Leading Indian and International Fintech Firms Marks Their Presence at the 5th Edition of Digital Lending Association of India (DLAI) Conclave

The signature event of Digital Lending Association of India- the annual DLAI conclave was held on Tuesday, January 24^th amidst an august gathering of Digital lenders, Tech firms, Banks, NBFCs, Investors, Startups at the Taj Lands End, Mumbai. In its 5^th edition, the DLAI Conclave 2023 saw large scale participation from over 600 delegates and over 400 leading Indian and International Fintech firms and other stakeholders from the industry. The theme of DLAI Conclave this year was ‘Vision 2030: Role of Fintech in mobilizing the economy’ keeping in line with the present state of the global economy.

The morning session of the conclave started with the keynote address on ‘A decade of digital lending and the road ahead’ by Mr. Sashank Rishyasringa, Co-founder, axio and Founding Member and President DLAI. Sharing his views, he said, “Our focus at DLAI will be in three key areas, convening, empowerment and self-regulation. We currently have 93 members and over 30% of them are part of multiple committees, helping us drive conversations. As an association, we are building data resources and providing a platform for our members to support growth. Lastly, we will focus on moving toward building a strong self-regulatory environment.”

The keynote was followed by the first panel of the day ‘Role of Fintech in Powering the $5 trillion economy’ with Smita Aggarwal, Global Investments Advisor, Flourish Ventures, Sameer Aggarwal, Founder and CEO, RevFin , Hitesh Sachdev, Head- Startup Investment and Engagement, ICICI Bank and Tanya Naik, Head- Online and Omnichannel Business, Pine Labs. The panel was moderated by Shilpa Mankar Ahluwalia, Partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co.

The second keynote on ‘Harnessing the Synergy between Japanese and Indian Fintech’ by Presha Paragash, CEO, Credit Saison brought out interesting data on how Japan has been increasingly growing their stakehold in the Indian startup ecosystem, more so in the last 10 years.

The first half also saw an uninhibited fire-side interview of Mr. Sanjay Nayar, Founder and Chairman, Sorin Investment, one of the most well-known and seasoned investors in the Indian private investing landscape – with over 38 years of experience in the financial markets.

Sanjay Nayar, Sorin Investments spoke about the fact that India is increasingly moving towards advanced digital infrastructure with support from the Government to drive innovation in financial services and democratising consumption. There is a tremendous conviction for financial inclusion and with smart regulators who are building differentiated regulatory facilities in tandem with international standards, it is possible for fintech companies to build sustainable business models. Distinctive licensing models will help fintech businesses be relevant to their revenue goals.

The second panel of the day ‘Pati, Patni and Whoa!’ had a light hearted title but focused on the real essence of partnerships between banks, fintech partners, corporate partners and many such combinations that keeps the fintech sector running. The discussion had luminaries from the industry including Shinjini Kumar, Co-Founder, SALT and Independent Director at Paytm payments, Gaurav Kumar, Founder and CEO at Yubi, Abhishant Pant, Founder of The Fintech Meetup, Harshavardhan Lunia, Co-Founder, LendingKart. The session was moderated by Anuj Kacker, Co-founder Freo.

The primary purpose of the conclave every year has been to bring together the industry leaders and influencers to discuss and deliberate on issues that impact the growth of the digital credit sector in India. With representations from majority of Indian and International fintech firms, it provides an opportunity to the participants to envision the potential of the digital space and position themselves to benefit from the massive opportunity.

The post lunch session of the conclave saw the launch of three white papers on topical issues including Data Protection and Lending; Emerging Opportunities in digital lending and Impact and Numbers and power packed keynote sessions by Upasana Taku, Co-Founder, Mobikwik on the topic "From Technology to Trust- elevating the Fintech game” and by Jairam Sridharan, MD, Piramal Finance on how Piramal Finance unleashed the power of innovative lending by tapping into the digital age.

The panel on “Growing Up responsibly: Serving the next 100 million” discussed the importance of ensuring financial products that are designed to include a larger segment of populations. The speakers of the session included Mayank Jain, Director - Credit and Lending, Amazon Pay; Ranjan Ghosh, President, Unity Small Finance Bank, International Banker and Business Leader; Eapen Muthoot, Executive Director at The Muthoot Group; Sanjay Agarwal, Co-Founder, Moneyview and Sayali Karanjkar, Co-Founder of Paysense- now an angel investor. The session was moderated by Gaurav Hinduja, Co-Founder and MD, axio.

The book reading session saw the veteran journalist and writer Tamal Bandyopadhyay sharing excerpts from his recently launched book “Riding the Roller Coaster: An insider’s look at the personalities shaping the Indian banking industry.”

The panel ‘Black swans, grey rhinos, and purple patches: Where in the credit cycle are we?’ discussed the multiple micro and macro changes that has impacted the financial sector worldwide and focused on what can be expected in the near future. The panelists included Vishal Chopra, Co-Founder and CEO at WeRize; Prithvi Chandrasekhar, President and CEO, Incred Financial Services; Ramgopal Subramani, Board Member, Perfios; Matthew Gamser, CEO at SME Finance Forum, IFC and Syed Zulfiqar Ali, Chief Collection Office at Paytm. The panel was moderated by Sucharita Mukherjee, Co-founder and CEO, Kaleidofin Private Limited.

The most important and burning topic was covered in the panel, ‘Funding Outlook for Fintech Ecosystem in FY24’, where the moderator Pankaj Naik, MD, Avendus threw the floor open for panelists Nithya Easwaran, MD, Multiples; Deepak Jain, Co-Founder, FlexiLoans; Saravanan Nattanmai, Principal, Premji Invest and Ishan Abrol, Lending Investments, MUFG.

The closing remarks at the conclave were made by Pallavi Shrivastava, Co- founder, Progcap. Progcap is revolutionizing the last-mile retailer financing in India by providing them access to flexible credit and digitizing their supply-chains.

The DLAI Conclave 2023 was sponsored by 31 esteemed companies with Credit Saison being the Title sponsor; Mobikwik and Moneyview as Gold Sponsors; Perfios Software Solutions Private Limited as Associate Sponsor and Cred as the Industry sponsor.