RBI issues SGB on behalf of the Government of India. Buy SGB online and earn a fixed interest of 2.50% per annum. No making charges and alternative of physical gold.
For the period the Yashraj Containeurs Ltd reported Net Sales of Rs 262.43 million and Net Profit of Rs -11.88 million. While Net Sales declined by 2.40%, Net Profit came down by 413.46% and thereby NPM reduced to -4.53% as compared to 1.41% during same period previous FY. Equity Capital for the period under consideration stands at Rs 90.00 million.
RBI issues SGB on behalf of the Government of India. Buy SGB online and earn a fixed interest of 2.50% per annum. No making charges and alternative of physical gold.
For the period the Yashraj Containeurs Ltd reported Net Sales of Rs 262.43 million and Net Profit of Rs -11.88 million. While Net Sales declined by 2.40%, Net Profit came down by 413.46% and thereby NPM reduced to -4.53% as compared to 1.41% during same period previous FY. Equity Capital for the period under consideration stands at Rs 90.00 million.
Business of Decentralized Finance: Economics, Finance, and Business aspects o...Sam Ghosh
Decentralized Finance or DeFi is a prominent use case of blockchain and crypto technologies. It is a rapidly growing sector and new business models are coming up every day. The dynamism of the sector makes understanding and tracking the sector challenging. Apart from that, most discussion around the sector is very technical in nature and can be hard to decipher. There is a need for learning materials that cover the fundamentals of DeFi in simple language without becoming esoteric.
This book is trying to create a general framework for DeFi platforms by presenting complex concepts around DeFi in simple language with case-studies from various DeFi Platforms - How does the Instadapp platform work? How does the Maker platform work? How does Uniswap mine liquidity? How does the Matic token create value for Polygon? How does governance work in Curve Finance? Tokenomics of Shushiswap? Cash-flows in Convex Finance? …..Apart from giving a taste of real DeFi platforms, these case studies will help you compare different technologies and business models.
This book is for techies who want to get into DeFi but are struggling to understand the business models and for business folks who want to understand DeFi but are struggling with the technical vocabulary.
This book does not assume any prior knowledge of blockchain and crypto technologies and contains a primer on these topics.
Get the book on Amazon Kindle
USA : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09T2ND42B
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09T2ND42B
Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B09T2ND42B
France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B09T2ND42B
Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B09T2ND42B
Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B09T2ND42B
Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B09T2ND42B
Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B09T2ND42B
Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B09T2ND42B
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09T2ND42B
Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B09T2ND42B
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B09T2ND42B
India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B09T2ND42B
This book is a derivation of the popular Udemy course with the same name.
https://www.udemy.com/course/business-of-decentralized-finance-defi/?referralCode=A642642AEFE52E7BAB6E
Current was founded in 2015 by Stuart Sopp. Stuart Sopp was a Wall Steet trader and worked many major banks including Morgan Stanley, Citi, and Deutsche.
Currently Current offers three types of accounts - A free account, a premium account, and a teen account. The premium account costs US$4.99 a month and the teen account costs US$36 per year per teen.
No minimum balance and no-fee model is targeted at Millenials and Gen Z customers who face liquidity issues in managing their finances. Current primarily uses influencers to reach potential customers.
Current currently has more than 3 million customers and is valued at US$2.2 billion.
Business of Decentralized Finance: Economics, Finance, and Business aspects o...Sam Ghosh
Decentralized Finance or DeFi is a prominent use case of blockchain and crypto technologies. It is a rapidly growing sector and new business models are coming up every day. The dynamism of the sector makes understanding and tracking the sector challenging. Apart from that, most discussion around the sector is very technical in nature and can be hard to decipher. There is a need for learning materials that cover the fundamentals of DeFi in simple language without becoming esoteric.
This book is trying to create a general framework for DeFi platforms by presenting complex concepts around DeFi in simple language with case-studies from various DeFi Platforms - How does the Instadapp platform work? How does the Maker platform work? How does Uniswap mine liquidity? How does the Matic token create value for Polygon? How does governance work in Curve Finance? Tokenomics of Shushiswap? Cash-flows in Convex Finance? …..Apart from giving a taste of real DeFi platforms, these case studies will help you compare different technologies and business models.
This book is for techies who want to get into DeFi but are struggling to understand the business models and for business folks who want to understand DeFi but are struggling with the technical vocabulary.
This book does not assume any prior knowledge of blockchain and crypto technologies and contains a primer on these topics.
Get the book on Amazon Kindle
USA : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09T2ND42B
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09T2ND42B
Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B09T2ND42B
France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B09T2ND42B
Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B09T2ND42B
Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B09T2ND42B
Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B09T2ND42B
Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B09T2ND42B
Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B09T2ND42B
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09T2ND42B
Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B09T2ND42B
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B09T2ND42B
India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B09T2ND42B
This book is a derivation of the popular Udemy course with the same name.
https://www.udemy.com/course/business-of-decentralized-finance-defi/?referralCode=A642642AEFE52E7BAB6E
Current was founded in 2015 by Stuart Sopp. Stuart Sopp was a Wall Steet trader and worked many major banks including Morgan Stanley, Citi, and Deutsche.
