The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to present her third Union Budget on February 1, 2022. This year the budget is likely is to focus on the government making strides through several initiatives, including the recently set up Fintech Department and the introduction of Payment Investment Development Fund (PIDF) to incentivize fintechs in India. In parallel, NBFCs and fintech are expecting to see more opportunities from the government to expand the market scope and scale and impact long-term changes in the financial industry. Leading fintech players and startups share their thoughts on what are they expecting from the Government and Union Budget this year. These cover specific areas such as digital payments & digital banking, rural fintech and digital lending from Mswipe, Tide India, & Global PayEX. Please find details and quotes below –
Digital technologies in B2B and payment innovation to tackle supply chain challenges and eradicate frictions by Narayan ‘Naru’ Ramamoorthy, Chief Revenue Officer, Global PayEX
To empower small businesses by propelling the digital future and incentivize them to encourage the adoption of digital payments by Ketan Mehta, CEO, Mswipe
Ease of credit access and incentive for digital banking infrastructure by Gurjodhpal Singh, CEO, Tide (IN)
Narayan ‘Naru’ Ramamoorthy, Chief Revenue Officer, Global PayEX
“As the Indian economy recovers from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the upcoming Union Budget of 2022-23 will be significant in transforming India from a US$2.7 trillion to a US$5 trillion economy. A key to achieving this is to enhance productivity across the B2B supply chain, including Purchase Orders (PO), invoices, transport documents, goods & service receipt notes, payments, reconciliation and financing/lending. Over the past few years the government and regulators along with Fintech players have taken several initiatives on this front focused on payments, invoices, tax reconciliation and SME financing. For instance driving growth and adoption for e-NACH, e-Invoicing, Tax Credit Statement (Form 26AS), GSTR1 (sales return), GST2A (purchase-related dynamic tax return), GST2B (Input Tax Credit), and MSME lending platforms like TReDS.
This year, we hope the government and Union Budget will focus on further enabling working capital efficiency and productivity across the B2B supply chain and also help the rapidly evolving B2B SaaS companies and ecosystem in India. Considering the ongoing supply chain challenges across the globe, we believe some key areas that will help enhance supply chain efficiency and productivity include continued incentives for adoption of digital technologies in B2B, payment innovation such as open banking, higher limits for eNACH, additional data and measures/laws to ensure MSMEs (and all customers) get paid on time, and building further on the e-Invoice, e-way bill and GST compliance success. For e.g. can customers get a validated invoice directly from Govt e-Invoice portal, which will add huge AP automation and payment efficiencies. Lastly, B2B SaaS companies can play an important role in democratization and automation of supply chain, which will enable the digital transformation of Indian Economy. I hope the Government in its role as an India GDP enabler will continue working closely with B2B SaaS companies to accelerate the India digitization story.”
Ketan Patel, CEO, Mswipe
“The SME sector is the backbone of Indian economy. In the upcoming budget, we expect the Government to make announcements that will empower small businesses thereby reviving the economy from the impact of the pandemic. In November 2021, the government announced the Special Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme for the MSMEs (Micro Small and Medium Enterprises) in the services sector. This should be extended to SMEs whose turnover is less than Rs. 5 crore as it will help them procure service equipment through institutional credit for advancement of their technology. The Government should also look at tax breaks for companies providing technology support to MSMEs. At a time when we are expecting the third wave of Covid to hit economic activity and businesses are facing difficult times, the Government must take measures to meet the SME lending requirements. Subsidizing the cost of funds to NBFCs that focus on lending to small merchants for loans below Rs. 20 lakhs is way to ensure easy access to credit. Besides, we expect the Finance Minister to increase credit guarantee for lending while also providing relief in terms of tax sops or subsidizing manpower cost for digital players to promote digital payments in tier 3 to 6 towns. Lastly, this Budget should further look at propelling the country towards a digital future. While multiple initiatives have been undertaken to promote digital payments, the Government must look at given some form of incentive to small businesses to encourage the adoption of digital payments and further strengthen the payment infrastructure of the country, especially in smaller towns.”
