FIA Technology Services Pvt. Ltd.

The vision of FIA is to transform a billion lives using the power of people, network and technology.
"About half the world is unbanked". The stark reality is that most of poor people in the world still lack access to sustainable financial services, whether it is savings, credit or insurance. In India, this translates to 400 million people who manage their finances on a cash-only basis and have restricted or no access to digital financial services. Since growth by itself doesn't percolate to poor and deprived sections, the paradigm has to shift to inclusive growth. An inclusive digital economy has to be an integral part of poverty alleviation strategies and building an inclusive digital financial system is the first step towards inclusive growth and sustainable prosperity.

FIA is pioneering the next-gen digital highway by expanding portfolio of services to become a full services firm for socially impactful products & services catering to un-served geographies--financial services, education, affordable health care, green energy, clean water and sanitation. Studies have shown a strong link between the degree of financial exclusion and rates of poverty and inequality. The higher the financial exclusion, the higher the inequality and poverty (Thorat, 2008). Since growth by itself doesn't percolate to poor and deprived sections, the paradigm has to shift to inclusive growth.
By building an inclusive digital financial system and directing government to customer (G2C) payments through this channel in a targeted manner, FIA has already started optimizing the impact of social protect payments and Cashless Digital Economy to reduce poverty.
Serving the unbanked is not just about satisfying their financial needs alone. It's about "inclusion" in the truest sense--financial services, education, affordable health care, clean and renewable energy, etc. Social and economic inclusion is the ultimate aim of FIA.

The target customers of FIA are the financially excluded population who live or work in financially under-served geographies. In India, bank accounts have been opened, but meaningful inclusion is yet to be achieved as only 30% bank accounts are operational. More than two-third of the unbanked are women and there is a higher percentage of unbanked in minority groups in urban India. The micro-entrepreneurs and migrant workers are adversely impacted for lack of digitisation. These include rickshaw pullers, construction labourers, factory workers, maids, chefs, drivers, gardeners. In rural India, subsistence farmers need digitisation for financial growth and security of transactions
Despite admirable strides in deepening financial inclusion, India continues to be a cash-based economy. Three key issues that hinder the growth of digitalization of transactions are:
(a) lack of an enabling infrastructure for adopting cashless payments
(b) low awareness in communities on the possible merits of cashless transactions and
(c) lack of an appropriate model and instrument for assessing the impact of these initiatives.

FIA's three-pronged strategy to sustainable inclusive digitization include:
A. plan for deepening financial inclusion and working with the under-served to bring about sustainable behavior change in the way they transact
B. Digitize income streams. It has been observed that if the income stream is digitized, there is a higher probability that the individual will transact digitally
C. Digitize payments to micro and small merchants who deal only in cash. They play a key role in under-served communities and they can be leveraged to promote digitization among financially underserved communities.
FIA is also testing acceptable digital payment solutions, implementing literacy drives, awareness camps and capability building programs and deploying targeted strategies for financially including women, children and senior citizens from marginalized communities.
FIA has scaled up its operation multi-fold reaching out to 1,00.000 villages with a network of 21,000 micro-entrepreneurs, impacting lives of 19 million customers. This has been possible due to the strategic focus on partnerships leveraging social network and technology intervention. FIA has partnered with 19+ banks, 02 insurance companies, 400+ community partners, MSMEs to create a social network for faster scale and deeper penetration, even in difficult geographies. Empowerment of micro-entrepreneurs and merchants as change agents through capacity building programs have driven awareness and impact in underserved areas, where no financial institutions find viability of business.

FIA's roadmap for deepening financial inclusion is:
A. To establish a retail distribution network in every state (28) and every district in India, specifically in underserved geographies and markets to provide access to digital financial solutions.
B. To ensure digital financial services (banking, credit and insurance) are available to 10 million households (=50 million individuals), giving them the opportunity to create, grow and protect their wealth with digital solutions.
C. To launch digital financial inclusion operations in four countries globally by 2024: Nepal, Bangladesh, Philippines and South Africa.

FIA has incorporated innovative practices and technology intervention at various juncture of the value chain which confer a tremendous competitive advantage. The key differentiators include:
- Customer Management: FIA banking agents help in creating awareness on digital financial services, backed by technology innovation
- Distribution: We tie up with local entrepreneurs to act as change agents, enabling to scale nationally in a very short time frame.
- Technology: Our comprehensive mobility based platform integrates a multi-level distribution framework that delivers digital financial services in a scalable and efficient manner.
- Product Portfolio: Digitizing the local eco-system is not just about banking but a complete suite of payment services to drive digital transactions.

The other organisations include business correspondents of banks, Alternate banking Channels, and Mobile Wallet Services, who focus on either banking or on payments solutions, without addressing the entire spectrum of challenges for digital economy in rural India.

FIA's award winning model for financial inclusion combines state of the art technology and extensive distribution network to bridge the huge demand-supply gap for financial services in some of the remotest parts of India and Nepal.
We have one of the largest digital payments distribution network providing financial solutions on tap. Our investment platform FINVESTA uses human centric design to create tailor made solutions for low income households in resource poor settings. The interactive, simple and easy to use, multi-interface platform gathers insights from customers and nudges them to invest in life cycle goal based financial products . Our products are also designed keeping in mind the lack of access and financial volatilities of our customers. Leveraging our 50+ diverse, sticky long lasting alliances, we have developed the first of its kind bundled financial solutions for low income households: banking, digital payments credit, investment & protection.

