While the impact of the pandemic has been a dead weight on mergers (M&A) and acquisitions in the first nine months of 2020, the equity capital markets (ECM) in India elucidate a different story.

When India recorded 776 M&A deals worth $44.8 billion – down from previous two fiscals, the country’s capital markets have run up considerably after March’s crash. A report by Refinitiv Deals Intelligence, which suggests that Indian investment banks generated underwriting fees worth $260

million through ECM deals – an almost 100 percent YoY increase, is a strong testament.

The lion share of credit goes to the tech powered capital market solutions providers, who have been a great influence towards elevating the financial literacy in the country and engendering new, informed investors. For instance, Groww – a tech-powered fastgrowing investment platform, had come up with a pan-India financial education initiative ‘Ab India Karega Invest’, and subsequently was rewarded handsomely with a $30 million (Rs.220 crore) in Series C funding in September.

En route to the future, capital market solutions providers will be looking forward to pursuing the same path they have been on over the last few years – increasing financial literacy in the country. In the process, it’s certainly imperative to adhere to the global trend of embracing agile and experience-centric capital market and asset management solutions. The futuristic technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) are also playing a pivotal role in democratizing investments, opening a cost-effective avenue.

AI indeed holds massive potential not only in the form of futurifying decision making, stress testing, conversational user interface, and algorithmic trading, but also towards client servicing and support. Coming up with the issue of ‘10 Most Recommended Capital Market Solutions Providers – 2020’ is all the more important due to the same reasons.

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