Reflecting on Finance Forward India 2020

India has made impressive strides on financial health in the past five years. Mobile money and government programs have helped millions of people open bank accounts, find capital to open a business, or build savings for the future.

Yet the goal of financial health for all Indians is still far away. And it was made even harder thanks to the pandemic, as 130 million Indians lost their jobs and 60% of businesses reported issues with cash flow.

We believe that innovation is more important than ever at a time like this. Our team has been supporting startups in India since 2010, and we’ve worked with more than 70 fintech startups working to help people access financial services.

Our latest accelerator, Finance Forward: India 2020, revolved around a twelve-week virtual training program that focused on investment-readiness and more than 120 meetings with potential investors and partners. The cohort also attended our Finance Forward Global Session, where they met fintechs from Latin America, Middle East and Europe. 

Here are the 12 startups that participated in the program -

1. Wizi - A mobile application that aids users in managing and identifying the right credit card according to their needs 
2. Bank Buddy - Integrated AI driven CX platform that empowers financial institutions to digitize their operations  
3. Aggois - Agri finance platform that improves access to credit for farmers at the post harvest stage based on their receivables 
4. Artivatic.AI - API module based solutions targeting insurance companies to digitise their operations 
5. Credit Fair - Point of sale consumer financing solution specifically targeted towards the underserved population of India 
6. Credit Nirvana -  AI based omni channel debt collection solution with a focus on best customer management practices 
7. Finbot - Health equipment financing platform with a focus on stand alone health centres in tier 2 and 3 cities 
8. Monitree - Portfolio management tool that aids retail investors and professional traders in investment making decisions
9. Ocare Neo -  Healthcare focussed neo bank providing savings and credit facilities 
10. Nivesh- Mobile first platform focused on solving the problem of low penetration of investment products in India by digitizing the operations of financial advisors 
11. Zoop - Zoop is working to create a digital KYC product that allows business to digitally onboard their customers 
12. Supermoney - A financial wellness platform for gig economy workers and micro entrepreneurs who are not serviced by traditional players

The 4 workshop program focussed on supporting startups on developing various aspects of their business such as  problem & vision, value proposition, business model, market, scale, product, team and investor exit. 

At the end of the Finance Forward: India 2020, Wizi App was ranked “most investment ready” by their peers. The peer ranking process places the ownership of selecting the companies that exhibit strong growth and investment opportunities in the hands of the other participating entrepreneurs. 

Venkatesan Anandaraj, Founder and CEO  of Wizi App, had the following to say about the program - 

“...it gave us a platform for connecting with 11 fintech leaders directly who are creating the future of lending, banking, payments and more. Being in our accelerated growth phase and just out of a doomsday (pandemic) scenario, input from our peers was instrumental in helping us frame our vision for the company.  Besides learning alongside our peers, one of the most valuable parts of the program was working with Village Capital’s VIRAL framework, which allowed our team to take a holistic look at our company, examining everything from the problem we are trying to solve all the way down to how we might execute an exit down the road.”

The accelerator was part of Finance Forward, a global coalition created with MetLife Foundation, PayPal and local partners to support more than 100 early-stage entrepreneurs building tech-enabled solutions around financial health around the world.

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Entrepreneurs and investors: want to get involved in Village Capital’s network of financial health solutions? Our matching platform, Abaca, has a network of more than 6,000 entrepreneurs and investors. Get started on Abaca for free today.