Mumbai: ET Medialabs, the growth marketing and analytics company has announced its latest collaboration with Drip capital, a California-and India-based fintech company focused on solving the working capital problem for SME exporters using technology.
ET MediaLabs will help Drip Capital generate more leads through this association by providing focused, functional performance marketing services to achieve sustainable growth for the brand, said the statement.
“We are thrilled to have partnered with Drip Capital in helping them ramp up their customer base through performance marketing campaigns with an aim to drive lead generation, especially SQL (Sales Qualified Leads),” said ET MediaLabs CEO Raghav Kansal. “Both the companies will work together in order to scale the brand to newer heights. Our partnership with Drip Capital will help us further our mission of helping companies achieve their goal of sustainable growth.”
Drip Capital uses technology to rebuild core parts of the international trade finance infrastructure and make the underwriting and financing of international B2B transactions seamless for small businesses.
“The entire ecosystem is now turning towards growth marketing to generate more leads. We are thrilled to associate with ET Medialabs for our performance marketing requirements,” stated Drip Capital co-founder and CEO Pushkar Mukewar. “The company works with high-end businesses and offers excellent performance marketing services to its clients. I believe this association would help us reach our TG efficiently.”
Mumbai: Fintech company Lendingkart Technologies Pvt Ltd on Tuesday brought Ram Deshpande on board as senior vice president and head of marketing.
In his new role, Deshpande will be responsible for varied brand-building activities across traditional and digital marketing communications for Lendingkart Group as well as campaigns around its vast product portfolio targeting a wide range of customers and partners, said the statement.
“We are excited to welcome Ram to head Lendingkart marketing function, contributing to the company’s vision of financial inclusion of MSMEs segment by building a digital E2E financial ecosystem collaboration through ‘2gthr’ platform,” said Lendingkart co-founder and CEO Harshvardhan Lunia. “Ram brings deep insights, vast experience and an excellent track record in brand building and marketing communications which will enhance Lendingkart’s unique position amongst customers and partners through its marketing campaigns.”
A seasoned marketing professional, Deshpande brings nearly 20 years of experience in varied industries such as advertising, marketing, digital, e-commerce, and technology research services. Till recently, he was leading digital services for Cheil Worldwide (Samsung Group) wherein he worked on multiple advertising and communication campaigns for mobile phones, consumer electronics, and other product categories of Samsung India.
“In a short span of time, Lendingkart has made strong strides to improve access to working capital for millions of entrepreneurs across the country,” said Deshpande on his new role. “As the company readies for its next phase of tech-driven growth, I am delighted to play a part in shaping the brand journey of the company addressing new and existing customers, MSMEs, and partners.”
Mumbai: Homegrown assisted payments fintech company RapiPay on Tuesday announced the appointment of Nipun Jain as chief executive officer.
The leadership rejig at RapiPay is with an objective to gain a foothold in the neo-banking domain and thus expand the company’s business further. RapiPay is working on expanding its footprint in the rural areas and tier-II cities to foray into newer businesses such as digital lending, POS, digital cards, investments, insurance, and other financial services, said the company in a statement.
“RapiPay intends to be one step ahead in the growing fintech space and is set to take the lead by getting into newer businesses to fulfill country’s ever-growing demand for banking, financial and payment services,” said RapiPay Fintech Pvt Ltd, promoter, SK Narvar. “Jain’s appointment as CEO is a crucial step on that path and I wish him continued success in his new role and look forward to greater achievements.”
“I am also excited to see how RapiPay will continue to grow, evolve and be a one-stop destination providing a digital financial ecosystem to Indian consumers,” Narvar further said.
Jain has a rich experience of three decades as retail banking professional with expertise in setting and scaling up businesses. He is proficient in managing large retail assets, business banking, and branch banking franchise. Prior to joining RapiPay, Jain has previously worked with Yes Bank and ICICI Bank.
RapiPay Fintech Pvt Ltd, MD, Yogendra Kashyap said, “Jain has an impressive track record in various banking services, and I am happy to welcome him as the CEO of the company. His proven leadership, deep expertise in banking, and passion for client-driven innovation will make him the ideal fit to lead RapiPay into its next chapter.”
Speaking on his new role, Jain said, “I am extremely excited to lead the team at RapiPay, joining an organisation that is well-positioned to grow the financial inclusion to the last mile in the country by shaping the future of assisted payments and financial services through neo banking.”
