The financial services in India are rapidly moving towards digitisation. The financial services in India are drifting from the conventional ‘one size for all’ to a more personalised approach. Increased e-commerce shopping, convenience of payments, increasing smartphones usage, slashed data plans and emphasising on contactless payments in the pandemic are the tailwinds for the growth of fintech sector in India. According to BCG (Boston Consulting Group) report the fintech sector estimated valuation is $150-160 Billion by 2025. Pay cuts, layoffs, less revenues, increasing health expenses in the pandemic is forcing people to revisit their insurance, loans and other monetary plans. This becomes an opportunity for the fintech sector to solve people’s worries effectively and expand user base. To do so, the fintech sector is exploring new distribution channels for acquiring customers.
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According to BCG (Boston Consulting Group) report the fintech sector estimated valuation is $150-160 Billion by 2025.
New Distribution Channels for Fintech
Collaborating with Banks
Fintech companies are collaborating with reputed insurance companies in India to sell their policies and sustain growth. Leveraging the already established customer base of the insurance companies the fintech companies can expand their user base. The tie-up of insurance companies with fintech apps can simplify the entire customer journey in insurance right from purchases to claims within the comfort of click which otherwise was cumbersome by cold calls. 2021 witnessed many such instances of collaborations such as ICICI Prudential has partnered with PhonePe to sell term life insurance plans. Customers need not have to endure the gruelling paperwork and need not to go through traditional health check-up. The entire insurance policy can be completed by the app. On a similar note, to make available its insurance products digitally in Tier-II and Tier-III cities Airtel payments has partnered with Bharti AXA.
Through OTT Platforms
The work-from-model and decreased out-of-home consumption has led to an unprecedented rise of viewership in OTT platforms. Witnessing the uptick of by subscription – payment model in the entertainment space, Splitsub a combinator backed fintech startup is revamping the OTT subscription payment by letting split the costs of OTT subscriptions among friends and family. On Splitsub there are more than 90 OTT players and work-related platform such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Grammarly, Otter etc. whose subscription can be split. It is a marketplace of OTT platforms that handles the payments of OTT platforms.
Through e-commerce
SEBI’s initiative to reduce the cost structure of mutual funds has allowed e-commerce companies such as Flipkart to sell mutual funds through its fintech arm PhonePe. Automation of mutual fund sales including e-KYC will reduce the cost of mutual fund schemes, will eliminate the fees that needed to pay the intermediaries, thus making it easier for investors to buy mutual fund products.
Social Media Platforms
What began as a platform for fun and meeting your long-distance friends is now a platform that is now looked upon as a customer acquisition platform by the financial institutions and banks. Various financial institutions and banks are experimenting with social media payments, game-based insurance application and interactive wealth management and investment apps for the digital-savvy population. With creative posts and digital advertising, social media has the ability to catch the audience’s attention.
Digital Insurance Apps
Digital Insurance apps such as Policybazaar.com, Coverfox, Acko offers a consolidated platform that enables customers to search, compare, find and buy insurance products at affordable premiums from multiple carriers. Customers from such apps can make informed decisions by comparing all the products for a financial stream from a single platform. These apps can also claim initiation and settlement digitally which enhances customer satisfaction.
What is in it for Fintech companies?
With Gen Z becoming the future consumers of fintech, it is known that their affinity is more towards the gadget and internet. To acquire customers, it is imperative for the fintech companies to leverage the above-mentioned new distribution channels for the usage of various financial products and services.
