Indian Fintech among top 5 sectors for funding in 2016: Report

India remains one of the largest markets where the structural enablers to setup, incubate fintech

Indian FinTech is one of top five markets by value of capital funding and investments in the sector with nearly $270 million of funding in 2016, according to a recent report.

The report also noted that in medium-term fintech players will consolidate their position in urban and metro centres and will extend to rural and semi-urban areas over the next three-five years.

India remains one of the largest markets where the structural enablers to setup and incubate fintech have come together strongly and at an apt time, the joint report by Internet and Mobile Association of India, and Deloitte said.

"Combination of steady economic growth with low penetration of financial services and availability of supporting infrastructure such as internet data access, smartphones along with utility infrastructure including Aadhaar based authentication and India Stack capabilities are likely to provide the required impetus to India's fintech sector," the report noted.

Payments and lending are the likely candidates for breakout in the short term as the new fintechs target the quest for offering cashless digital payments services, it said.

On the lending side, low penetration of retail and MSME credit along with the promise of better experience and faster turnaround time have created strong propositions for customers, it added.

Fintechs in most of the other segments including investment management, personal finance management, banktech and insurtech have initiated the market making process and currently target specific market niches.

"We believe that armed with right value proposition and by gaining confidence of customers, these segments are likely to witness their own break out moments and it's just a matter of time, and some entrepreneurial energy and creativity before it happens," the report said.

It also said technology has been a key enabler, but the pace of adoption has not been commensurate.

Armed with advanced data and analytics capabilities, asset light platforms and almost zero processing costs, fintech companies are complementing, and in some cases challenging the traditional banking and financial services institutions, it added.

Although demonetisation provided a boost to the payments sector in the short term, the report expects that now investments in personal finance and wealth management would rise going forward.