Gurjodhpal Singh, CEO Tide(IN)
“This is third year of the pandemic and MSMEs have been struggling all through since early 2020, several small businesses had to downsize or shut shop as they were challenged by severe liquidity crunch and dipping demand. Being central to the economy, MSMEs need assistance to be back on track and government can provide that much-needed support through a stronger policy thrust. Unavailability of working capital, cost of compliance and taxation are potential challenges that need be addressed. We are looking forward to a budget that will further push for digitization. Significant spends and allowances for infrastructure, especially digital banking infrastructure will also be an important ingredient for the success of both, the budget and MSMEs. These steps can boost financial inclusion to a great extent. Lastly, steps with focus on new businesses and enabling entrepreneurship are key to provide the much-needed impetus for the sector.”
HDFC Life, one of India’s leading life insurers, has launched its Sustainable Equity Fund, currently available with HDFC Life Click 2 Wealth, a unit-linked product. The Company is committed to industry-leading ESG standards that help shape a sustainable future for the communities they serve and create long-term value for all stakeholders. This Sustainable Equity Fund promotes Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles and will invest in stocks that form part of benchmark ESG indices or in stocks of companies with high ESG scores. This ESG score is calculated based on internal analysis, public disclosures, and ratings by external agencies.
ESG is a barometer of sustainable business practices, i.e., it helps identify if the business has a robust corporate governance framework, benefits society at large, and is run in an environment-friendly manner. The objective of this fund is long-term capital appreciation through investment in such select companies across market capitalization.
HDFC Life’s ESG strategy focuses on five pillars – Ethical Conduct; Responsible Investment; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Holistic Living; and Sustainable Operations. This ESG strategy has been developed based on global benchmarks and material topics for HDFC Life, with the intent to address ESG risks and drive meaningful impact.
Commenting on the launch, Vibha Padalkar, MD & CEO, HDFC Life, said “ESG is a way of doing business that generates sustainable growth, benefits all stakeholders and hence is an integral part of the value creation process itself. The pandemic has disrupted businesses and livelihoods and reinforced the interconnectedness of finance and sustainability. We believe that companies with strong governance practices, invest in developing human resources, cater to all strata of society, and help preserve the environment today will be the companies of tomorrow. These companies will face fewer risks, have lower costs, and generate strong returns over the long term.”
Further, she added, “Today’s investors are more conscious about responsible investing and sustainable wealth creation. This trend is evident because assets under management applying ESG frameworks or strategies have increased from USD 22.9 trillion in 2016 to USD 40 trillion in 2020*. Our Sustainable Equity Fund will be offered through our unit-linked products, starting with HDFC Life Click 2 Wealth. This fund offers customers an opportunity to contribute towards building a sustainable future while protecting their families and saving for their goals.”
HDFC Life was recently adjudged the ‘Best Governed Company’ in the Listed Segment, Large category at the 21st ICSI National Awards for Excellence in Corporate Governance.
HDFC Life Insurance Company Limited (‘HDFC Life’ / ‘Company’) is a joint venture between HDFC Ltd., India’s leading housing finance institution and abrdn (Mauritius Holdings) 2006 Limited, a global investment company.
Established in 2000, HDFC Life is a leading long-term life insurance solutions provider in India, offering a range of individual and group insurance solutions that meet various customer needs such as Protection, Pension, Savings, Investment, Annuity and Health. As on December 31, 2021, the Company had 39 individual and 13 group products in its portfolio, along with 7 optional rider benefits, catering to a diverse range of customer needs.
HDFC Life continues to benefit from its increased presence across the country having a wide reach with 372 branches and additional distribution touch-points through several new tie-ups and partnerships. The count of our partnerships is over 300, comprising traditional partners such as NBFCs, MFIs and SFBs, and including new-ecosystem partners. The Company has a strong base of financial consultants.
For more information, please visit our website, www.hdfclife.com. You may also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn
Indian D2C food brand and shark tank contestant – Jhaji Store has raised an undisclosed amount from Velocity.in, India’s largest revenue-based financier
Based out of Darbhanga district in Bihar, Jhaji is a women-led enterprise that plans on leveraging the capital to grow their business exponentially
Velocity.in leverages online data to offer non-dilutive, collateral-free growth capital within a week.
Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand Jhaji Store, an online pickle store that sells authentic homemade achars, has raised an undisclosed amount from Velocity.in, India’s largest revenue-based financier. This is the first round of external financing Jhaji Store has raised. Founded in March 2021 by the sister-in-law duo – Kalpana and Uma, Jhaji Store is a women-led D2C startup that sells traditional homemade pickles from the Darbhanga district in Bihar through their eCommerce store. Jhaji Store offers over 15 different varieties of traditional homemade pickles free from artificial colors, preservatives, and other synthetic chemicals all made locally.
“People in Mithila have traditionally enjoyed pickles since forever. Some flavors and ingredients are unique in this area. Over the last 30 years, my sister-in-law and I have been making and sending these pickles to friends and family everywhere from New Delhi to New York. ” said Kalpana, Co-founder Jhaji Store. “Therefore, in October 2020, Uma and I started the Jhaji store to celebrate Mithila’s authentic taste and its food culture all around the country and the world. Jhaji Store’s unique Mithila pickles were an instant hit among their consumers, and they sold to over 2,500 customers within the first four months of starting the company. Inspired by their initial success, Kalpana and Uma also participated in Shark Tank India to raise capital for expanding their business.
They asked Rs. 50 lakhs in exchange for 10% equity in the business, but none of the sharks were interested.. This is when Velocity – India’s largest revenue-based financier approached Jhaji to offer growth capital. Talking about the financing, Uma said, “We are extremely excited to raise capital from Velocity. The team reached out the next day after our Shark Tank pitch aired on Sony TV, and was quick to give us an indicative offer on the same day. The terms were simple enough for Kalpana and I to understand, and as a result, we finalized them within 5 days. We’re glad to find the capital that will fund the next part of our journey, without diluting any equity. “Since the show has aired, it’s been an almost magical experience. There has been a massive surge in demand for our pickles from all over India. The money we’ve raised from Velocity will help us fulfill orders and free up the money we can invest in launching new product lines and ramping up production.” she added.
JhaJi Store is an honest and conscious business that employs underprivileged women and men, who have seen their family income triple in the few months they have been working with JhaJi. The business also spends 2% of its revenues directly towards the cause of girl child education. As per a recent study by YourStory, less than 6% of Venture Capital funding goes to startups with women co-founders. Through its objective, data-backed approach, Velocity aims to eliminate this bias from investing. Velocity already funds more than 5x women-led startups than Venture Capital.
Speaking about the round of financing, Abhiroop Medhekar, Co-founder & CEO of Velocity, said, “We were impressed with the clarity of purpose and determination which Kalpana Ji and Uma Ji have showcased in their entrepreneurial journey so far. We started Velocity with a firm belief that it shouldn’t be so hard for good business to get funded. Velocity strives to democratise access to capital for all founders, regardless of their educational pedigree or geographical location. We make financing decisions purely based on the veracity of the business model as evidenced by a business’s online data.”
Velocity.in, a Bengaluru-based fintech, is India’s largest revenue-based financier. Over 1,500 e-commerce businesses have signed up with Velocity since it commenced operations in early 2020. With over Rs 1,200 crore of fundable revenues connected to Velocity’s platform, the fintech has already processed 350 investments across 250 companies.
About Velocity: Velocity was launched in early 2020 by IIT Bombay graduates Abhiroop Medhekar, Atul Khichariya and Saurav Swaroop. The founding team has a strong background in India’s financial services and tech startup ecosystem. They previously worked in companies like Elevation Capital (earlier SAIF Partners), McKinsey, Acko Insurance, and HackerRank. Velocity is their second tryst with entrepreneurship. The trio had earlier worked together at Taskbob, a managed marketplace for high-quality home services.
Founded in March 2021 by sister-in-law duo Kalpana Jha and Uma Jha, the JhaJi store is an online direct-to-consumer food brand that sells traditional, homemade pickles and chutneys from Mithilanchal, Bihar. They offer 15 different varieties of organically made pickles free from artificial colours, preservatives and other synthetic chemicals.
