UK-based Fintech Wiserfunding Enters India

Z-Score founder launches new credit assessment to improve small business lending in Indian economy

UK based fintech Wiserfunding announced its entry into India, launching its Artificial Intelligence (AI) backed cloud-based credit risk assessment tool targeted for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Wiserfunding arrives at a time when SMEs across India are struggling due to the COVID-19 impact and the available models in the lending sector are not specific to SMEs, are largely non-technology based and have low prediction accuracy. 

The London headquartered fintech aims to invest USD 3 – 5 million over the next three years to tailor credit risk models specifically towards Indian SMEs to reach an accuracy level above 80 percent. The investment will also be towards creating technology to connect to various public and private databases to source all inputs to fully automate its models as they already do in Europe. The company plans to partner with 3 - 4 banks and 8 - 10 NBFCs in India and cover 8.5 million Indian SMEs through its models by end of the financial year.  

The fintech is backed and co-founded by Professor Dr. Edward Altman, one of the pioneers of credit risk analytics since the late 1960s and the inventor of the famous Z-score.

The new SME Z-score by Wiserfunding uses AI to provide accurate, reliable and unbiased credit risk assessment tools to assess the credit quality of SMEs using financial history as well as publicly available structured and unstructured data such as corporate governance, management experience & macroeconomic indicators. The model is unique as it provides geographical and sectoral segmentation to maximize prediction power and is tailored specifically for SMEs.

Dr. Edward Altman, Creator of the famous Altman Z-score methodology for assessing the financial health of companies and Co-founder, Wiserfunding said, “Our mission is to empower SME growth in India and there isn’t a better time than now. Typical to any economic shock, bank lending is expected to reduce for SMEs, making it more difficult for them to survive. It will be important to have a reliable and accurate assessment of businesses’ viability and technology will be central to such analysis. Indian banks and financial institutions will definitely see a significant benefit in using a more independent and unbiased risk assessment platform with the entry of AI powered models.” 

NPAs in the SME sector is a growing concern in India and it has adversely impacted the balance sheet of the banks. Wiserfunding’s solution will help lenders and investors tailor their pricing and increase the efficiency of their lending. This could further increase the availability and quicken the disbursal of funds to SMEs and reduce the high NPA issue faced by the industry.

This is Wiserfunding’s first international office outside Europe with Ms. Avantika Goel, relocating from London to Mumbai, as the Country Head of India. 

Dr. Gabriele Sabato, Co-founder and CEO, Wiserfunding said, “We are delighted to have the opportunity to enter the Indian market in a moment when support to SMEs is so critical. Our models and technology will be a substantial help to lenders and investors to select the most resilient SMEs and provide them with the necessary funding to overcome the current crisis.

We are fortunate to have Ms. Goel supporting us on the ground to build a strong local team. We strongly believe that India will quickly become one of our most important markets.”

Ms. Avantika Goel, Country Head of India said “We’re very excited to launch Wiserfunding in India and committed to set up a successful operation in the country. India is a large market with 42.5 million SMEs and there is an urgent need for an unbiased credit risk assessment service that can provide the business credit score and risk profile of any company within a few seconds using the cloud-based platform. This would help SMEs looking to learn about their own and competitors’ credit profiles as well as banks, NBFCs, insurance companies, funds and investors looking to invest in these SMEs.”

Wiserfunding aims to target bank and non-bank lenders, investors, funds, insurance companies and SMEs. Wiserfunding has been operating globally across 38 countries with clients in the UK, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Latvia, Singapore, Thailand and South Africa. The company’s solution has been adopted by more than 40 bank and non-bank lenders and investors across the world. 

About Wiserfunding

Wiserfunding was founded by Professor Edward Altman and Dr. Gabriele Sabato to assess the credit risk of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Wiserfunding uses past financial history and a range of publicly available structured and unstructured data to assess the credit worthiness of SMEs. This empowers businesses to obtain finance and lenders and insurers to assess the risk of business applicants by providing more accurate data to make better decisions quicker than ever before.

Mumbai Fintech Hub (MFH) and Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) join hands for Collaborative Growth ecosystem for Fintech in India

Mumbai Fintech Hub (MFH) and FinTech Convergence Council (FCC) have joined hands for a collaborative growth ecosystem for fintech in India. The two bodies have jointly fashioned the ‘India Fintech Festival (IFF)’ a global platform to showcase the opportunities while discussing the key challenges in the industry and the possible solutions to counter the same.

