Page 15 - Fintech

PhonePe Insurance launches monthly subscriptions for health policies

Option will lower financial burden for customers, says company owned by fintech major PhonePe

RBI signals greater scrutiny of fintech industry amid funding drought

Fintechs will need to devote their attention to governance, compliance, business conduct, and adopting risk mitigation practices for long-term business stability

Paytm cashbacks are back! Details here | How to get cashback?

Paytm is back with its lucrative cashback offers! According to a report, the fintech giant wants to onboard as many merchants as possible.

Co-working operator 315Work Avenue gives on lease 400 desks in Bengaluru

Co-working operator 315Work Avenue has given on lease 400 desks to a fintech company at its centre in Bengaluru. The company said in a statement that it has leased 400 seats in Bengaluru to a technology and service provider for the financial services industry. The centre is located at Indiranagar. 315Work Avenue has 40 centres, with a total capacity of 40,000 seats, across Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune. The company manages 1.75 million square feet of office space. Manas Mehrotra, Founder of 315Work Avenue, said: "Flexible spaces are becoming mainstream now. The demand for co-workspaces is constantly increasing not only because such spaces perfectly fit the new normal, but they also help companies save costs, boost productivity and enhance work experience of employees.

RBI looking at coming out with fintech regulations: DG Rabi Sankar

The Reserve Bank is looking at coming out with a regulation for fintech players, Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar said on Friday. "RBI is closely watching the evolving space of fintech...there are no fintech regulations right now. We are talking to the industry and understanding whether there is a need to regulate them," Sankar said, speaking at the Moneycontrol startup conclave. Sankar added that the regulations on fintech will come only after consultations with the industry, and declined to share timelines on the same, as per a statement issued by the event organisers. The RBI will time its regulations in such a way that the industry is allowed to grow, Sankar said, adding that the young innovators' focus is on innovations and not so much on regulations at present. Sankar also said that trading in cryptocurrencies carried out by people is not a concern for the RBI, but private cryptocurrencies themselves are a problem area. He also highlighted that "stable coins" pegged to other ..

Fintech firm BharatPe appoints Pankaj Goel as chief technology officer

Fintech firm BharatPe Group has appointed former Razorpay senior executive Pankaj Goel as the chief technology officer. Prior to joining BharatPe, Pankaj was the head of payments engineering at Razorpay. He will report to BharatPe chief financial officer and interim CEO Nalin Negi, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. "With a seasoned engineering leader like Pankaj joining the team, we are confident that we will be able to build best-in-class fintech products that will further enable the next level of growth for the BharatPe Group of Companies," Negi said. Goel has held senior positions at various companies, including Intuit, Trilogy, and Sun Microsystems.

Cos operating in India must abide by local regulations: Paytm Founder

Joining the debate on data localisation, Paytm Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma on Monday said companies operating in India should abide by rules and regulations laid down by the country, and also have an obligation to protect data of citizens. Startups in India are at an "incredible inflection point" Sharma said, adding there is no dearth of funds for startups focussed on solving real-world challenges with their innovative approach. "I am all for protecting our citizen data. Let it be clear if you are operating in this country, you are supposed to be abiding by laws and regulations of this country. You can't say my court is in another country...," Sharma told PTI when asked about regulations proposed in the digital space. Indian companies such as Reliance Industries have been votaries for storing and processing of data generated of Indian users within the country while foreign firms want freedom to store data outside the country as well. The chief of the fintech player also ..

Fintech firm Scapia raises $9 mn in funding round led by Matrix Partners

Fintech firm Scapia has raised USD 9 million (about Rs 74 crore) in a seed funding round led by Matrix Partners India for scaling up its co-branded credit card business, the company said on Wednesday. Tanglin Venture Partners, Binny Bansal's 3STATE Ventures and notable angel investors such as Keki Mistry (HDFC CEO) also participated in the funding round. Scapia is a travel fintech company on a mission to make travel accessible through its suite of financial products. It has launched co-branded credit card in partnership with Federal Bank which has been developed to target travelers. "We are excited to partner with our investors to help us scale and meet these customer needs. We see a massive opportunity for Scapia - less than 5 per cent of the population currently have credit cards and India is projected to have 200 million credit cards in circulation by 2030," Scapia, Founder Anil Gotetti said. The company has also built a travel platform within the app to enable customers to ...

Fintech firm Indifi raises Rs 290 cr in funding round by ICICI Venture

Company plans to expand its operations and expand small businesses' access to working capital finance

PB Fintech to wipe out accumulated losses in next 4 years on revenue growth

PB Fintech, the parent firm of Policybazaar, expects to wipe out accumulated losses in the next four years on the back of revenue growth, a top official said. The total revenue of the company increased to Rs 1,710 crore in FY23 from Rs 1,200 crore in the preceding fiscal. As a result, the loss narrowed to Rs 488 crore from Rs 833 crore in the previous fiscal. "FY24, our hope is EBITDA coming out of core business will be more than enough to cover all investments and overall, as a company, we should be PAT positive for the full year. What we want is Rs 1,000 crore PAT by FY27. Three years from now. "In another four years, we should be able to wipe out our accumulated losses. Between, FY 27-28, we should be able to wipe out losses," PB Fintech chairman and group CEO Yashish Dahiya told PTI. The breakeven will be reached only after accumulated losses are wiped out. This year, he said, the company would be Rs 400-500 crore cash positive and therefore, there may not be any need for ...

