Over the last five years, the Indian fintech industry has reached new heights both in terms of funding received and fintech adoption.
This year, India is neck and neck with China on consumer fintech adoption with both their percentage of fintech users at 87%, according to EY’s Global Fintech Adoption Index 2019, and in Q2 2019, India surpassed China in terms of deal count with 23 fintech investments compared with 15 for China. India’s booming fintech industry is also visible through the number of fintech startups founded in recent years. Between January 2013 and October 2018, a total of 1,994 fintech companies were established in India.
As India’s fintech industry continues to gain momentum, we look today at the country’s top 30 fintech influencers to follow very closely in 2020, according to the Digital Fifth.
Alok Mittal
CEO and CoFounder, Indifi
Alok Mittal is co-founder and CEO of Indifi, a platform to expand access to debt financing for Indian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and a founding member of Indian Angel Network, a forum for making angel investments.
Anand Kumar Bajaj
Founder & CEO, Paynearby
Anand Kumar Bajaj is the founder and CEO PayNearby. He has been recognized as one of the “50 Most Influential Payment Professionals” by World Payments Congress & Awards.
Akhil Handa
Head (Fintech & Partnership, Mobile Banking) – Bank of Baroda
Akhil Handa leads the digital transformation of Bank of Baroda, India’s second largest public sector bank. He is a former banker at JP Morgan in Hong Kong, and the co-founder of Mitra Fintech.
Anish Achuthan
CoFounder & CEO – Open Financial Technologies Private Limited
Anish Achuthan is the founder of payment startup Zwitch, India’s first contactless mobile payment startup, Cashnxt Technologies, Neartivity Wireless, Ifuturz Wireless, and Open Financial Technologies. Achuthan has more than 18 years experience in payments, consumer mobile and the Internet space.
Anna Roy
Advisor – NITI Aayog
Anna Roy is an advisor in the industry and data management and analysis verticals at NITI Aayog. She is leading the government of India’s initiatives on frontier technologies including advanced data analytics, big data, artificial intelligence and blockchain.
Ashneer Grover
CEO & CoFounder – BharatPe
Ashneer Grover is the CEO and co-founder of BharatPe, India’s first and largest unified UPI QR code provider. Grover previously was the head of new business at PCJ.
Ashok Kumar
CEO & CoFounder – Scripbox
Ashok Kumar is the founder and CEO of Scripbox, India’s leading and fastest growing online investment platform with more than 1 million users. Prior to Scripbox, Kumar has held various leadership positions at IT, telecom and hitech companies such as Wipro, Intel, Airtel and Cisco.
Asish Mohapatra
CoFounder & CEO – OfBusiness
Asish Mohapatra is the co-founder and CEO of OfBusiness, a financing platform that offers smart financing to SMEs. Mohapatra is an ex-venture capitalist with Matrix Partners.
Bhavin Turakhia
Founder & CEO of Flock , Founder of Radix and Co-founder & CEO of Zeta
Bhavin Turakhia is an Indian billionaire entrepreneur, and the founder of Flock, Radix, CodeChef and Zeta. He currently serves as the CEO of Flock and Zeta.
Bhupinder Singh
CEO & Founder – InCred
Bhupinder Singh is the founder and CEO of InCred, a new-age, technology led, diversified financial services group that provides education, affordable housing, SME and consumer loans. Prior to this, he was the head of the corporate finance division of Deutsche Bank.
Gowri Thyagarajan Mukherjee
Co-Founder – CreditMantri
Gowri Thyagarajan Mukherjee is the co-founder of CreditMantri, a credit analysis firm based out of Chennai. She was a banker at Citibank and Standard Chartered before starting up CreditMantri.
Harsh Pokharna
CoFounder & CEO – OkCredit
Harsh Pokharna is the co-founder and CEO of OkCredit, a leading credit-based bookkeeping application for Indian micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Under his role, he spearheads end-to-end business operations with a strong focus on growth, fundraising, and hiring.
Harshil Mathur
CEO & CoFounder – Razorpay
Harshil Mathur is the CEO and co-founder of Razorpay, an online payment services provider. Mathur is a formerly wireline field engineer at Schlumberger.
