Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Friday, said that the valuation of India’s fintech industry is expected to surge to $150 billion by 2025 from the level of $50-60 billion seen in 2020. The total fintech funding till date has been to the tune of $27.6 billion, and this kind of funding has helped in better valuation of Indian fintech industry, said Sitharaman at a virtual fintech summit, organised by IIT-Bombay Alumni Association.  “One out of every four start-up unicorns are from the fintech segment. Availability of funding has also helped fintech start-ups to really grow”, she said.  About 3 per cent of the recognised start-ups in the country are fintechs, and India has currently about 6,300 fintechs. Among all the fintech start-ups in India, 20 have reached unicorn status. She said that Indian fintechs raised $9.03 billion in 2021 across 410 equity funding rounds. This is up from $2.83 billion from 303 rounds in the previous year. “We are seeing considerable scaling up of funds being raised by Indian fintechs,” she added. Sitharaman highlighted that Indian fintechs have ramped up their growth despite the pandemic affecting the economy in the last two years. There has been a great fintech adoption by citizens in the past two years. “ It is this adoption that makes us feel India is teaching a crescendo in terms of fintech revolution, which is across the board in the country. While global adoption is at 64 per cent, India ‘s adoption is 87 per cent. You can see the adoption rate at this scale has been triggered by the pandemic itself“, she said.   Sitharaman said that India’s digital economy, which was pegged at $85-90 billion in calendar year 2020, is expected to see an exponential rise to touch $ 800 billion by 2030 on the back of increased internet penetration, rising incomes and young population. “Digital revolution is enabling faster participation in every sector, particularly on the financial side,” she said. The Finance Minister also highlighted a McKinsey report that showed that a 10 per cent increase in Internet penetration will result in increase of 3.9 per cent in GDP per capita.  Sitharaman also said that the RBI is currently looking at a central bank digital currency (CBDC) and studying the associated risks. She said that everything that is needed to place India as an attractive destination for fintech investments is being launched by the government. “It is the bright minds from IITs who have to give flesh and blood to this whole framework that government is putting in place,” she added. 

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