NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Six months after he founded payment gateway company Razorpay in 2013, Harshil Mathur was looking to shift his headquarters from Jaipur. Of his three options — Delhi, Mumbai or Bengaluru, Mathur chose the tech hub of Bengaluru over the financial capital, Mumbai.

“Fintech has become more about technology and less about finance. While banking is an important part of our business, technology plays a greater role. We needed to be in a city with tech talent,” said Mathur, who struggled to find the right talent during the six months in Jaipur. Only four of his 100 employees are involved directly in banking alliances, which involves bringing banks and non-banking financial companies on board; the rest are in technology, sales and marketing.

With the rise of tech startups that focus on financial services, the traditional banking landscape is transforming — and Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru are competing to become the country’s fintech capital. Mumbai is still the financial capital as it is home to major banks and financial institutions, but it is technology that is becoming integral to finance.

Photo courtesy of Pabak Sarkar.