India has long been an investment opportunity for international businesses, and that’s especially true when it comes to the fintech industry.
Innovative startups have been popping up to meet the needs of Indian customers, and over the past few years, the industry has seen massive growth.
India’s burgeoning fintech industry has been rising over the past few years, increasing investment yearly.
This rapid growth has seen many new companies and startups enter the fray, offering innovative financial products and services that help businesses and individuals take advantage of their newfound access to financial technology.
From personal loans to insurance to cryptocurrency exchanges, these are some of the best fintech companies in India you need to know about today!
Here are 10 of the best fintech companies in India you need to know about—if you haven’t already heard of them!
1. BillDesk
BillDesk is an Indian financial technology company based out of Bangalore, known for its cloud-based business payments platform and other payment solutions.
BillDesk has raised over $91 million in funding since it was founded. The company completed $1 billion worth of transactions across all its businesses last year and is increasing; analysts estimate BillDesk could be valued at nearly $2 billion by 2020.
A host of Bollywood celebrities are also investors in BillDesk: Aamir Khan (actor), Ritesh Sidhwani (producer), Anurag Kashyap (filmmaker), and Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Paytm founder). Its clients include large enterprises like DHL Express, Genpact, Unilever, etc.
BillDesk offers a range of products—from POS machines to digital wallets—and recently announced that it would expand into online lending next year.
BillDesk’s main competitors are PayU and Citrus Payment Solutions. Still, given its recent growth trajectory, we think it’s well-positioned to take on both companies and newer fintech startups like Mswipe.
2. ZestMoney
A fast-growing Indian fintech startup, ZestMoney lets customers borrow money instantly using mobile phones.
Over 30,000 merchants (airlines, cab companies, and more) use its platform to pay employees instantly, and it’s one of the best fintech companies in India; it’s safe, cost-effective, and scalable.
These fintech companies in India raised a $10 million Series A from Lightbox VC and others earlier in 2018. Its top competitors are Paytm and PhonePe.
In May 2017, ZestMoney was named one of Forbes Asia’s 100 Under a Billion. This is their first year on CB Insights’ list of Top 50 Fintech Companies in Asia.
Co-founder Nirmal Kumar had to say about his firm: ZestMoney has revolutionized personal finance for millions of Indians through our real-time credit decision capabilities powered by machine learning algorithms that constantly analyze customer data.
We’ve enabled over 150,000 offline retailers across 2,500 cities to accept digital payments while significantly reducing transaction costs.
A person’s phone number or Aadhaar ID number as an identifier makes it easy for businesses or individuals to send or receive money instantly.
Here’s how it works: After downloading the app onto your smartphone (or logging into your account online). You can request up to Rs 5 lakh at any time of day or night — input your phone number and follow two simple steps.
3. Digit
Digit is a free app that uses automatic deposits and withdrawals to help users save money.
This frees up money you would otherwise spend on savings, allowing you to use it for other things instead.
The app also works as a financial assistant; it analyzes your spending habits and recommends ways to save money each month.
For example, if you take out cash too often at ATMs, Digit might transfer $5 or $10 into your account before you do so again, ensuring your account doesn’t go negative.
It also sends notifications when there are suspicious charges on your card and can help with online shopping hacks by using cash-back websites like Ebates and MrRebates.
4. CoinSwitch Kuber
CoinSwitch is a cryptocurrency exchange aggregator, and it supports more than 250 cryptocurrencies and allows for conversion into 80+ coins. It’s considered one of the best fintech companies in India.
CoinSwitch has trading capabilities for all pairs of crypto-coins available over their platform, which means users can trade using fiat-based coins and other cryptocurrencies.
The company’s objective is to provide a one-stop shop for everything related to cryptocurrency.
That includes providing news updates regularly about new ICOs and relevant information about existing cryptocurrencies.
CoinSwitch has partnered with companies like OKLink and BitPay, which are valuable assets to consumers who wish to exchange Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH) into fiat currencies or vice versa.
5. Capital First
This online platform offers loans between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 50 lakh and has disbursed more than 30,000 loans. It’s one of the fintech companies in India.
Fixed-EMI repayment allows borrowers to make equal monthly EMI payments for a loan with flexible tenure.
The platform provides personal and business loans and tie-ups with seven non-banking financial companies.
6. Zerodha
Zerodha is India’s first algorithmic trading platform for stocks and equity derivatives, built on fully automated technologies.