Bandhan Bank, the pan-India universal bank with inclusive banking at its core continued opening new branches across the country in 2022, by opening its newest branch in Geeta Colony, East Delhi, on Wednesday. With this, the Bank has taken yet another significant step towards bringing its banking services to the people of the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi. The total number of branches in NCT stands at 32 .The branch was inaugurated on Wednesday by Seema Sharma, Additional Director of Education, East Delhi Municipal Corporation.
With the latest branch opening, Bandhan Bank now has 1,178 bank branches across the country. Its total presence across India stands at 5,628 outlets, including Branches, Banking Units, and Home Loan Centres. Through its wide distribution network and robust digital channels, Bandhan Bank has truly emerged as a universal bank that caters to the diverse financial needs of all Indians, wherever they may be based, whatever products or services they may need, and whichever mode of transaction they may prefer – physical or digital. In 2022, Bandhan Bank will further expand its physical footprint and digital reach, and cater to customers with its diverse offerings of retail savings products, retail loans – such as housing loans, personal loans, gold loans, auto loans – and insurance.
About Bandhan : Started in 2001 as a not-for-profit enterprise that stood for financial inclusion and women empowerment through sustainable livelihood creation. It turned into an NBFC a few years later but the core objective remained financial inclusion. When Bandhan Bank started operations on August 23, 2015, it was the first instance of a microfinance entity transforming into a universal bank in India. On the day of launch itself, Bandhan Bank started with 2,523 banking outlets.
Bandhan Bank is driven by a constant desire to serve better. It offers world-class banking products and services to urban, semi-urban and rural customers alike. In the last few years of operations, Bandhan Bank has spread its presence to 34 of the 36 states and union territories in India with 5628 banking outlets serving 2.43 crore customers. With its experienced management, diversified team and well entrenched distribution, Bandhan Bank is well poised to meet the aspirations of its customers and stakeholders.
India’s fastest-growing education financing platform, Propelld, announced its plan to recruit 30 employees in its tech team by FY 2022 to strengthen its in-house tech capabilities.
With over 135 employees in the company, the strategic move aims at expanding the tech teams primarily. Through a virtual interview process, the education financing platform intends to recruit tech experts for the roles of Software Development Engineer (SDE)-1, SDE-2, Lead Engineers, Engineering Manager, DevOps Engineer, UI Developer, and UI/UX Designer.
Job seekers across the country can apply through various channels, including LinkedIn, campus placement drives, Naukri.com, Propelld’s career page, alumni network, employee referrals, and hiring agencies.
Mr. Satendra Singh, CTO, Propelld, said, “As our user-base had grown from 1000s in a year to 10,000s in a month, we plan to strengthen our technical capabilities to handle the increased traffic. With our hiring spree of tech experts, we aim to ensure that our developers get the right direction by working with experienced engineering leaders. Propelld is witnessing a two-fold growth. We are vertically expanding with an increase in users across demographics and also plan to introduce new financial products for the education sector.”
“A robust technical infrastructure will further ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of all our products. Besides, a diverse and strengthened tech team will accelerate Propelld’s product experiments while staying up-to-date with the latest technology and market trends. We are looking forward to augmenting our tech ecosystem with promising talent. ” he added.
Making financing accessible across the education sector, Propelld continues to scale up its operations. The company advocates a progressive work culture offering time-to-time mental health weeks and health insurance to its employees. With flexible working hours for the tech team, Propelld also sponsors up-skilling courses for its employees while rewarding the team with performance bonuses and ESOPs.
IIFL Home Finance Ltd. (IIFL HFL), in collaboration with Asian Development Bank (ADB), organised its flagship event Kutumb which is an initiative to promote Green Affordable Housing in India. The event took place at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on December 14th, 2021 with the presence of Mr. S.K. Hota (MD, National Housing Bank) & Mr. Nirmal Jain (Founder & Chairman, IIFL Group) as chief guests. The event also had speakers from development finance institutions (DFIs) such as Asian Development Bank and Proparco (an arm of Agence Française de Développement Group (AFD Group).
