12 start-ups exhibit their innovative solutions on Mumbai FinTech Hub’s Demo Day

India’s position as the world’s second largest FinTech hub is a direct reflection of the monumental progress made by various start-ups in the lending, payments, investments, insurance and personal finance management space. To further foster next-generation innovation, the Government of Maharashtra introduced Mumbai FinTech Hub to enable financial empowerment and technological advancement by nurturing start-ups with the potential to scale.

Mumbai FinTech Hub’s vision to catalyse growth was curated by The FinTech Meet-up through the introduction of Mumbai FinTech Accelerator. It is a unique public-private partnership between the government of Maharashtra, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), PayU, Fino Payments bank, IndusInd Bank, IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company, SBI General, HannoveRe, Swiss Global Enterprise and CRIF High Mark. Mr. Abhishant Pant (Founder, The FinTech Meet-up) said, “Access to market, Funding and financial services talent is key to the growth of Fintech Industry and Mumbai wins hands down on all of these parameters. MFA built by the FinTech Meet-up is an attempt to act as a catalyst in achieving the above objective.”

Post the launch of Mumbai FinTech Accelerator programme in September last year, they received over 200 applications of which 12 were finalised for the debut cohort in December 2018. The agenda for the selected start-ups was to work closely with various stakeholders for the next three months and present their innovative solutions to investors on Demo Day. With ISME-DICE as the co-working partner responsible for facility management of the programme, the selected start-ups were working on solutions across financial services such as insurance, payment getaways, real-time data analysis, InvestTech, lending etc. Not only has the Mumbai FinTech Hub Accelerator programme granted these start-ups direct access to multiple industry partners but has also presented them with the opportunity to collaborate with Government of Maharashtra and other regulators.

Ms. Suniti Nanda, FinTech Officer, Mumbai FinTech Hub said, “Our focus from the start has been to actively operationalise the start-up ecosystem and provide avenues for next-generation innovation across financial services. Most start-ups need an environment suitable to sustain growth. The true potential of start-ups in India needs to be unlocked through increasing financial access, facilitating digitisation of processes, and collaborating with incumbents in the industry, which has been the agenda of Mumbai FinTech hub. We aim to cultivate an atmosphere that fosters easy adoption of technological innovations through a solution-centric approach.”

A short synopsis of the 12 selected start-ups:

1. BON Fleet - BON Fleet has dedicated itself to provide credit for the self-employed, gig-economy and under-served audiences of the world. With the mission to provide these determined workers easy access to financial services, this Pune-based FinTech firm has created a credit card with a cashless expense management app to help provide and efficiently manage working capital

2. Paperking - Paperking is India’s first mobile app for newspaper vendors to help take their offline business online. By enabling paperless auto generated e-bills either through SMS or WhatsApp, this unique app attempts to minimize the time and maximize the earning potential of these vendors. With payments being done online that go directly to the bank account, it is helping vendors build a healthy financial portfolio and become eligible for business and personal enhancement through loans, cards, and other bank facilities

3. HuePay - HuePay has been transforming micro finance to serve the semi-urban and rural areas by helping smaller financial institutions run their business from a simple online dashboard. A streamlined process not only optimizes operations holistically but also accounts for end-to-end lifecycle management of the customer

4. PhiCommerce - PhiCommerce is a multi-purpose payments platform that helps businesses and consumers move up the digital payment curve by optimising operational efficiency. Within a short time, it has established itself as a company that has been actively democratising digital payments across socio-economic segments

5. YAP - Driving adoption of new and efficient payment methods (from prepaid cards to UPI) for consumers and businesses alike is YAP, the world’s first payment as a service platform. Backed by leading banks in India, most financial services companies rely on YAP to run their payment processes for seamless integration

6. Jarvis - Jarvis is an artificial intelligence that has been designed to eliminate bias and provide investment solutions unique to consumer’s preferences and financial needs. Not only does it monitor the equity model carefully but also presents consumers with a personalized portfolio at low cost, real time reporting and a meticulously designed risk management model

7. Finlok - Finlok is India’s first Group Saving App that is empowering users to bring their social network together to save money. It acts largely like a personal bank wherein individuals within a particular group can get together to save, get credit within their group and earn returns

8. News4Use - News4Use is unique in its proposition since it uses data from property public notices to ensure that a financial institution lending against a property or an owner is protected from any risks. It works in two phases – N4U PREVENT Pre disbursement of loan (identify and avoid lending against property with unacceptable public notice) and N4U PROTECT Post disbursement of loan (alert the lender if any public notice is published for the said mortgaged property)

9. GoPlannr - GoPlannr aims to simplify insurance with help from handpicked local advisors and smart technology. The AI-powered assistant serves as a single point of contact providing consumers hassle-free solutions and advice for all their insurance needs

10. Microchip Payments - Microchip Payments has built a unique mobile application and SDK, ‘PayEasy’ which attempts to solve the problem of India’s lack of strong internet connectivity in remote areas using data over voice technology. PayEasy makes use of voice call network to make transactions. It also follows RBI Guidelines and PCI compliance and is more secure due to the preferred nature of the voice channel

11. Riscovry - Riscovry with its distinctive tech-driven platform not only aims to sell insurance but enables users to discover their own risks and curate an insurance cover that is unique to each individual. Being simple and transparent, Riscovry covers a whole array of products from business to the personal finance space making it one of the most exhaustive insurance providers

12. Crelytics - Crelytics is an AI-powered loan management solution platform that aims to support end-to-end credit lifecycle across various types of loans, thereby empowering businesses to lend and collect faster and better. The platform’s analytics and prediction suite ensures optimum risk control allowing financial institutions customise credit score for their respective cohorts