Harshvardhan Lunia
CoFounder & CEO – Lendingkart
Harshvardhan Lunia is the co-founder and CEO of Lendingkart. Lunia had about a decade of experience in corporate banking before he embarked on an entrepreneurial route.
Lalit Keshre
CoFounder & CEO – Groww
Lalit Keshre is the co-founder and CEO of Groww, an Y Combinator backed online investment platform.
Nitin Chugh
Managing Director & CEO – Ujjivan Small Finance Bank
Nitin Chugh is the managing director and CEO of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank. Chugh has more than 25 years of experience in banking.
Nityanand Sharma
CoFounder & CEO – Simpl
Nityanand Sharma is the co-founder and CEO of Simpl, a payment startup. Prior to Simpl, Sharma worked for financial institutions including Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns.
Prasanth Ranganathan
Founder and CEO – PaySense Pte Ltd
Prasanth Ranganathan is the founder and CEO of PaySense, a leading digital lending startup. Prior to founding PaySense, Prashanth spent 4 years at PayPal where he held the position of head of product for Asia Pacific.
Praveena Rai
Chief Operating Officer – National Payments Corporation Of India (NPCI)
Praveena Rai is the COO of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Prior to joining NPCI, she was leading the cash management portfolio at Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Rajan Anandan
Managing Director – Sequoia Capital
Rajan Anandan is the managing director of Sequoia Capital India. Prior to this, Anandan was Google’s vice president for Southeast Asia and India.
Ravish Naresh
CoFounder – Khatabook.com
Ravish Naresh is the co-founder and CEO of KhataBook, digital ledger to manage Business Udhar Bahi khata for ShopKeepers. Naresh is also the co-founder of Kyte, and Housing.com.
Sachin Bansal
Tech entrepreneur
Sachin Bansal is an Indian technology entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of Flipkart. Bansal is an active investor and has recently invested in startups such as Ola, Grey Orange, Ather Energy, SigTuple, Inshorts, Unacademy and TeamIndus.
Satish Pillai
Managing Director & CEO – TransUnion CIBIL
Satish Pillai is the CEO and managing director of TransUnion CIBIL where he is responsible for steering CIBIL into its next phase of evolution by driving partnerships and providing content, insights and solutions to businesses and consumers for profitable growth.
Satyam Kumar
Executive Director – Loantap Financial Technologies
Satyam Kumar is the executive director of Loantap Financial Technologies, a fintech company for online delivery of retail asset products. Kumar has over 17 years of experience in key account management, product development, multi-cultural team handling and building business.
Shalini Warrier
Chief Operating Officer – Federal Bank
Shalini Warrier is the COO of the Federal Bank. Prior to this, Shalini worked for more than 25 years at Standard Chartered Bank.
Shivani Siroya
CEO & Founder – Tala
Shivani Siroya is the founder and CEO of Tala, a smartphone lending app. Prior to founding Tala, Siroya worked for the UN Population Fund, as well as at Citi, UBS and Credit Suisse in microfinance jobs.
Sujatha Mohan
Head of Digital and New Initiatives – RBL Bank
Sujatha Mohan is the head of digital and new initiatives at RBL Bank. Mohan has more than 26 years of experience spanning the banking and IT Industry with both domestic and international experience.
Suniti Nanda
Fintech Officer – Government of Maharashtra
Suniti Nanda is the fintech officer for the government of Maharashtra and currently acts as the change agent for the fintech sector in India. She is working towards the vision to “make Mumbai one of the global fintech hubs.”
Vinay Bagri
CEO and Cofounder – Niyo Solutions Inc.
Vinay Bagri is the CEO and co-founder of Niyo Solutions. Bagri spent 18 years in the corporate world working with diverse organizations like Parle, 3M, ICICI Bank, Standard Chartered, ING and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Yashish Dahiya
CEO & CoFounder – PolicyBazaar
Yashish Dahiya is the CEO and co-founder of Policybazaar, a 10 year old Indian insurance aggregator. Dahiya is also the CEO and co-founder of ETechAces Marketing & Consulting.