It provides direct market access from a single-point order routing facility that integrates with clients’ existing brokerage accounts and includes real-time streaming prices via its web-based platform.
It also offers global equities through its partnership with the global exchange group Chi-X Global.
Zerodha currently has around 4 million users across 2,000 cities and aims to expand into tier II and III cities by 2017.
Zerodha has raised nearly $100 million so far from its investors, including Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, Tiger Global Management, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and many others.
It’s an online discount broker currently serving customers across ten countries, with a presence in all major financial hubs worldwide, and it’s one of the fintech companies in India. It’s one of India’s most popular brokerage houses.
However, it does not have a retail presence and is available only via a web-based interface or proprietary mobile app.
Founded by Nithin Kamath and Mohit Kumar, Zerodha has provided customers with highly low-cost trading opportunities for about eight years.
The company was initially funded by Helion Ventures (which has also backed Blue Dart) and American Express; Sequoia Capital now backs it.
7. BankBazaar
With over 17 million customers and a net worth of $300 million, BankBazaar is one of the fintech companies in India with online banks.
Their motto is simple: Making banking more straightforward and faster for everyone.
Founded in 2007 by Sandeep Aggarwal, BankBazaar makes it easy for people to find loans or credit cards with their website, mobile app, and Twitter chatbot (@askmeBankBazaar).
They also have an extensive network of 35000 independent financial advisors across India. If you want sound financial advice from someone who knows their stuff, try out BankBazaar.
And if you don’t get what you need, they offer a 100% money-back guarantee. So why not give them a shot?
8. Razorpay
Razorpay is a payment gateway for businesses, enabling them to accept payments from customers directly from their website or mobile application.
Razorpay also offers an e-wallet service, enabling you to store money on their platform.
The e-wallet can be used to make payments at other online stores or physical merchants partnered with Razorpay.
By using both services, Razorpay hopes that you will ultimately reduce your dependency on credit and debit cards by using digital transactions instead.
Their motto is Accept Payments Without Banks, meaning they want to give power back to small business owners and eliminate traditional financial institutions as much as possible.
However, to use their services, you must set up a business bank account with HDFC Bank—Razorpay does not provide its banking facilities.
The startup was founded in 2014 by Shashank Kumar (CEO), Harshil Mathur (COO), and Sumit Jain (CTO).
They were all students at IIT Bombay when they started working on new ways of digitally accepting payments for small businesses.
9. Cashfree
Cashfree is a merchant services provider for small and medium enterprises.
They provide solutions for various payments, such as credit/debit cards, net banking, e-wallet, and mobile wallets.
The company claims to be one of India’s largest financial service providers, with more than 1 million monthly transactions on its platform.
Apart from providing value-added services like cash back and reward points with every transaction made by merchants on their platform, Cashfree has partnered with renowned banks, including HDFC Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI, and Axis Bank. The company was founded in 2012 by Bhavin Patel and Vipul Parekh.
In 2017, it secured $13 million in funding from Sequoia Capital India and existing investors SAIF Partners and Beenext Ventures.
10. Indwealth
Indwealth is a FinTech startup based out of Kolkata. The company creates custom software solutions for businesses and develops niche platforms for large corporations to use.
They develop products that add value, reduce costs, and help their clients compete globally. And Wealth was founded by Shri Pradip Kumar Chatterjee (Sr Partner- FinTech), Rohit Sharma (Founder CEO), and Satyam Singh (Business Head), who has more than eight years of experience working with technology startups at Seedfund and Social Venture Partners.
Their clientele includes L&T Finance Holdings Limited, Bharti AXA General Insurance Company Limited, HDFC Life Insurance Company Limited, etc.
They have also worked with over 20 other companies across industries such as manufacturing, retailing, logistics, etc.
Their product portfolio includes CUBE, which is an end-to-end supply chain management solution that helps customers track their inventory levels in real-time through a single platform while also being able to manage orders efficiently through its advanced sales order management system, which helps them get rid of paperwork altogether thus saving them both time and money.
Conclusion
India’s first fintech companies (financial technology) started up around 2001 and 2002, with more than twenty-five years of development behind them.
It has resulted in numerous well-established companies, including ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, Aditya Birla Group, etc.
These banks, along with new startups, have created an environment that is flourishing with innovation and support for these new tech-based financial concepts, making it an excellent opportunity for investors.
It is common knowledge that regulation can be a hurdle when dealing with startups.
Still, much like past innovations, these new technologies are changing as governments formulate policies on how best to integrate them into their established systems.