Bangalore: The Indian fintech SaaS company ClearTax on Tuesday announced ‘Clear’, an umbrella name under which all of its offerings across taxes, invoices, wealth management, and credit for businesses will reside.
Under this new identity, the company will continue its tax offerings (Income Tax and GST) and other products nurturing its legacy of accuracy, security, and reliability, complementing the ClearTax brand, it said in a statement.
As per estimates, Clear is expected to manage invoices worth over $ one trillion by 2023, it further added.
“We started the company to simplify taxes, over the years we have evolved beyond taxes and have grown tremendously,” Clear’s founder and CEO Archit Gupta said in the announcement, “Today we make SaaS for taxes, invoices for connected businesses and offer wealth management. Clear captures our huge ambitions to serve Indians in the areas of invoicing, wealth management, credit, and much more.”
NEW DELHI: From Bollywood to cricket. That’s the path fintech brand BharatPe is taking. Bharat Pe, which is positioned as the one stop shop for the payment as well as capital needs of India’s large retailer network, has signed up 11 top cricketers as its brand ambassadors. Among them figure: Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Ravindra Jadeja, and Suresh Raina.
The 11 cricketers will be featuring in an ad campaign which is being directed by a top Hindi film director. The purpose: build BharatPe’s brand identity, apart from explaining its unique features, positioning and thought process to merchants. The sportsmen have been banded under a group which has been called BharatPe XI. The ad campaign is set to be unfurled closer to the festival period and will encompass TV, radio, OOH, digital, as well as print media.
The company, which is heavily funded by top investors like Sequoia, Beenext, Insight Partners, Steadview Capital management, Ribbit Capital, Coatue and Amplo, had earlier roped in Bollywood A-lister Salman Khan for its launch campaign #AbDukandarJitega.
BharatPe group president Suhail Sameer, who got on board the fintech firm as recently as August 2020, points out that the Salman association helped the brand get noticed, and connect with the merchant community who were loathe to use digital payment options.
“We decided to go ahead with cricket this year as it is one sport that brings Indians together, irrespective of their region, religion, or financial status,” he explains.
Co-founded by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani, BharatPe’s mission is to make financial inclusion a reality for Indian merchants, especially across tier 1, 2 and 3 cities. BharatPe, since its launch, has been empowering shop owners with a single zero MDR UPI based QR code which allows them to accept payments from any app – like PayTm, PhonePe, Google Pay, BHIM and 150+ other UPI apps – at no cost to them. The cash goes directly into the retailer’s bank account and he or she can earn interest on it and even take loans if the need arises.
Sameer shares that the initial task for BharatPe was to create awareness amongst the merchant community and educate them about how digital payments work. Says he: “We have invested time and effort to educate the merchants and built trust with them. We offered them the convenience of accepting digital payments, irrespective of the consumer’s preferred choice of digital payment.”
The Salman campaign helped the company on board merchants in tier-1 and tier-2 towns and cities. As of early 2020, it had managed to rope in close to three million retailers. Average transaction values which were Rs 500 earlier rose by 60-65 per cent in early 2020.
SAMEER THINKS BOLLYWOOD
AND CRICKET ACT AS UNIFIERS
Covid2019 and the lockdown hit BharatPe hard, with transactions dipping in the first few weeks. But with the country unlocking, these have been picking up pace. Even merchant signups have ballooned to five million, and the target is to take that number to six million by end this fiscal. BharatPe is present in 35 cities and processes five crore plus monthly UPI transactions.
“In September, we are already at 50 per cent above the pre-Covid2019 levels in the value of the transactions we process (at $4 billion annually). We aim to close the year at a run rate of $5 billion in annual total payment value,” reveals Sameer.
Currently 15-20 per cent of the total transactions come from tier-2 areas and the next wave of growth will come from tier-2 and 3 markets, Sameer reveals Covid2019, which accelerated digitisation in the country has benefited BharatPe, like many other digital first brands, as consumers are choosing to go in for contactless transaction with the pandemic still raging.
The company is on an expansion spree even on the lending side – an activity which was kickstarted a year ago. So far, it has disbursed loans in excess of Rs 250 crore, despite the Covid2019 related slowdown. It has set a target to disburse around Rs 700 crore in the next six months. “We did consciously slow down on our lending during the lockdown months, but have scaled well since July 2020,” highlights Sameer. “We are confident we will surpass Rs. 700 crore for the rest of the year, and are internally gearing for higher numbers.”
He is also sanguine that the cricketer-led advertising campaign will redefine how fintech marketing can be done. In the process, it will help BharatPe get closer to its goals.
