India Fintech Festival Hosts 3rd Roadshow in Bengaluru

BENGALURU:
India FinTech Festival (IFF) 2020, India’s first homegrown, global platform organized by eminent bodies like Mumbai Fintech Hub (Government of Maharashtra), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) is all set to be unleashed on the 04th and 05th of March 2020. The event is also supported by Department of Financial Services, NITI Aayog, Invest India, Digital India, World Bank and UNCDF (United Nations Capital Development Fund).

The Bengaluru roadshow which was recently concluded saw prominent industry experts like Vikram Vaidyanathan – Managing Director, Matrix Partners, Lizzie Chapman – Founder, ZestMoney Gaurav Hinduja, Co-founder and MD, Capital Float, Pankaj Gupta – Sr. Director of Engineering at Google Pay, Nikhil Kumar – Founder, SETU among others in attendance. The speakers on the panel discussed ‘how the Indian FinTech ecosystem is making a visible impact on financial lives’.

The main event scheduled in the first week of March will showcase innumerable opportunities, while discussing the key challenges and possible solutions for the fintech industry. With 100+ speakers, 5000+ attendees, 25+ participating countries, IFF 2020 is going to be staged as the biggest homegrown fintech event in the country. The event serves as a representation of the best of the innovations of over 2000+ Indian startups working to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2024, due to the critical aspect financial services play in the progress of an economy.

Addressing the delegates, Vishal Kanvaty, Chief – Market Innovations, NPCI said, “NPCI is happy to be associated with India FinTech Festival. The platform will provide opportunity to all ecosystem participants, government bodies, regulators, banks and Fintech startups to accelerate the transformation of India into a digitally empowered and less cash economy. It was exciting to see the overwhelming response from the audience at various roadshows. Industry experts came together to engage in a meaningful discussion on how the FinTech industry in India is instrumental in catalyzing the overall innovation ecosystem.”

Amit Goel, Founder, MEDICI, said, “An event the scale of IFF being held for the first time is a true testimony to how far we have come in the FinTech space. This is a great opportunity for us to showcase our strengths while attracting investments and partnerships. The advent of smartphones and high-speed internet has led to this exciting time for India FinTech that can be seen in terms of FinTech adoption and collaboration between the key FinTech stakeholders. We aim to drive B2C as well as enterprise solutions and foster a community of innovative startups that boost disruption in the fintech space and take India to global leadership in the fintech ecosystem.”

Speaking at the panel, Vikram Viadyanathan, Managing Director, Matrix Partners remarked, “Over the past few years, the focus in the industry has been on scaling, which has now slowly been moving towards sustainable growth. However, the challenge of value erosion remains – faced with over-incentivisation. It is therefore integral for the sector to concentrate on value creation. Fintech is a business of trust, and thus it is critical to nurture the internal resilience to ride out the cycles faced by startups.”

Lizzie Chapman, Founder, ZestMoney, commented, “The Fintech space is transforming at a dizzying speed. Instant gratification is the crux that has accelerated mobile digital payments in India. Communication is a key component to further drive the digital initiative and effectively mining content marketing will upscale the nascent space that the country is currently in. Therefore the startup ecosystem has recognized the vast potential in India’s diversity and vernacular regions thus put a lot of emphasis on developing a user-friendly interface. A combination of perseverance, tenacity and clear communication to simplify financial products for the population is required to magnify the reach and penetration of fintech across the country.

The Bengaluru roadshow was preceded by one in Delhi and Hyderabad each which witnessed generous participation from industry thought leaders, policymakers, startups besides the biggies of the fintech industry.