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The Fintech Industry in India has seen significant traction in the past year. The Industry is driven by individuals who have contributed their knowledge and expertise to enrich the Fintech and Digital Finance Ecosystem. These individuals have taken pandemic as an opportunity to increase partnerships with other financial organizations and expand digital adoption amongst the population. Their vision is driving the ecosystem and thus influencing all the stakeholders. The Digital Fifth has curated a list of India’s Top 30 Fintech Influencers from across the Fintech and BFSI sector to call out a few of these individuals and give them the honor they deserve. This list has been made based on their contribution to the Fintech ecosystem, the impact, and knowledgeability rather than their social media score.
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Amrish Rau
CEO Pine Labs
Mr. Amrish Rau is the CEO of Pine Labs and one of the most active Angel Investors in the country. Pine Labs has grown and diversified its offering in less than two years of its tenure. The company has raised nearly $700 million with a valuation of $3.5 billion and is eyeing an IPO by the end of 2022. In addition, pine Labs acquired payments platform Fave for $45 million during the year. Previously, Amrish has held multiple leadership positions at Naspers Ltd., Citrus Payment Solutions, First Data Corporation, and many other organizations.
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Anish Achuthan
CEO and Co-Founder
Open Financial Technologies
Mr. Anish Achuthan is the Co-Founder & CEO of Open Financial Technologies. Open is Asia’s first neo banking platform for SMEs and startups. Open has acquired Consumer Neo-Banking Platform Finin for $10 million to widen its offerings to enhance Zwitch, a no-code embedded finance platform. Open has bagged a multi-million investment from Google and Temasek and is on its way to becoming a Unicorn in 2022.
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Anna Roy
Senior Adviser NITI Aayog
Ms. Anna Roy is the Senior Advisor at NITI Aayog, focusing on Fintech and Digital Banking, amongst other areas. She has issued the recent report on Digital Banking by NITI Aayog, which has provided a template for the Digital Bank Regulatory Framework for India. This report is expected to impact the Indian Banking & Fintech ecosystem significantly.
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Ashneer Grover
MD & Co-Founder BharatPe
Mr. Ashneer Grover is the MD and Co-Founder of BharatPe. He is also an angel investor and has invested in multiple startups. Mr. Ashneer Grover has grown the company rapidly, currently valued at $2.85 billion while raising $700 million. Earlier this year, BharatPe and Centrum Finance acquired Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank and created a new small finance bank – Unity Small Finance Bank. This would pave the way for more Fintechs to acquire banking licenses. He was previously the Head of New Business at PCJ, helped build Grofers, headed Corporate Development for American Express India, and was in Kotak Investment Banking.
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Balachander Sekhar
CEO RenewBuy
Mr. Balachander Sekhar is the Co-founder and CEO of RenewBuy, which has scaled insurance distribution with its agent-led model against the industry giants. RenewBuy’s business works on a B2B2C model, which enables its 60,000 trained advisors to offer insurance products to customers. He has previously held leadership positions at MetLife, Reliance Retail Industries, and American Express.
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Bhavin Turakhia
CEO Zeta
Mr. Bhavin Turakhia is the Co-founder & CEO of Zeta, which has pivoted into Core Platform Business for Financial Institutions and Embeddable Banking for fintech and distributors. They are rebuilding the backend technology stack for Core Banking / Digital Platforms to help institutions launch newer and adaptable products. In May, Zeta became a Unicorn with $ 250 million funding led by Softbank. They are currently focusing on building platforms for HDFC Bank and scaling the international business.
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Gaurav Kumar
Founder & CEO CredAvenue
Mr. Gaurav Kumar is the Founder and CEO of CredAvenue, creating a new segment of Enterprise Debt Platforms. The CredAvenue marketplace leads to the empowerment of both mid and larger enterprises on one side and growing a healthy loan book for the larger Banking ecosystem. Having already processed transactions worth more than $9 billion through the platform, CredAvenue is beyond the concept stage and already profitable. CredAvenue raised $90 million in India’s most extensive Series A funding round with a valuation of $410 million. Before this, Mr. Gaurav Kumar founded Vivriti Capital and held the position of Chief Business Officer at Northern Arc Capital.
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Harshil Mathur
CEO & Co-Founder Razorpay
Mr. Harshil Mathur is the CEO & Co-founder of Razorpay, India’s 2nd largest fintech. Its valuation has grown 2½ times this year to $7.5 billion. The company acquired TERA Finlabs, a Bengaluru-based lending startup, to enter the credit business. Under his leadership, Razorpay has become a significant player in the Payment, Lending, and Neobanking space.