Currently Current offers three types of accounts - A free account, a premium account, and a teen account. The premium account costs US$4.99 a month and the teen account costs US$36 per year per teen.
No minimum balance and no-fee model is targeted at Millenials and Gen Z customers who face liquidity issues in managing their finances. Current primarily uses influencers to reach potential customers.
Current currently has more than 3 million customers and is valued at US$2.2 billion.
Monobank - First Mobile Only Bank in UkraineSam Ghosh
When Ukrainian Bank PrivatBank was nationalized in 2016, three senior executives of the bank Olekxandr Dubilet, Dmytro Dubilet, Mykhailo Rogalskyi, and Oleg Gorokhovskyi formed the Fintech Band. The goal of the Band was to develop fintech solutions. The Band took up a mobile bank project as their first project which eventually with the partnership of Universal Bank became the Monobank.
Currently, Monobank has more than 3.5 million customers in a country with a population of around 44 million. Monobank has processed more than 1.4 billion transactions worth around US$24 billion.
After their success in their home country, the Fintech Band team is expanding to the UK market with Koto Card which is a fixed fee credit service.
Kakao Bank - Trailblazing Neobank from South KoreaSam Ghosh
Kakao Bank was launched in the year 2017 as part of the Kakao Corp. Within 24 hours, Kakao Bank enrolled 300K subscribers, 2 million in 15 days. As of the end of 2020, this South Korean Bank had more than 13 million users, around a quarter of the South Korean population. The bank has reached a loan book size of 20.3 trillion KRW (US$17.94 billion). The operating income for the bank stood at 804 billion KRW (~US$708 million) with 113.6 billion KRW (~US$100 million) net profit in FY2020.
Just after 3 years of its launched Kakao Bank is already planning IPO and is valued at around 10 trillion won (US$9.15 billion).
Let us learn about Kakao Bank.
Indian payment company Paytm, backed by Softbank, launched barcode-based smartphone payment service PayPay in Japan back in 2018. In early March 2021, Softbank and LINE Corporation (Part of South Korean NAVER Corporation) agreed to merge PayPay and LINE Pay, the payment art of LINE Corp.
LINE is primarily a messaging service along with various other offerings such as Games, News, and Healthcare, etc. LINE has around 167 million monthly active users across Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia.
LINE Pay is an eWallet service with around 39 million registered users as of February 2021. Apart from eWallet, LINE Pay offers prepaid cards and credit cards.
With more than 12 million customers and more than US$2 billion annual revenue, Russian Tinkoff Neobank is a force to reckon with. Tinkoff products range from banking, wealth management, insurance, SAS based products to telecom for retail customers, SMEs, and large businesses.
Tinkoff products are highly adapted to the Russian lifestyle and socio-economic conditions proven by the rapid adoption of their products. The company was listed on the London stock exchange in 2013 and currently has a market cap of around ~US$10 billion.
Nubank: Neobank from Brazil to the whole Latin AmericaSam Ghosh
Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America with the largest population. Banking in Brazil seems well developed on paper - banking penetration little higher than the global average and extensive branch network.
But, Brazillian (and other Latin American countries) banks charge considerably higher interest margin when compared with the USA and China. Banks could get away with maintaining a high return on equity despite having high overhead costs because of the oligopolistic market structure in the Brazillian banking industry. As of 2018, the five largest banks in Brazil controlled more than 80% of the household credit market.
David Vélez, who was a partner at the Sequoia Capital, saw this opportunity. He founded EO2 Solucoes de Pagamento (EO2 Payment Solutions) along with Cristina Junqueira and Edward Wible in 2013. Soon the company was named Nubank.
Today Nubank has more than 26 million customers across Latin America and is valued at US$25 billion as of January 2021. The company offers digital accounts for individuals and businesses along with credit cards and life insurance.
Let us learn about their great journey.
Update Feb18 2021: The latest public user number for Nubank is 34 million as of January 2021.
https://blog.nubank.com.br/nubank-400-milhoes-rodada-investimento-2021/
Klarna - Swedish born 'Buy Now, Pay Later' GiantSam Ghosh
Update March 1st 2021: Klarna's valuation soared to US$31 billion after a huge USD1 billion fundraising. https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/37576/klarna-confirms-mammoth-1-billion-fund-raise
Klarna is a Sweden based fintech unicorn that offers Consumer Credit, Merchant Solutions, and Banking services. Founded in 2005 by three students of Stockholm School of Economics, Klarna went from a rejected idea to a US$31 billion giant with a presence in 17 countries.
Klarna has been a pleasant outlier as a profitable fintech company from the beginning. In 2019 Klarna recorded a GMV of US$35 billion with net operating revenue of US$ 753 million.
Recently, Klarna is experiencing some growing pains especially in its quest to expand out of Europe. In 2019, Klarna reported a loss for the first time. In 2020 although their revenue is growing rapidly, losses also seem to expand.
