This week, the Department for International Trade will be hosting the second thought-leadership summit - the India Future Tech Festival - in New Delhi.
During the week of the Festival, the Department for International Trade will be hosting four trade missions across Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mumbai and Chandigarh with FutureTech at the centre of each mission itinerary. The festival will attract brilliant speakers, companies and entrepreneurs shaping the future, plus drive trade and investment initiatives to bridge access between the UK and Indian markets.
As a global fintech, we’re honoured to have been selected to attend as part of the UK fintech delegation to India (other attendees include Onfido and Transferwise).
Fintech in India and the UK-India Tech Partnership
Although fintech is in its infancy in India, the country is an expanding hub for fintech innovation. The top 10 fintechs in India (which includes lending platforms and financial tools targeting both small businesses and consumers) have collectively received investor funding worth over $3.4 billion, proving that investors are very interested in India's fintech sector. In comparison, the top 10 London-based fintechs have collectively received over $2.6 billion in funding.
Furthermore, the most up-to-date figures show that the UK exported £358 million of digital services to India in 2015. This number has likely increased over the past three years and should continue to do so over the next few years as the demand for digital financial products by consumers and small businesses increase.
Gaurav Katyal, tomato pay (formerly known as Fractal) Chief Product Officer will be attending and states: “It’s great to see innovation flourishing in India. It’s such a prosperous country full of bright people trying to make a difference in the world, especially within the fintech sector. Learning from startups out here in India about the work they’re doing is at the top of my agenda. I’m also excited to attend the private reception held by the British High Commissioner in Delhi to talk about the work we’re (tomato pay) doing to help close the global small business funding gap, and how to improve the ease of doing business between the two tech hubs”.
It is estimated that the UK-India Tech Partnership could contribute to an increase of thousands of tech jobs over the next few years, and give the UK economy a significant boost. It will also directly support the delivery of the UK Digital Strategy by giving businesses a direct link to India’s digital sector, positioning the UK as India’s global partner and destination of choice in tech. India has already invested significantly in UK tech with close to 30 per cent of Indian companies’ 110,000 employees in the UK working in tech and telecoms.
The India Future Tech Festival comes after positive and productive discussions between UK Prime Minister, Theresa May and Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who agreed on establishing a new UK-India Tech Partnership in April. Furthermore, both Prime Ministers confirmed new commercial deals between the two countries worth £1 billion in April, earlier this year. The UK will initially invest £1m to pilot the approach and potentially up to a further £13 million by 2022.
The UK-India Tech Partnership initiative is based off the UK-Israel Tech Hub initiative which has generated over £62 million worth of deals over the past five years, with a potential impact of £600 million for the UK economy in the future.
Back in May, Digital Secretary Matt Hancock told India’s Economic Times: “Britain is building our relationships around the world and strengthening our bonds with old friends for the future”.
With shared ambitions to make the UK and India work together closely to nurture entrepreneurship, the UK-India Tech Partnership hopes to achieve a number of things, including improving business relations between both countries, ramping up joint activity in many areas such as AI, data and fintech, delivering an India-UK Tech hub, and delivering a range of state-regional cluster partnerships.
