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Bharat Fintech Summit highlights fintech industry’s challenges and opportunities

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Bharat Fintech Summit highlights fintech industry’s challenges and opportunities
Medial

The Bharat Fintech Summit 2024, organized by The Digital Fifth in Mumbai, saw the participation of 3,000 people from the Indian fintech ecosystem. Held between February 7 and February 8, the second edition of the summit hosted as many as 23 speaker sessions, five fireside chats, and 10 demonstrations. The panel discussions touched upon a wide range of relevant issues, including the dynamic fintech landscape in the country right from product-led innovations, much needed collaboration between banks and fintech players, cybersecurity and the need for increased regulatory compliances in payments and digital lending to improve banking experiences for customers and protect them from various frauds. Entrackr was present at the event and held conversations with several stakeholders of the fintech industry. It’s worth noting that the event comes at a time when the fintech industry is benefiting from the radical digital transformation of the banking industry and e-commerce growth around India and the globe. Banks and financial institutions are moving towards 100% digital for the retail and MSMEs segments in upcoming times and major innovations in the Indian BFSI industry have been propelled by the regulators and public infrastructure such as IndiaStack, Account Aggregator, and the ONDC. Enterprise fintechs are poised to expand, with projections estimating a market size of approximately $20 billion by 2030. The Digital Fifth cofounder and CEO Sameer Singh Jaini told Entrackr that the last decade witnessed a continuous influx of funds into enterprise fintechs. This, coupled with the entry of new-age players in various enterprise segments, is shedding light on the previously untapped potential of this market. “We organize the summit which are focused on content and depth and welcome here everybody from the entire Indian fintech ecosystem including the participation of 70 – 80 VC firms where they share fruitful insights, collaborate and intend to thrive their businesses amongst each other,” he added. Embedded Finance also was under the spotlight during the event as a general sentiment was to bring more focus on the need for more players to drive customer engagement in partnership with banks. During his keynote speech, RBI executive director P Vasudevan stressed the need for frictionless credit and highlighted it has the potential to become the next digital public infrastructure. “It’s a vibrant experience for me to attend such a summit and also marked presence in one the panel where we discussed tech led credit networks, leveraging multi-layered lending partnerships and cutting-edge tech for the future-ready financial sector. MSMEs lending landscape, challenges, innovation, collaboration and others. MSMEs sector has been the backbone of the Indian economy and the emergence of technology in this space is worth watching,” Alok Mittal, co-founder & MD at Indifi, told Entrackr. Indifi offers loans for small businesses which turned profitable last year and crossed Rs 1,500 crore AUM in March 2023. Perfios’ Chief Strategy Officer Ramgopal Subramani appreciated the summit saying such events are instrumental in facilitating knowledge exchange, fostering partnerships, and driving comprehensive sectoral growth. “At Perfios, we are happy to partner with events like BFS that serve as collaborative platforms across the BFSI sector to address challenges and explore innovative opportunities,” he said. “It’s always great to be associated with The Digital Fifth and the summit which can be a game changer for the entire fintech Indian ecosystem and curated this event for the last where a lot of collaborations took place,” said Vaibhav Tambe, co-founder, TransBank. TransBank is a SaaS-based platform where it takes a minimum guarantee for a particular number of services and charges per transaction basis. The summit also saw the attendance of spokespersons from different fintech startups like Trifecta, GetVantage, Zaggle, FinBox, Skydo, Bureau, Fixerra, and others.

BluSmart drivers face uncertainty amid company troubles, founder issues

EntrackrEntrackr · 2m ago
BluSmart drivers face uncertainty amid company troubles, founder issues
Medial

