Banking opportunity in India is tremendous, with overall banking assets expected to reach $3T by 2025, with deeply under-penetrated private credit markets which account for ~50% of GDP (vs. 150%+ for developed economies).

Despite this large opportunity, customer experience and engagement in traditional consumer banking in India is broken and has been so for over a decade.

With the increasing digital penetration in the country, customers armed with their smartphones are looking for an easy, seamless, quick and personalised experience and their expectations are ever-evolving.

Neo-banks attempt to fix the broken customer journeys and provide a superior banking experience, serving as a layer over traditional banks. This means that customers no longer need to spend hours at their physical bank branch queues, mired in paperwork for everyday banking needs. While doing so, a neo-bank improves access to a whole suite of financial products across wealth management, lending, and insurance through a single platform.

As Accel, we’ve always believed that technology can revolutionise banking and attempted to enable that ecosystem, first through our investment in Monzo in 2018, then through our investment in Zolve in 2021, and recently through a growth investment in Niyo - Niyo is a leader in the consumer neo-banking segment in India with a base of 5 million users.

To understand this new era of banking which is fast unfolding, we spoke to Vinay Bagri, Co-founder and CEO of Niyo, who is a long-standing veteran in the banking industry in India.

In this conversation, Vinay talks about how Niyo came into being, shares some of his reflections on the ongoing changes in the banking ecosystem, draws parallels from other fintech segments and discusses the need for regulatory support.

Key segments

The large market opportunity for a neo-bank in India - 18:05 - 19:48
How neo-banks provide a completely new banking experience - 20:22 - 22:41
The success of neo-banks globally - 24:00 - 25:20
Customer segmentation in neobanking - 30:25 - 32:12
State of neo-banking regulations in India - 36:28 - 39:10

We thank Vinay for coming on and sharing these insights with us and we wish him and Niyo team all the best for this amazing journey of revolutionizing consumer banking for India.

Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.com

Share your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

INSIGHTS #77:  Future of Banking | Reflections from Niyo’s Vinay Bagri

India, frequently referred to as the two-wheeler factory of the world, serves a tremendous market both in India and abroad. About 15M two-wheelers were sold in India in 2021 and 3.7M two-wheelers manufactured in India by the top 4 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) were exported. By 2030, the number of two-wheelers sold in India annually is expected to reach 35M representing an about $30B market, growing at the back of limited penetration of affordable public transport (public transport only serves 7% of the total trips at present) and the ever-increasing cost of not-so affordable four-wheelers.

However, with rising fuel prices and the increasing cost of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) scooters, ownership of personal two-wheelers has become financially challenging.

Owing to this, customers are now looking for reliable and affordable personal mobility solutions for their daily commute. This new customer demand, along with increasing environmental concerns and favourable government regulations, has created an urgency for electric mobility and set the stage for the rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs).

As Accel, we have always looked for new-age solutions that add immense value to consumers and Bounce with its dockless mobility solution presented a great investment opportunity in 2018. What started out as Wicked Ride - a luxury bike rental platform and pivoted to a dockless mobility solution has today become a full-stack EV mobility solution for the Indian masses with 3 core business verticals - electric scooter manufacturing, Battery-as-a-Service and dockless mobility. With a capacity of 220K+ scooters per annum, Bounce launched its Infinity e1 electric scooter in early 2022 and has already received 60K+ pre-orders. It completed 5M+ EV rides covering 27M+ EV mobility kilometres with 1M+ swaps by building India’s largest battery-swapping network present in 40k+ locations across India.

To understand this new era of mobility which is rapidly unfolding, we spoke to Vivekananda Hallekere, Co-founder and CEO of Bounce, who has been at the helm of EV mobility adoption in India.

In this conversation, Vivek talks about his journey, the various phases of Bounce, EV trends in India and abroad, the inevitability of EV adoption and the need for regulatory support.

Key Segments

Bounce’s journey from luxury bike rentals to full-stack EV mobility - 1:15
Battery charging, battery swapping and Battery-as-a-Service - 17:00
Future of Electric Vehicles - Global and Indian - 26:06
State of regulatory environment in India - 44:46
Future of Bounce and Energy-as-a-Service - 50:46

We thank Vivek for coming on and sharing these insights with us and we wish him and Bounce team all the best for this amazing journey of revolutionizing personal mobility for India.

Blog authored by Lakshay Bansal from Accel

Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.com

Share your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

Insights #78: Future of Mobility | Vivek on Bounce’s Journey & Inevitable Adoption of EVs

Like in most markets, India is a large but under-penetrated insurance market. While the COVID-19 pandemic led to a sharp uptick in life insurance premiums, bringing it at par with the global average of 3.2% of GDP, non-life premiums - health and motor insurance - continue to lag at sub 1% of GDP, compared to 2% for developing Asian countries and 5% for developed economies. In a low-income economy, paying up premiums to protect against potential long-term downside is not a top priority for people.

 However, this will grow. As India’s GDP and per capita income grow, more people will begin insuring themselves and their assets. This has happened globally and India is no different.

Second and more important, the state of insurance in India leaves much to be desired, both for the insurer and the insured. Improving this can be vital to changing the Indian consumer’s relationship with insurance, and building enduring private companies in the space.

We spoke to Varun about his journey building an insurance company, how he approaches building a brand in an industry with established players, and what he sees in the future. He is joined by Abhinav Chaturvedi and Subrata Mitra, investors at Accel who have had a ringside view of Acko and Coverfox.

Key Segments

3:19 - 7:20 - Varun’s journey from Coverfox to Acko
14:13 - 17:43 - Technology’s role in insurance: Underwriting Distributor vs Underwriting Customer
17:44 - 20:11 - Future of Insurance: Ancillary Services
21:36 - 25:30 - Learnings from the US Insurance Sector
36:32 - 40:12 - Managing regulations in Insurance
44:31 - 46:31 - What’s next for Acko
The Accel team wishes Varun and Acko all the best in their mission.

Blog authored by Sankalpana Agarwal from Accel

Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.com

Share your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

Insights #79: Future of Insurance | Learnings from Varun Dua, Founder & CEO Acko

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