Paytm it was very difficult to gain customers but because of its strategic moves, it has become a mandatory application for almost all smartphone users.
Razorpay
Currently, Razorpay is valued at $3Billion and is the 3rd largest fintech startup in India in terms of valuation.
It was launched in the year 2014 by IIT Roorkee alumni Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar.
Razorpay was started to provide the Payment Gateway services to merchants. Now it operates in a variety of services like Microcredit, Mobile Payment, Financial Services, Payment System, and Financial Technology.
The adoption of online services had increased the demand for payment gateway services, thus investors see a very high potential in it.
Policybazaar
Policy Bazaar has made it very easy to compare various Insurance policies such as Car Insurance, Life Insurance, Health, and Medical Insurance Travel Insurance, etc. from different Insurance Companies in one place and select the best one as per the requirement.
As the name suggests it is the online bazaar of Insurance policies.
In the last funding round, investors valued it at $2.4 Billion. The investors that invested in Policybazaar include Bay Capital, Cyrus Poonawalla Group, IIFL Wealth, and White Oak Global Advisors.
It was founded in June 2008 by Yashish Dahiya, Avaneesh Nirjar, Alok Bansal
Currently, it is India’s largest Insurance Aggregator platform.
Cred
Cred helps you to ensure timely payment of your credit card bills and offers different rewards for the same.
Cred Stash helps you to get a personal loan as well, but there is a condition to use their platform, you must have a credit score of more than 750. This ensures the safety of repayment of loans as well.
Cred was founded in 2018 and currently, it is valued at $2.2 Billion. In April 2021 it attained the Unicorn status.
Despite incurring losses investors see high growth potential in Cred.
Also Read: What are the things that are attracting huge investment in Cred?
Connclusion
These are the 5 Indian Fintech Startups that has transformed the the way people use financial services.
