As India is going through a complete digital transformation, FinTech companies are playing a vital role by promoting the financial inclusion of people from all walks of life and disrupting sectors like lending, payments, insurance, credit settlements, and more.

The year 2018 was a big one for the Indian financial technology and financial services ecosystem. With $2.34 billion being raised across 145 deals, Fintech finally unseated e-commerce from the top of the list after years of dominance. According to NASSCOM, the Indian Fintech market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22 percent for the next five years. Another KPMG report states that the transaction value for the Indian Fintech sector was estimated to be approximately $33 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $73 billion by 2020. The major challenge now is to grow the pie and focus their services on the next 500 million users.

Finimize would like to speak to our community about the changing Fintech landscape in India.

Apart from covering the current trends, challenges and opportunities in India's Fintech ecosystem, we would also like to bring out the below three perspectives during the panel discussion:

1. Investor perspective - Criteria for investing in a Fintech company

2. Company perspective - Opportunities and challenges that lie before Fintech company

3. Government perspective - Indian / State government initiatives to support the Fintech ecosystem

Speakers

• Smita Aggarwal - Director-Investments, Omidyar Network/Flourish Ventures.

Listed in 2019’s list of ‘Top Women in Finance in India’ and “Top 30 Fintech Influencers”, Smita Aggarwal is a fintech investor and a thought leader with deep expertise in venture capital, financial inclusion, digital banking, micro-insurance and financial regulation.

In her present role with Flourish Ventures, a global fintech focussed fund of the Omidyar Group she invests in innovative fintech start-ups that help advance financial health and inclusion in Asia. Previously at Omidyar Network she led multiple new investments in companies like NeoGrowth Credit, Indifi, Bon, Kaleidofin, ZineOne, ShopUp, GramCover to name a few. With over two and half decades of experience, she has held leadership positions with noteworthy names such as Omidyar Network, Fullerton, Reserve Bank of India and ICICI Bank with a successful track record of building businesses from scratch, introducing new products, and driving growth through innovation. She is a regular speaker at international fintech events such as Singapore Fintech Festival; AFI Global Policy Forum, Russia; IFC Fintech Conclave, Dubai; NYU Fintech Conference, New York.

• Abhishant Pant, Founder and CEO@ The Fintech Yatra

Abhishant is a Mumbai-based India-market Fintech expert. His specialization has been in working with Prepaid, Travel Forex, Mobile Money, Fintech’s (Lending, KYC, and Payments) and Government initiatives of Financial Inclusion for the bottom of the pyramid. His Leadership positions in the Payments domain cover:

-Head of FI and New Banks for India and SA with Visa

-Head of Corporate business with M-Pesa

Abhishant is known as a Fintech evangelist and he has spoken about the Indian Fintech landscape at several coveted platforms including the UN-G20 and TedX

• Sameer Singh Jaini, Founder & CEO@The Digital Fifth

The Digital Fifth is a digital disruption consulting and delivery firm with a focus on digital & fintech consulting, fintech partnerships with an Open Innovation Framework, and fintech training.

Sameer Singh Jaini was recently recognized as Fintech Asia Top 100 by NextMoney.Org

He is a Digital enthusiast with two decades of rich digital experience across Asia, Europe, and America. He has served as the CTO of DCB Bank, has been part of core teams responsible for setting up Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bharatiya Mahila Bank. He has led large banking initiatives and turnarounds in the US and Europe for Finacle.

• Lincy Therattil, Head, Open Innovation, Barclays Rise Mumbai

Lincy has over 15 years of experience in the field of strategy and advisory, specializing in financial services innovation and new-age technologies. She has spent a major part of her career with Deloitte’s Banking Strategy and Innovation division, advising global banks on technological innovations and FinTech disruptions. She has also been part of Capgemini’s innovation arm responsible for creating innovative offerings across all new-age technologies. She holds Advanced Management Program Certification from IIM-Bangalore and has completed an Executive Program in Data Science from XLRI.

Startup showcase:

WeWork Labs nomination - Finovate Capital

Finovate Capital is leveraging technology to bring seamless access, to supply chain financing (invoice discounting) for Small and Medium businesses, at the click of a button. Finovate offers an end to end platform for Suppliers and Buyers/Corporates to optimize their working capital and improve their bottom-line.

Rise Mumbai nomination - Rockmetric Innovations

Rockmetric is a 'Cognitive Data Analyst' (Link) that automates analysis and insights with a Google-like 'Natural Language Search' interface. Large enterprises can deliver sophisticated analysis and ad-hoc queries at scale instantly without having to expand reporting and analytics teams.

Event Format:

1. Introduction to Finimize / Panelist
2. Panel discussion
3. Startup showcase (Fintech startups nominated by WeWork Labs, Zone Startups & Rise Mumbai)
4. Networking session

Venue Partner: WeWork Labs is The We Company's global platform for early-stage start-ups and forward-thinking enterprise companies. We empower inventive humans and organisations to shape the present and influence the future. We start with thoughtfully designed spaces that inspire our global community of entrepreneurs to experiment, collaborate and grow. Within these spaces, we foster meaningful connections between start-ups and the educational, mentorship and financial resources needed to drive their businesses forward.