Pepper Group to invest $150 mn over 4 yrs to establish fintech in India

Global consumer finance company Pepper Group on Monday said it will invest $150 million over the next four years to establish a fintech in India

RBI comes out with framework to permit default loss guarantee to fintechs

Followed by the RBI decision, fintech companies were forced to look at alternate options like co-lending small ticket loans, co-branded partnerships and revenue-sharing models

Fintech firm IRIS Business Services clocks Rs 4.29 cr profit in FY23

Fintech firm IRIS Business Services Ltd on Friday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 4.29 crore in the financial year 2022-23. In the year-ago period, the company posted its consolidated net profit at Rs 1.01 crore. Its total income rose 21 per cent to Rs 74.90 crore in the 2022-23 fiscal from Rs 62.02 crore a year ago, according to a regulatory filing. Mumbai-based IRIS Business Services Ltd is operating in the RegTech (regulatory technology) space. The company offers a range of products that cater to the specific needs of organisations and regulators across different industries and geographic regions. It has been providing compliance, data, and analytics solutions to businesses in 50 countries. "All metrics point to an all-round improvement in performance," said its CFO K Balachandran. The improvement in the performance has been led by the "collect" division of the company through which the firm serves regulators, helping them collect pre-validated data from those they .

Irdai to hold open house for insurtech, fintech on 15th of every month

Regulator Irdai will hold an open house for the insurtech and fintech companies on 15th of every month to look at bringing in more innovation ideas for the insurance sector. The open house is intended to invite suggestions from them to provide effective and seamless solutions and ideas to various insurance related activities, which would help insurance companies to provide better services to policyholders, it said. "It is expected that the solutions/ideas would help in increasing the insurance penetration in the country," the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) said in a statement. The open house would be held at the Head Office of Irdai in Hyderabad from 11.00 AM to 1.00 PM on 15th of every month, it said, adding that if 15th happens to be a holiday, the open house will be held on the next working day. Further, the regulator said Irdai's Chairperson (in his/her absence, the senior most Whole-time Member) along with senior officials will be present at th

Integrated financial services platform airpay now live on ONDC: Report

Integrated financial services platform airpay on Thursday said it has gone live on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). This will enable airpay's vyaapaaris to have access to an array of local businesses offering multiple products and services on ONDC to consumers, it said in a release. Presently, airpay vyaapaaris offer banking and financial services to more than 60 million consumers in 561 districts and over 7,000 villages in 36 states and union territories, it said. "Given the democratised nature of an Open Network, it levels the playing field for small and medium enterprises. ONDC also enables increased trade of locally manufactured goods and local sellers, thereby multiplying the investment and production of MSMEs," Kunal Jhunjhunwala, Founder and Managing Director of airpay, said. The company said the initiative will enable ONDC to understand and implement key consumer and partner learnings. Thampy Koshy, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ONDC, said t

Lithuania offers biz opportunities for Indian firms, fintech in focus

The Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to India, Diana Mickeviciene, on Friday stated that her country is focusing on sectors such as biotechnology, cybersecurity, and fintech and is seeking greater bilateral ties with India, a country with which it shares a strong trade relationship. The European nation also has the potential to become a hub for tea and textiles in that continent. Speaking at an interactive session with CII, Mickeviiene noted that Darjeeling tea and India's textiles are highly popular in Lithuania, pointing to significant business opportunities for Indian companies to set up hubs in her country and export to other European nations. She said that Lithuania's focus is on specific industries, such as IoTs, biotechnology, cybersecurity, and fintech. Mickeviciene mentioned that biotechnology will be the new star in the economy of Lithuania. She highlighted the country's partnership with Tata Consultancy Services for two projects in biometrics (Aadhaar). The dipl

Second festival to convene FinTech community from May 16-18, 2023

Second edition of FinTech Festival India to convene global FinTech community from 16 18 May 2023

Never said we are deferring our IPO plans: Pine Labs CEO B Amrish Rau

'Central bank digital currency (CBDC) and Digital Rupee open up exciting opportunities and if implemented correctly'

BharatPe acquires majority stake in Mumbai-based NBFC Trillion Loans

Company that provides loans to small businesses will operate as independent entity

Mobikwik turns profitable in March quarter, expects to double revenue

Fintech platform Mobikwik turned profitable in the March quarter and expects to almost double revenue to over Rs 1,000 crore in the current fiscal along with full-year profitability, the company's co-founder Upasana Taku said. The company closed the 2022-23 financial year with a 39 per cent net revenue growth at Rs 560 crore. "In Q4 (fourth), 2023, we booked profit. Now my aim is that every quarter from now on should be a profitable quarter. We have reduced cash burn by about 40 per cent. For FY'24, we want to achieve Rs 1,000 crore revenue and Rs 40-50 crore profit," Taku told PTI. She said that 50 per cent of the company's revenue came from the distribution of digital credit products and the rest from payments. "Number of credit active users has gone up from 2 million to 4 million. The reason we have pay-later products is that more than 75 per cent of our users were first to credit customers. 'Buy Now Pay Later' helped us in testing users in short span of time. After they have us