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Jitendra Gupta
Founder Jupiter
Mr. Jitendra Gupta is the Founder & CEO of Jupiter, one of the largest and most funded Retail Neobanks. He has also backed a large number of startups. Established in 2019, Jupiter is a digital banking platform that permits clients to digitally open accounts in partnership with Federal Bank and Axis Bank. Jupiter has raised multiple funding rounds in a limited time and is expected to become a unicorn soon. Before this, Mr. Jitendra Gupta was the MD of PayU and Founder of Citrus Payment
Solutions.
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Kush Taneja
Founder FamPay
Mr. Kush Taneja is the Founder of Fampay, which offers India’s first online and offline card payments focusing on a new segment- teenagers. This helps teens to make payments through both modes using the FamCard. Their approach of differentiated Neobanking for the teen persona has gained significant traction.
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Lalit Keshre
CEO Groww
Mr. Lalit Keshre is the CEO of Groww, an online investment platform that allows investors to invest in mutual funds and stocks. During the year, Groww has raised $234 million and is amongst the country’s largest Fintechs. In addition, it has acquired Indiabulls Mutual Fund Business to get into the MF business. Mr. Lalit Keshre has scaled Groww rapidly, while most competitors could not survive or grow in a difficult wealth market.
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Madhusudan E
CEO KreditBee
Mr. Madhusudhan Ekambaram is the CEO of Kreditbee, which offers instant personal loans ranging up to INR 2 lakhs to professionals. As a fintech platform, KreditBee has disbursed over $2 billion worth of loans over the past three years, has over five million credit borrowers, and issues upward of 15,000 loans per day. Kreditbee has been funded $153 million in multiple funding rounds this year.
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Praveena Rai
COO NPCI
Ms. Praveena Rai is the Chief Operating Officer at NPCI and has driven multiple collaborations and partnerships throughout the year to drive the payments ecosystem in India. As the COO, Ms. Praveena Rai is in-charge of formulating & deploying the marketing, business development, product management, and operations strategy in line with NPCI’s overall strategic objectives of simple, secure and seamless consumer experience to further the cause of rapid digitalization of India. Before NPCI, she has held multiple leadership positions in CitiGroup, HSBC, and Kotak.
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Raghunandan G
Founder Zolve
Mr. Raghunandan is the founder of Zolve, a neo banking startup that aims to help immigrants in the US gain access to financial services. They have taken a differentiated approach for setting up Neobank, setting the trend for the market. It has raised $40 million recently. Zolve works with American and Indian banks to provide consumers seamless access to financial products. Previously, Raghunandan has been the Founder & Director of TaxiForSure.
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Rajan Bajaj
Founder & CEO slice
Mr. Rajan Bajaj is the Founder and CEO of Slice, the first Indian unicorn in lending. The company made a massive splash with its recent funding of $220 million. The startup offers credit cards that are focused on youngsters in the country. They are reinventing how traditional credit cards work by providing a simple and transparent app to help members transact easily. As of now, they have amongst the best customer onboarding and transacting experiences.
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Rajesh Bansal
CEO RBI Innovation Hub
Mr. Rajesh Bansal is the CEO of Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH), which fosters the structure to advance fintech-related analysis and works to increase association with fintech startups. Mr. Bansal has over 25 years in designing payment products, e-cash transfers, digital IDs, and financial services in Indian, African, and Asian markets. Mr. Rajesh Bansal has been associated with RBI for almost 20 years and has held senior-level positions in organizations such as Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and BFA. Over the past year, we have seen the intense engagement of the RBIH with the Fintech ecosystem.
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Ravi Kumar
Cofounder RKSV( Upstox)
Mr. Ravi Kumar is the Co-founder and CEO of digital discount broker Upstox. He has driven the company to a four-fold jump in its customer base to over 8 million from an initial 2 million in just one year. Tiger Global and Ratan Tata-backed Upstox has become a unicorn this year and opened up the wealth ecosystem.
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Sameer Shetty
Head, Digital Business And Transformation Axis Bank
Mr. Sameer Shetty is the Head, Digital Business And Transformation (DBAT) at Axis Bank. Under his leadership, the bank has progressed significantly in Digital Lending, NeoBanking, Contactless Payments, etc. Before Axis Bank, Sameer Shetty held a Partner Position in McKinsey & Co. for over a decade.