Under the project ‘Resilient & Green Affordable Housing for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and Low-Income Group (LIG) categories in India’, IIFLHFL, with the support of ADB, will be hosting series of it’s flagship event ‘Kutumb’ at various locations across the country. The objective of Kutumb is to enable and support the green building ecosystem in the affordable housing sector in India. Kutumb, Delhi Chapter, titled ‘Climate Resilient & Green Affordable Housing in India’ focussed on affordable, low-carbon and resilient homes. The programme witnessed over 120 attendees, a mix of housing developers, financiers, subject matter experts and consultants.
Mr. Monu Ratra (ED and CEO, IIFLHFL) said, “The pandemic has brought in high consciousness towards green and sustainable construction amongst the developers, as well as the homebuyers. Also, considering buildings contribute around 35% of carbon emissions and with the vast majority of housing stock yet to be built in India, it is imperative to hold platforms such as Kutumb to build an ecosystem to foster green, sustainable and affordable housing in India.”
Sharing her views, Ms. Susan Olsen, Senior Investment Specialist for South Asia, ADB said, “Building climate-resilient and sustainable communities begins by giving access to affordable and green homes, particularly for lower income groups that are highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. IIFL HFL is our partner in broadening the scope of green affordable housing in India.”
The event witnessed discussions and deliberations between industry experts such as Priya Sunder (Senior Investment Officer, Asian Development Bank), Diane Jegam (Directrice Régionale PROPARCO Asie du Sud chez Proparco), nationally renowned architect Ashok B Lall (Principal Architect, Ashok B. Lall Architects), Mohua Mukherjee (Economist & Green Finance Professional, Independent Director, IIFL Home Finance Ltd.), Dr. Sejal Patel (Professor & Chair, Faculty of Planning, CEPT), Ravi Aggarwal (Co-founder & MD, Signature Global Group of Companies), and Saswat Bandyopadhyay (Project Director, CEPT). The event was conducted in a panel discussion format supported by presentations. The panels focused on subjects ‘Sustainable Finance in Affordable Housing’ and ‘Importance of Climate Resilience in Affordable Housing’ in India.
In the series of Kutumb, the next event is likely to be scheduled in Ahmedabad, in the first week of February, where IIFLHFL and ADB aim to bring together the affordable housing developers, planners, architects, consultants and potential homebuyers on one forum and address subjects relevant to green affordable housing in the area.
About IIFL Home Finance Limited:
Incorporated in 2006 and registered in 2009 with the National Housing Bank (NHB), IIFL Home Finance Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of IIFL Finance Limited. The Company is one of India’s leading housing finance companies and is a preferred choice for affordable home loan requirements. Through our affordable home loans, IIFL Home Finance makes people’s aspirations of owning a home a reality. As a technology-driven housing finance player, we endeavour to make our customer experience as seamless as possible. We have made the entire life cycle of our housing loans i.e., from origination to closure, completely digitized. We have managed this through our state-of-the-art IT infrastructure which has helped in reducing costs, enabled real-time analysis of customer data, and improved our control and underwriting functions, while increasing customer reach and distribution capability.
We operate a financially inclusive customer-centric lending business and strive to ensure that our business model contributes significantly to the upliftment of the EWS and LIG segments. As of March 31, 2021, 74.90% of our live accounts were from customers who belonged to the EWS and LIG segment. Through the provision of loans for the purchase of homes to a customer segment that is not serviced by the mainstream financial services sector and our employment of personnel in rural and semi-urban locations across India, we are fulfilling an important social objective of economic upliftment for these segments of the Indian economy.
We offer our customers a range of mortgage-related loan products, these include (i) housing loans, for purchase of ready built residential units, under-construction property by approved builders, self-construction, home improvement on pre-owned property, and purchase of land for construction of residential property; (ii) secured business loans, for primarily meeting working capital requirement, business use and purchase of commercial property; and (iii) affordable housing project loans, to meet construction expenses of affordable housing projects of reputed developers. For more details, please visit www.iiflhomeloans.com
