A Young Turk, Ramakrishna ‘Ramki’ Gaddipati is an iconic entrepreneur who is passionate about product engineering with a strong sense of initiative and commitment to excel in every step

The ongoing pandemic, despite its adverse effect on the economy, played a key role in accelerating the growth of the Indian fintech industry. People are making use of digital payment facilities more than ever. The world post-COVID is going to be different from what it was before the pandemic largely in terms of lifestyle and interactions. Now is an opportune time for fintech companies to rise to the occasion and put their best feet forward to serve the post-COVID market.

Verticals like investment, wealth management, insurance, etc. will witness immense growth as Fintech brings these services to the masses in an easily accessible manner. This will encourage stronger financial planning among users and help them achieve financial independence.

Diversifying offerings to meet customer needs
The lockdown has unlocked a plethora of opportunities on the digital front to deliver holistic financial services to cater to consumers’ behavior and meet their financial needs. A simple example for this could be the facilitation of loans to medium and small enterprise owners through digital lending platforms. This has not only catered to their financial needs but also empowered low income communities & small businesses.

Verticals like investment, wealth management, insurance etc. will also witness immense growth. This will in turn encourage stronger financial planning among customers and help them achieve financial independence.

Catering to a growing mobile-first user base
Social distancing is increasing the use of online channels - especially mobile - among consumers to monitor and manage their finances. Digitally savvy consumers are now expanding their horizons and are opening doors to less established brands and trusting them for a better experience.

Partnerships between banks and fintechs has been a popular topic of discussion for a while now. However, one cannot stress on the importance of these partnerships any harder. Fintechs can build their credibility among customers by collaborating with banks to help digitize their offerings. Banks can leverage fintech capabilities to offer mobile-first experiences to their consumers making it a win-win situation for both parties.

Tackling adversities with robust infrastructure
Unlike incumbents, fintechs are more technologically equipped to tackle any kind of disruption and have responded to changes relatively faster. During demonetization, fintech were able to take charge in solving customers’ cash crunch crises by making digital payments a seamless experience. Similarly, fintechs have also been able to cope with changing norms of RBI and deliver digital-first services.

The pandemic has evidently demonstrated, change is unpredictable. To ensure sustainability, fintechs must build on agile API-based modular infrastructure that can help them adapt to change in no time. This will allow them to readily test, integrate and modify their products before rolling them out to customers, in real time. Not to forget, API platforms also take care of regulatory compliance, which helps fintechs to easily adapt the changing regulations, policies and trends.