Serving 800 Mn People Through 4 Lakh Banking Stores In Rural India

The words of Mahatma Gandhi have inspired many for generations and will continue till it is achieved. As we celebrate the 75th year of India’s Independence, no doubt, the internet opened up vast opportunities, and mobile penetration has hastened the impact on the fundamentals of human society.

A Mumbai based startup fintech company established in June 2015 brought in a few innovations, basic banking, eGovernance and other banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) services. A team of ex-bankers, payment professionals, marketeers and developers came together to build solutions that everyone could use with ease. The vision was to make India, especially rural India, free from the cumbersome paperwork and digital currency a reality in new India.

Ram Shriram, Founder & CEO of Mahagram, is a competent professional with sound experience in digital payments domain and financial services in consulting, marketing, business developing, strategising and formulating new initiatives.

He understands the importance of digital India@75 from a longer haul. He had witnessed the digitization process in India which spiked-up primarily during Demonetization and COVID-19 scenarios which also hastened it’s adoption.

The fintech industry in India was growing. The mode of payments took a steep turn and transformed, witnessing massive innovative solutions and methods to transact digitally. Indian FinTech was one of the top five markets by the value of capital funding and investments in the sector, with nearly $270 million of funding in 2016.

Mahagram is pioneering for the casue of financial inclusion and working towards building tech enabled paymenrs tolution for the last mile customers, who doesn’t even understand the technology. Through it’s unique business model and engagement approach with the local kirana stores, it has helped more than a billion customers to avail banking services at the doorstep in rural india.

Mahagram launched their NEO Banking app ‘Bharat ATM’ in December last year in collaboration with Sonu Sood as brand ambassador, it offers all the basic banking services through the nearby retail stores. Customers, especially in rural and remote locations where banking services are not available, can send, deposit, withdraw money at the nearest grocery stores. So, no more hunting for ATMs or standing in queues at bank branches. Unlike other ATMs that take Rs.25 for transactions, they don’t charge.

It is servicing nearly 14000 PIN codes and providing basic banking, eGovernance & other BFSI services through the distribution network of 400,000+ retail stores (MoM & PoP stores).
The app offers, opening saving or recurring deposit account within minutes. Sending, withdrawing money with nominal or no charges. The app ‘BharatATM’ offer micro loans through their store and allow their custoemrs to invest or save small amount of money on periodic basis to achive big goals. It offers the highest returns on the small investments in RD or FD products.

The success stories like Mahagram has ensured that India has also not been far behind. Today, India is one of the largest FinTech Market with the highest FinTech adoption rate of 87% globally. Especially after post-Covid, India and some of its global peers have seen tremendous growth in FinTech. As per the latest report – “India FinTech: A USD 100 Billion Opportunity” by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and FICCAI, India’s FinTech Industry is estimated to inch up to USD 150-160 billion by 2025 from the current value of USD 50-60 billon.

Mahagram is being financial infrastructure provider to the lot of financial distribution companies, business correspondent firms, MFIs or small banks to enhance their financial service / products distribution through its robust merchant management and distribution system.

Mahagram has set itself as the future of fintech in India@75: The digital payment wave in India is not going anywhere. With financial literacy and financial accessibility on everyone’s mind, online payments are going to grow exponentially. As a business and a professional, right now is the right time to onboard the digital payment wagon and enable your customers to transact online securely.