IFF 2020 is backed by the Government of Maharashtra (GoM) as it will be driven by GoM Fintech Policy, operationalized under MahaIT. The platform is powered by World Bank, NITI AAYOG and Invest India, while MEDICI, a global innovation and insights platform for fintech is the program partner.

Fintech in India has today become a global growth story riding on key points such as – digitizing money in financial services, solving for identity in the form of Aadhaar for formalization, getting everyone a bank account or equivalents (PMJDY) to store money, building scalable platform(s) to move money (IMPS, UPI, etc.) and finally, allowing banks, FinTechs and wealth/insurance/lending players to access platform like UPI to innovate. This framework has led India to a FinTech revolution. 



The GoM and FCC now aim to foster next-generation innovation enabling financial empowerment and technological advancement across the entire financial services ecosystem thus nurturing the sector for global competence. The Government wants to take the first step in this direction by focusing on making the country the next FinTech destination globally.

The festival, scheduled in the first week of March 2020, intends to empower the global FinTech ecosystem by providing them with an opportunity to showcase their ideas and technologies that promote innovation in the financial services’ industry. The platform will help build relationships, create business and investment opportunities while bringing together the who’s who across the global landscape to discuss the effects of regulatory and policy shifts. 5000 delegates across 50+ countries comprising of Fintech start-ups are expected to attend the event along with regulators, key financial institutions, tech companies, governments, industry bodies, corporates and students. 

IFF will serve as a representation for the innovations of the best of over 2000+ Indian startups working to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2024. With the present economy at $2.7 trillion India’s is aiming for two times growth. Whereas digital financial services contribution to economy is expected to grow by five times during the same period.     

Maharashtra was the first state to launch a FinTech policy in 2018 which is being operated under the banner of "Mumbai FinTech Hub", in an attempt to build awareness and inculcate the widespread adoption of financial technologies.

The festival will have an advisory board with eminent personalities like Suniti Nanda, Fintech Officer, Government of Maharashtra, Naveen Surya, Chairman, Fintech Convergence Council; G Padmanabhan, Ex-RBI Executive Director, Current Non- Executive Chairman at Bank of India; Dilip Asbe, Managing Director & CEO at National Payments Corporation of India; Srinivas Jain, Executive Director and Chief Marketing Officer, SBI Mutual Fund; and Mohan Tanksale, Strategic Consultant, SWIFT among others. 

On the occasion, Mr. Ajit Patil, IAS – MD, Maharashtra IT Corporation Limited said “With 400+ Fintechs, an API sandbox, investment platform, education platform, fintech adoption by state - we are leading the Fintech movement in India. We are firm in our belief to make Mumbai a Global Fintech Hub and the Fintech gateway for India. Through IFF (India Fintech Festival), we look forward to host 1000+ global delegation. We aim to showcase our Fintech strength and foster investments / new Fintech setup in the state”

Ms. Esperanza Lasagabaster, Practice Manager - Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice, World Bank said “The World Bank recognizes the positive impact Fintech can have in addressing the long-standing barriers for financial inclusion, financial sector deepening and development. In recognition of this potential the World Bank jointly with the International Monetary Fund unveiled the Bali Fintech Agenda in October 2018 to guide our efforts in helping our client countries harness the opportunities and mitigate the risks associated with the rapid advances in financial technology that are transforming the economic and financial landscape. We are pleased to be a partner to the Government of Maharashtra and the Fintech Convergence Council in the organization of the inaugural India Fintech Festival. This event will offer an opportunity to showcase the rapid strides made by India in harnessing the potential of Fintech responsibly and also to bring lessons from across the World to shape the further development of Fintech in India.”

Ms. Suniti Nanda, Fintech Officer – Government of Maharashtra, said, “An event like IFF (India Fintech Festival) will be a testimony by itself which resonates the objective and passion of COLLABORATION between all key stakeholders in Fintech ecosystem.”

Commenting on this progressive move, Mr. G. Padmanabhan, Ex-RBI Executive Director and Current Non- Executive Chairman at Bank of India said, "India boasts of a state-of-the-art financial services system but the goal of complete digitisation is still miles away. The world is witnessing a technological revolution and being one of the fastest growing economies it is imminent that India joins the digital wave. Any event of this magnitude is impossible without the support of the most important stake holder, the Government, and we are fortunate to get their whole-hearted backing. The spontaneous gesture of support by the World Bank and other influential policy makers has encouraged us further to bring to you the best of FinTech-- be it speakers, seminars or the latest technological developments. I hope this event becomes the harbinger of digital transformation for the Indian FinTech ecosystem."

