Having invested millions in evangelising digital payments, fintech firms are now eyeing ancillary verticals
The fight against cash and cards is turning out to be an expensive affair
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In an annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders in 2002, CEO Warren Buffett wrote, “I violated the Noah rule: Predicting rain doesn’t count; building arks does.” The billionaire was referring to the brunt borne by his company in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attack.
India’s financial technology startups, especially those doing the whole nine yards in payments, could take a cue. A lot of blood, sweat and money has gone into evangelising digital payments. It began with wallets and burning hundreds of millions of dollars in doling out cashbacks and discounts to prod Indian consumers to look beyond cash payments. It cost several million more to get merchants, including the neighbourhood grocery store owner or tea vendor, to adopt digital payments, either by way of wallets, quick response (QR) codes or the latest, Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
(This story appears in the 14 September, 2018 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)