Big Data. Tiny Transactions. Our predictive analytics and machine learning platform detects fraud and unusual behaviour and patterns for real time alerts in a distributed network, minimizing risks and costs for our banking partners.
Our future technology plans include using Artificial intelligence to make financial inclusion operations more real-time, predictive and efficient.

The FIA Impact
A. 19 million unbanked Indians opened their 1st Bank Account with FIA and joined the inclusive growth path with regular savings, social security, wealth protection & creation, empowered by institutional credit.
B. FIA mobilized 21,000+ access point for affordable digital financial services in 618+ districts, focused on the areas which are not viable for a formal bank branch
C. FIA initiated financially viable and sustainable community based models in rural villages and in semi-urban and urban slums, for regular financial literacy/awareness as well as access to financial and other products and services specially designed for the bottom-of-the-pyramid customers
D. FIA created awareness and demand pool for clean water, green energy products and developed entrepreneurs for low cost delivery or supply creating affordability, accessibility and profitability within the value chain.
E. FIA spearheaded the pathway towards complete digitization of the rural eco-system particularly for communities who were financially excluded before the intervention by FIA.

Top three goals for next year:
A. Design, develop and execute a digital credit scoring model for credit invisible consumers who are excluded from access to formal institutional credit.
B. Design an innovative wealth creation solution for bottom of the pyramid customers for digital savings and investment in low risk market linked products.
C. Successfully deploy a mobility solution for inward international remittance in India, enabling families save and spend the money coming from the earning members working outside the country.

1. Risk Type: Inadequate awareness or electronic security at remote locations


2. Risk Type: Data Loss from hacker attacks


3. Risk Type: Unauthorized personnel processing transactions

4. Risk Type: Money Laundering activities

5. Risk Type: Regulatory Risks - Processes, procedures, activities and practices violates the stipulated guidelines of the regulator, controller of financial services, state laws.

1. Mitigation Plan:
- Consumer Awareness on financial security
- Insurance cover
2. Mitigation Plan:
- Strict security controls
3. Mitigation Plan:
- Since the system is bio-metric enabled, the probability of this happening is minimized
- Access control and monitoring mechanism
4. Mitigation Plan:
- Adherence to Documentation Guidelines,
- Verification of Customer Identity
- Audit trail for financial transactions
5.Mitigation Plan:
- Clarity and understanding of laws and guidelines
- Training & awareness
- Process Review and assessment
The business model hinges on use of technology and hence technology failure is a critical success factor. A related issue is the compatibility and integration of technology at various levels of distribution pipeline. Further, given the proposed vast outreach of each cluster and the difficult physical terrains, it is difficult and costly to undertake rigorous internal audits and inspections. This needs to be evaluated and mitigated leveraging technology and high-end analytics.                                                                                                                                                          

Seema Prem is the Founder & CEO of FIA Technology.
Seema's concern for the poor was present since her childhood days. She was deeply influenced by the memories of places where her father as a Colonel of Indian Army was posted, in difficult terrains and in difficult times. These memories had a lasting impact and definitely helped her conceptualize a model for inclusive growth, which with further research during her days at MIT, culminated into an award winning model. 

FIA is headquartered in Delhi NCR, India. Since FIA is the business of building last mile digital payments and distribution systems, we have satellite offices across the country in key states. We are building the largest distribution network to unserved India and Nepal and have 300+ employees and partners supporting this extensive network in 622 districts in the country. Our community based participatory model capitalizes the benefits and power of 'leverage'. By tying up with local entrepreneurs to act as banking partners, we were able to scale nationally in a very short time frame.
FIA has an installed base of 20 million customers and the # of transactions through our system is growing at 70% y-o-y. Our business model is focused on building the largest outreach network and leveraging this distribution pipe, pump more and more products to the last mile. We have just skimmed the surface of financial inclusion. The insurance, mutual funds and lending market is still untapped at the bottom of the pyramid. By leveraging our existing distribution pipe, there is only a marginal increase in costs which enables high levels of efficiencies. 

Awards
- Winner: United Nations, India & NITI Aayog, Women Transforming India, 2018
- Co-Chair, FICCI ICT and Digital Economy Sub-Committee 2017
- Member, Financial Reforms Committee, Champions of Change, NITI Aayog, 2017
- Ministry of External Affairs National Contest, Top 20 Social Innovations for 2016
- Red Herring Top 100 Asia Winner, 2016
- Winner, Millennium Alliance, 2014‚Ä®
- Winner, India Development Marketplace, World Bank 2014
- DST-Lockheed Martin Gold Medal for Top 30 Innovations, India 2012
- Runners-up, Emerging markets, MIT $100K Entrepreneurship contest, 2011

FIA is the only fintech company which has been profitable since inception. We have been meeting our growth and expansion plans from profits generated from existing operations.
FIA has been able to achieve consistent profitability due to the following reasons:
- Extensive partnership alliances (50+) which ensures steady income and continuity of future business. Some strategic partnerships also cover our marketing costs which helps maintain a healthy operating margin
- Revenue model built on multiple sources of revenue--license sales / product sales / annual maintenance charges, subscription fees, corporate sales, revenue from specific projects and advisory services.

If selected as a Solver, we would use the resources for a) Resources for Field Sales, Technology, Operations & Audit. Resources for product development to enhance the efficiencies of the product and build new products in the pipeline. b) Marketing efforts towards increasing the number of enrolments of our technology platform. This will be in the form of below-the-line marketing campaigns and specific incentive schemes for targeted sales objectives c) Investing in building and enhancing the platform to add new product features, machine learning algorithms for specific products