Mr. Naveen Surya, Chairman, Fintech Convergence Council who has been instrumental in bringing fundamental changes in the digital payments system was quoted saying, “India has led its digital Initiatives across the globe thanks to the potential of innovation, investment and collaboration in the country. This sector though evolving rapidly is still in its nascent stage. It is therefore imperative for opportunities to be harnessed in the right ways thus cementing India's position as a leader in the digital landscape. IFF was conceived as that global platform to facilitate communication and collaboration through shared learning experiences across the globe. We are thankful to many prestigious institutions who have agreed to become our partners and our eminent advisory board for their role in making IFF a reality."

Dilip Asbe, Managing Director and CEO, National Payments Council of India stated, “NPCI is committed towards the mission of Digital India. With the support of Government of Maharashtra and IAMAI/FCC, we expect IFF to host a vibrant community of innovation enablers, enterprises and start-ups to drive new solutions relevant to address industry needs and challenges. Government of Maharashtra has been the first state in India to create a Fintech Policy and IFF would be yet another step towards providing the right and deserved platform to the innovative tech minds who are ready to disrupt the fintech space.”

About Mumbai Fintech Hub, (MFH) - fintech initiative by Government of Maharashtra

Mumbai Fintech Hub (MFH) is an initiative by Government of Maharashtra to execute the Maharashtra fintech policy and promote FinTech ecosystem in the state. Government of Maharashtra is the first state in India to create a Fintech policy (announced in Feb 2018) to support the sector with a vision to make Mumbai a Global Fintech Hub. The key stakeholders in this journey include financial institutes, regulators, government, technology partners, academic institutes, research labs, incubators/accelerators, industry bodies, and market influencers.

The policy addresses 5 key pillars for boosting the sector - access to capital, promoting open innovation, catalyzing ecosystem, global market access and access to fintech ready talent pool. 

In the last one and half years, we have achieved few early milestones like supporting 150+ fintech startups through grants, reimbursement and various other market access programs, creating an active database ( Fintech registry ) of ~400+ fintechs, an open API sandbox ( 100+ APIs), Mumbai Fintech accelerator -  a multi-partner accelerator cohort ( with 10 industry partners and 12 start-ups ), UDAY - Fintech education platform pilot with 1200 students from 8 colleges, government POC programs with 10+ start-ups, Fintech investment platform (FIND) to connect Fintechs with investors etc. 

In near term future, we are planning to achieve larger milestones in - establishing Global Market Access program through startup exchange and connected global sandboxes, scale Fintech education platform to 150+ Colleges & Universities, run multiple partner led theme-based accelerators, Financial inclusion lab with a focus on Design Thinking and create a world class global platform IFF ( India Fintech Festival) for putting Indian Fintech sector in the Global Fintech map.

 About Fintech Convergence Council (FCC)

Fintech Convergence Council (FCC), first forum in India which integrates players across BFSI and all its stakeholders is formed under Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). IAMAI is a young & vibrant association with ambitions of representing the entire gamut of digital businesses in India. It was established in 2004 by the leading online publishers, but in the last 15 years has come to effectively address the challenges facing the digital & online industry including mobile content & services, online publishing, mobile advertising, online advertising, ecommerce & mobile & digital payments among others. Fifteen years after its establishment, the association is still the only professional industry body representing the online & mobile VAS industry in India. The association is registered under the Societies Act & is a recognized charitable institution in Maharashtra. With a membership of 300 plus Indian & MNC companies, offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru & Kolkata, the association is well placed to work towards charting growth path for the digital industry in India.

Fintech has grown in leaps & bounds over the last few years but the impetus for the next phase of growth will emerge from the convergence between the multiple industry players. Erstwhile Fintech Committee at IAMAI & now the Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) has been formed in the year 2018 for the purposes of representing the various regulated financial service providers & fintech companies. FCC which is formed under IAMAI would be focusing on resolving various industry level & sector specific issues. FCC aims at being a platform for all the stakeholders in the financial services (BFSI) ecosystem to deliberate, integrate & lead the development of the fintech sector.

FCC works closely with the Ministry & regulators like Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Ministry of Finance, Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority, Securities & Exchange Board of India & any similar government departments, bodies or Institution to grow the penetration of financial services.

