Mapping a Billion: Understanding the Indian Fintech User

The report can be downloaded here: Mapping a Billion: Understanding the Indian Fintech User

In the first part of Bottomline, we brought to life the perfect storm that has brought fintechs in India to an inflection point. We had projected the fintech ecosystem to create $400Bn in value by FY30 and had identified ten key themes that will unlock value over the coming decade. “Mapping a Billion” is a deep-dive on four of those themes.

India is a large country with 1Bn+ addressable fintech users - these are heterogenous users with nuanced needs and contexts. Serving a segment successfully needs understanding of where they are in their adoption curve and building toward their specific pain points. Through this report, we map the unique context, identify underserved areas and outline opportunities for fintechs to create value across different segments.

The 4 themes we dwell deeper into are:

• The Rise of Vertical Specialists: as India’s financial services market deepens, fintechs are increasingly building with customers at the centre, moving from a product-led approach to a segment-led focus
  
• The Power Law: India’s top 1% drives disproportionate spends and investments - fintechs are seeing success by building delightful experiences catered to their nuanced needs, and democratising access to products reserved for the ultra-rich
• Unlocking India’s ‘Protection and Wealth’ Gap: Wealthtechs and insuretechs will solve for product simplicity, affordability and personalisation to drive penetration, especially in India’s missing middle
  
• Driving Access to Credit for the Next 200Mn Indians: >200Mn lendable Indians remain underserved - several shifts in consumer behaviour and technology now make it feasible for fintechs to serve them profitably, and at scale

As with all reports in The Bottomline series, this report captures Elevation’s deep thesis on the fintech sector, insights from a comprehensive survey of 70+ industry experts and in-depth conversations with ~30 industry leaders from prominent fintechs and financial services players. In addition, our knowledge partners, McKinsey & Company provided the analytical fact base for the report, leveraging their knowledge of the Indian financial ecosystem.

Please reach out to us for deeper discussions or if you are building in any of the themes we outline in this report.