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Shailaz Nag
Founder DotPe
Mr. Shailaz Nag is the founder and CEO of DotPe. Within a span of 1 year, the company has empowered over 7 million merchants across various categories to go online with their businesses. In addition, the company digitally powers the entire customer journey- ordering, payments, and delivery solutions for 30,000+ restaurants
and food courts. Before this, he was the Co-founder and Managing Director of PayU India.
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Shalini Warrier
Executive Director Federal Bank
Ms. Shalini Warrier is the Executive Director at Federal Bank and primarily heads Retail Banking Products, Operational excellence, and Digital Innovation. She has transitioned the bank into a digitally-forward leader amongst the old private sector banks with partnerships across Neobanking (Jupiter & Fi), Securitization (CredAvenenue), Credit Card (OneCard), and Gold Loans (Rupeek). The bank has also improved its digital capabilities across domains.
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Shikha Hora Kamdar
Head- Consumer Lending IDFC FIRST Bank
Ms. Shikha Hora Kamdar heads Consumer Lending at IDFC Bank. Before this, she has held leadership positions at various leading companies like Religare Macquarie Private Wealth and Deutsche Bank. Under her leadership, the bank has partnered with lending players across products with Flexmoney, Bank Bazaar, PaisaBazaar, Xiaomi, Ola, Paysense, Eduvanz, and Moneyview to offer BNPL / IDFC Personal Loan on their platforms.
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Subramanya S V
Cofounder Fisdom
Mr. Subramanya S V is the co-founder of Fisdom, which has partnered with multiple financial institutions like Google Pay, PSU Banks, Karnataka Bank, City Union Bank, TVS Credit, and many more entities to offer its mutual fund products to a larger audience. At the beginning of the year, Fisdom forayed into tax solutions with the acquisition of Tax2win. Fisdom has also entered into a newer area- stockbroking, thereby competing with discount brokers. As a result, it has one of the widest product portfolios and strongest B2B distribution networks. Previously, he was the MD of Bessemer Venture Partners, where he invested in and served on the boards of Snapdeal, TaxiForSure, Matrimony.com, Nephroplus, and many others.
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Vaibhav S J.
Chief Digital Officer Equitas Small Finance Bank
Mr. Vaibhav Joshi is the Chief Digital Officer at Equitas Small Finance Bank. He has driven significant digital initiatives for the bank, including the launch of two Neobanks- NiyoX (in partnership with Niyo Solutions, which has gained 1 million customers) and Freo and Digital FDs on Google Pay in a tie-up with Setu. These initiatives have contributed significantly to the growth of Neobanking and Open Banking in the country.
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Vasudevan P
Chief General Manage RBI
Mr. P Vasudevan heads the payments and settlement systems function in RBI. This involves framing policies, regulating, supervising, facilitating innovation, and playing a catalytic role in the payments space, encompassing many banks and non-bank payment system operators. He has been driving Fintech and Digital Finance Regulatory initiatives like Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), New Umbrella Entity, Tokenization, etc. He has been a member of the Committee of RBI, which has
released the framework for Digital Lending.
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Vikram Chachra
Founding Partner 8i Ventures
Mr. Vikram Chachra is Founding Partner at 8i Ventures and an angel investor. 8i Ventures has funded multiple fintech companies throughout the year, focusing on the Payments space with investments in Yap, Easebuzz, and Slice. As an angel, he has been an investor in multiple companies like Carwale, Signzy, Slice, Yap, Kodo, etc. He has helped immensely build the ecosystem through his deep knowledge and vast network.
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Yashish Dahiya
Chairman & CEO Policy bazaar
Mr. Yashish Dahiya is the Co-founder & Chairman of Policy Bazaar, which dominates the insurance distribution business by a sizeable margin. After attaining unicorn status a few years ago, the company went for an IPO, the first for Fintech startups. The company runs its marketplace for loans (Paisabazaar) and is acquiring Myloancare, an online marketplace for loans.
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Kunal Shah
CEO Pine Labs
Mr. Kunal Shah is the founder of Cred, the most talked-about startup in the country. He is considered a legend in the world of Fintechs and has created a new category of Credit Card Payment with never before seen gamification and cashbacks. The company has since diversified into Payments, Lending, Wealth space and has acquired Happay, a corporate expense management platform to expand its Fintech Offerings. It has also acquired the liquor delivery app HipBar as it wants to enter wallet payments with HipBar’s prepaid payment instrument license. This year, Cred has raised $547 million in Series C, D, and E funding rounds. He was previously an advisor with Sequoia Capital and founded Freecharge.
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