BluSmart suspended its operations in April in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, and Bengaluru, asking its 10,000 driver-partners to return their vehicles. The move has left several drivers scrambling to find new sources of income. Rajesh [name changed], a 35-year-old man in Gurugram, secured a driving job with a heavily VC-funded electric vehicle cab hailing company which once aimed to take on the duopoly of Ola Cabs and Uber in India. An average income of Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 per month, Rajesh admits, was not much for his family but managed to pay bills. Though, Rajesh, who also is a father of two young children, put in 10 hours to 12 hours daily - to reach the estimated monthly income. With his company now pausing the services, Rajesh has no source of earning, and does not know how he will pay his kids’ education fees. "... Now, I don’t know how I’ll manage. I missed my kids' school fees this month. My family depends on me, and I’ve never felt so helpless,” a visibly stressed Rajesh told Entrackr. One of the things that is agonising Rajesh the most is the deceptive way his employer pushed them out. “On Wednesday (April 16th), we [drivers] received a message saying the car needed to be submitted to the hub for a breakdown. We thought it was just a minor technical issue. When we got there, they told us it was a failure and we’d be informed later. But there was no word from the company after that. We just had to go home. We were left in complete shock," says Rajesh as his voice strains, reliving the fateful moment. Rajesh says he was among the first lot of employees, when the company had just 50 cars. Like many others, he too bought the company’s promise of stability. “Now, it feels like we’ve been left out to dry,” he said. “I’m considering working with Uber or Ola… I’m looking for something else, maybe a different field altogether. But BluSmart was my livelihood, and I’d go back in a heartbeat if they reopened. It was my only source of income,” he added. Rajesh’s story resonates with another thousands of drivers who are now scrambling to find new sources of income after BluSmart’s sudden suspension of its services. Entrackr has reached out to BluSmart seeking responses on how they plan to compensate the affected drivers. In case they respond, we will incorporate their inputs. Staging the protest On May 4, a group of BluSmart drivers raised their grievances at Jantar Mantar, a historic site for protests. They pressed for demands for alternative income avenues as well as called for crucial policy reforms to prevent similar abrupt dismissals. Additionally, they also sought a government intervention. Tajinder Singh, president of Parivahan Morcha Athavale and also among those spearheading the protest, told Entrackr that women drivers of BluSmart were among those bearing the brunt the most as other taxi companies refused to recruit them. He further said that some drivers were working on a per day basis as and when required but asserted that this was not a long-term solution. “We are demanding compensation for affected BluSmart drivers. We have also sought government intervention so that the drivers can continue to earn their livelihood,” Singh said. Singh also claimed that hundreds of BluSmart employees working at charging hubs were affected by the company’s sudden suspension of its services. A business model that promised to be different than rivals Even as ‘sustainability’ remained the headline grabber, BluSmart also deployed a rather different business model compared to rivals Ola Cabs and Uber. The company used a full-stack B2C model wherein they owned and managed the vehicles whereas Ola and Uber work with independent drivers. The model allowed BluSmart to have a better control on the quality of cars, maintenance, and subsequently better customer service. For drivers, the company offered a fixed salary along with incentives. An assured income was a big factor why a lot of drivers showed interest in joining BluSmart. Ola and Uber, on the other hand, operated on a familiar commission-based system, also common with several gig working-reliant service providers. Singh also highlighted this stark difference between BluSmart and its rivals. He said that the job of driver was to pick and drop the passenger and earn a regular income (per day payout and incentives). They needed to work 10 hours to 12 hours a day. Other things like maintenance and documentation was taken care of by the company, giving drivers a more relaxed environment to operate. Blusmart has raised over $180 million to date, including its $50 million series B round in January this year. Though, it received only Rs 61 crore out of $50 million. That said, a heavily-funded BluSmart juggernaut appeared unstoppable, until it did. Earlier this year, reports emerged that BluSmart delayed salary payments to cash crunch. It had also shut down operations in Dubai and also saw an exodus of top management employees, including CEO, CBO, and CTO. A month later, SEBI published findings of its probe into Gensol Engineering, BluSmart’s partner and EV lessor. The SEBI order highlighted misuse of funds, and also barred promoters Anmol and Puneet Singh Jaggi from accessing the securities market and holding key positions in Gensol Engineering. What next for BluSmart drivers BluSmart drivers facing joblessness due to the shutdown can go for legal remedy and urgently demand clearance of any unpaid dues and better severance compensation, if not given already. The legal course, which may take a relatively long time, may also help them investigate if BluSmart violated the contract by sudden halting of their services and returning vehicles. Moreover, they can also seek intervention from regulatory boards. Singh, however, did not appear enthusiastic about taking the legal course. “Companies like these make such contracts that they keep them protected in such incidents and don’t have to own any responsibility towards people working so hard for them,” he said [loosely translated from Hindi]. As far as the future of the company goes, it’s hard to predict considering the massive VC money riding on the company. Despite the major dent in public image and also several legal troubles, it’s likely that the company may stay afloat with a rather new management and new board - a few known steps troubled companies often take to course correct. It’s worth noting that quality of drivers and cabs were the top highlight of the platform, and if it resumes, it should continue with that. With the ongoing protests and lack of communication between drivers and management, it seems unlikely that the company will enjoy the same level of trust from its network drivers.

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