New Delhi: India has recorded the highest fintech adoption rates among emerging economies and is also the second-largest fintech hub in the world. Yet, 20% of its adult population lacks access to capital and borrowing opportunities. With a view to steer the Indian economy onto a path of greater financial inclusion and inclusive growth, 20 eminent business and investment leaders have collectively identified top 10 investment ideas that can not only empower the underserved sections in the country but also attract a staggering $150 billion in investment and generate $350 billion in revenues by 2030 with the potential to create 8 million jobs while impacting 1.1 billion lives over-all.
Distilled from a sea of ideas at the intersection of technology and finance, the research publication – titled Investing for Impact: BFSI, Financial Inclusion, and FinTech and released by Aspire Circle, Impact Leadership champion and the creator of Impact Future Project in India – has identified 10 investment themes.
This was the first in a series of reports by Aspire Circle as a part of the larger and overarching programme of generating 100 Impact Ideas for India’s Inclusive Growth with India’s largest collaborative research initiative involving over 200 experts with an eye on shaping India’s Impact Economy.
The leaders who collaborated on this project included Ms. Chetna Gala Sinha, founder of Mann Deshi Bank and its Foundation and Co-chair of World Economic Forum 2018; Mr. Abhishek Agarwal, Chief Regional Officer for Accion India and an advisor to The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI); Ms. Vishakha Mulye, Executive Director on the Board of ICICI Bank; Mr. Suresh Sethi, MD & CEO, NSDL; Mr. Alok Mittal, Co-founder & CEO, Indifi Technologies; and Mr. Eric Savage, Co-Founder, and CEO, Unitus Capital.
“We are proud to release the first of ten Impact Future Project research publications, on “BFSI, Financial Inclusion & FinTech”. Our research highlights that the Top 10 emerging investment themes in the sector – Digital Payments, Digital Lending, InsurTech, Consumer Savings Products, Digital Factoring, Ecosystem Actors, NeoBanking, AgTech Funding Platforms, Blockchain & Impact Bonds, can collectively attract $150 billion in investment and $350 billion in revenues by 2030 with the potential to create 8 million jobs and impacting 1.1 billion lives! This is the transformational promise of Impact when we juxtapose Finance with Technology,” said Mr. Amit Bhatia, Founder of Aspire Circle & Creator – Impact Future Project.
Rekindling its philanthropic heritage as well as resetting the social entrepreneurial ecosystem, in recent years, India has emerged as a high-quality impact investment destination. Last year, despite the pandemic, impact enterprises in the country received an impressive USD 2.6 billion in investments across 243 equity deals with 13 successful exits.
Ms. Vishakha Mulye, ED, ICICI Bank said, “As Capitalism moves from “shareholder management” to “stakeholder management”, we must integrate broader social and environmental objectives into our strategies and operations. This requires thought leadership and IFP has been a wonderful platform for the same, proposing ten truly transformative and impactful ideas for BFSI, Financial Inclusion & FinTech that embody ESG considerations”.
Mr. Abhishek Agrawal, CRO, Accion, Asia said, “We need to look at focusing on once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create an Impact Economy where new technologies and business models yield shared prosperity & make progress towards achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.”
