Trends in the rural fintech space & Year-end Comment by Dilip Modi, Founder of Spice Money

To give you some background on the company, Spice Money has been driven by its founder, Dilip Modi to focus on bridging the gaps in access to various financial services for masses in India’s semi-urban and rural areas. Since the beginning of its operations in 2015, Spice Money has been focusing on financial inclusion with nearly 90% of its digital Adhikaris (entrepreneurs) being in semi-urban and rural India. The company has been progressing at a rapid pace, towards covering 18,000+ pin codes, 700+ districts and 5000+ blocks in India.

Recently, Spice Money announced that it will be digitally and financially empowering 1 crore rural entrepreneurs, in partnership with celebrated philanthropist and actor, Sonu Sood. Around 5,00,000 Adhikaris are a part of Spice Money and they offer cash deposit, cash withdrawal, bill payments, Aadhaar enabled services, air time recharge, POS services, railway ticketing services and more.

As we gear up for the year to come, I wanted to share a quote from our founder, with you, to provide an insight into how the year 2020 was for the industry and a peek into what’s in store for 2021. Please see the quote below.

“With the COVID-19 induced lockdown, the appetite for digital offerings has risen exponentially across industries in 2020. The rural economy has shown both resilience and growth during this time. One of the new areas fintechs have started focusing on this year has been to address the needs of the rural and underserved segment. Challenges in rural India need customised solutions and the standard products/ solutions of urban India cannot be applied to the niche needs of this segment.

This year Spice Money contributed significantly to enable the 32 crore beneficiaries of the government’s Garib Kalyan Yojna to get access to their funds in a matter of hours. We created an immediate and alternate platform for migrant workers to kick start their livelihood from their villages. As a result Spice Money actually grew more than 100% in the peak 6 month pandemic hit period. As PM Modi launches the Kisan Samman Nidhi on December 25, we are perfectly poised to support our customers to get their funds in the quickest and most secure way possible through our robust platform.

In 2021 and beyond, Spice Money’s mission is to digitally and financially empower over 1 crore rural entrepreneurs. We will be able to support and enable entrepreneurship in rural India through our bouquet of products and be the largest rural fintech in India. India’s semi urban and rural markets are steadily moving from a cash to a cashless model. There is an increasing demand for digital offerings from India’s remote corners. In the coming year, we will see product innovation from fintechs, as well as adoption of these digital products go hand in hand at an unprecedented pace.”

Dilip Modi, Founder, Spice Money