To Help Startups and SMEs, RBI to Facilitate Financial Data of Borrowers to Financial Bodies

In order to tackle the loan/credit availability issue of the MSMEs and startups, RBI has recently decided to establish a Public Credit Registry (PCR) that will facilitate access of financial institutions to the entire profile, including past loan details, and also regular income flows of borrowers. Enabling efficient credit risk assessment, such a registry can also offer attractive interest rates to good borrowers and higher interest rates to defaulters. The ultimate aim of this move is to foster transparency and promote financial inclusion for a sector that is widely acknowledged as the backbone of the Indian Economy.

The move is a departure from the existing mechanism where there are multiple credit information repositories with varied data objectives and coverage. The lack of credit information gap will be filled by the unified PCR. The data contained in the system will be made available to stakeholders on a need-to-know basis.

The idea behind creating the public registry is to collate the financial information of individual and corporate borrowers under one platform, inclusive of financial delinquencies, pending legal suits, and willful defaulters. The objective is to strengthen the credit culture of the Indian economy.

It is believed that unlike the credit information bureaus like CIBIL, PCR would not just house data from financial intermediaries like banks but it would also include data from utilities, other regulators and even from ministries.

Data on borrowings from banks, non-banking financial companies, corporate bonds or debentures from the market, external commercial borrowings (ECBs), foreign currency convertible bonds(FCCBs), masala bonds, and inter-corporate borrowings are not available in one data repository. PCR will help capture all relevant information about a borrower, across different borrowing products in one place.

The PCR would help the Financial Institutions such as fintech startups, P2P lending firms and other private financial institutions immensely in terms of identifying the good borrowers and monitor over borrowing and loan staking more effectively thus reducing credit risk and bringing down the credit cost and ultimately leading to lower cost for the borrower and higher credit growth.

It is suggested that the PCR will improve India’s ease of doing business parameters at the World Bank.

RBI is also setting up a regulatory sandbox for fintech companies, which will allow startup ventures to test out their product before releasing it to public usage. This will also involve bypassing RBI regulations, though for testing purpose only. The Sandbox involves temporary relaxations or adjustments of regulatory requirements to provide a "safe space" for startups or established firms to test new technology-based financial services in a live environment for a limited time, without having to undergo a full authorization and licensing process.

Source - Zeebiz, The Hindu, Wikipedia

Leading BFSI & FinTech Companies Come Together to Form the Largest Fintech Group At IAMAI

Leading BFSI and Fintech companies have collaborated to form the largest Fintech Group at IAMAI. The purpose of the group is to encourage collaboration, seek complementarities and build synergy between leading BFSI companies and the emerging Fintech start-ups.

The group comprises of 60 members from leading banks and technology start-ups including SBI, HDFC, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, BankBazaar, PolicyBazaar, i-Lend, Faircent, LendingKart, PNB Metlife, ClearTax, CoverFox, Scripbox, Indifi Technologies, Capital Float, Bill Desk, Itz Cash, PayPal, Chillr, Avenues India, MSwipe, among others. It is being chaired by Mr. Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, Dy. MD and CIO of State Bank of India and Co-Chaired by Mr. Adhil Shetty, CEO of Bank Bazaar.

Speaking about the group, Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, Dy. Managing Director & CIO – State Bank of India, said: “The mandate of the group is to reach out to the last person and bring him into the structure of the entire financial system and create trust and safety, by leveraging technology.”

This group represents the following segments - Credit, Payments, P2P Lending, Personal Finance and Technology. These segments have been carefully chosen to bring about that collaboration leading to trust and safety, which is the key to financial inclusiveness.

The group includes all the vital segments of the financial services in India and the vision of the group is to bring in safety and trust, which holds the key to bring in the last person to the financial structure, thereby ensuring inclusiveness.

On the need for such a group, Adhil Shetty, CEO – BankBazaar.com, said: "IAMAI Fintech Committee is a unique and important coming together of leading Financial Institutions, innovative FinTech Companies, Information Security Companies, and leading policy organisations. Thanks to IAMAI, all these organisations are collaborating to usher in secure digital financial services. The FinTech Committee will engage with all stakeholders on cashless and paperless financial services, information security and privacy standards, and create awareness of the benefits and security in paperless and cashless digital finance."

Commenting on the formation of the group, Dr Subho Ray, President, IAMAI, said: “Technology is moving fast and principle service providers such as banks and insurance companies need to work together to rapidly reach out and cover the last person and therefore bring efficiency in the system.”