Klarna spearheaded the 'Buy Now, Pay Later' industry and offer many innovative products. They have also created a unique playful brand.
Let us learn more about Klarna.
Impact of COVID-19 on Global Consumers and Emerging OpportunitiesSam Ghosh
COVID-19 is a humanitarian crisis as such the world has not seen for generations. For the consumers, it is a shock of unprecedented proportions. Consumer behavior in many sectors is going to change in the post-COVID era. Evidence shows that consumers have become more home-bound, digitally adopted, health-conscious, and community-driven.
While it is true that many industries suffered great losses and likely to struggle for years, opportunities are also emerging especially for emerging tech.
The pandemic has accelerated the shift to eCommerce and delivery services. Not only existing categories and consumer segments experienced a boost - new products and consumer segments found their way to eCommerce and delivery. As people are likely to continue spending more time at home, these sectors likely to see long-term growth. The retail subscription business also got a boost from the pandemic. The growth is driven by daily essentials. Hyper-local commerce, Social Commerce and Group-Buying are getting a stronghold as consumers are becoming more and more community-oriented.
Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) services saw accelerated growth in both the number of subscribers and viewing time-span. The idea of entertainment is evolving supporting the SVoD sector for the long term.
The messaging apps saw significant growth due to the pandemic. Techcrunch reports that “WhatsApp has seen a 40% increase in usage that grew from an initial 27% bump in the earlier days of the pandemic to 41% in the mid-phase. For countries already in the later phase of the pandemic, WhatsApp usage has jumped by 51%”. As people were forced to stay at home - entertainment also shifted indoors. COVID worked as a boon to the Video Gaming and Esports industry.
COVID-19 has accelerated digital adoption in healthcare. Indian health platform Practo saw a 600% increase in online consultation between March and August 2020.
As COVID-19 forced the Gyms and similar facilities to remain closed, people quickly adopted to use fitness apps, streaming services, wearables, and connected devices. As making time for visits to the gym was inconvenient even before the pandemic, this change of behavior i.e. fitness at home likely to stay in the long term.
Social distancing forced people to buy pharmaceuticals online boosting the growth of online pharma. At the same time, sales of supplements increased significantly as people focused on boosting their immunity.
It is expected that small towns and rural areas are likely to lead the recovery creating opportunities for Agritech and Vernacular Tech.
SME Fintech Opportunity in the Developing CountriesSam Ghosh
There were around 30 million Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) in the developing countries before the pandemic. 2/3rd of global SMEs were located in developing countries. Developing countries with top SME populations are China, Thailand, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Tanzania, India, and Brazil, etc.
Most of these SMEs in the developing countries are in the informal sector lacking formal financing options and proper business processes. The pandemic has tested these SMEs to the extreme damaging their existing sales channels, supply chain, and financing sources. Governments in the developing countries (ex. China) pushing the SMEs for digital adoption to deal with revenue losses amid social distancing. This policy support can be very beneficial for startups in the sector.
COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital adoption in developing countries as consumers are forced to adopt digital channels for services such as education, healthcare, and grocery, etc. At the same time, small businesses are adopting digital channels for survival. This creates a unique opportunity for tech startups serving small businesses in developing countries.
The major problems that the small businesses are facing are revenue losses, operating challenges due to social distancing, lack of credit access, supply-side issues such as labour shortages, raw material access, etc. Tech startups can tap into the market by providing solutions to these pain points - sales platforms to deal with revenue losses, process automation to deal with operating challenges, alternative lending to deal with lack of credit access, HR management technologies to deal with the labour shortages, etc.
Small businesses often do not have defined operating processes. Changing customer preferences for digital modes require that small businesses also define their internal processes. The tech companies in this sector need to hand-hold small businesses by helping them design internal processes. Process automation companies are likely to benefit from this.
Often small businesses are dependent on one or few key people. As the pandemic brought drastic changes to our daily lives, the human aspect of the pandemic cannot be ignored. For example, many female entrepreneurs experienced the increased daily burden of homeschooling their children as the schools were closed. This kind of aspect brings unique opportunities for tech companies to design products for the sector.
As per the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2020, global wealth stood at US$ 399 trillion as of the end of 2019. Most of the global wealth is primarily controlled by older men in North America and Europe.
As per BCG, the Asset Under Management (AuM) for the global asset management industry stood at US$88.7 trillion as of the end of 2019.
The pandemic found the wealth management industry dealing with margin pressure amid the popularity of passive products, on the verge of a great wealth transfer from the Baby Boomers to the younger generations, a rising share of women’s wealth, and increasing regulatory pressure. Revenue from beta is quickly diminishing due to the popularity of passive products. The focus is shifting from margin to increasing AUM.
As per Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2020, global wealth decreased by US$ 17 trillion between January and March of 2020. Recovery in the capital markets Q2 onwards led to the recovery of household wealth in Q2 to the levels of the end of 2019. Though the loss of growth represents a more than US$7 trillion loss from expected wealth levels by the end of the first half of 2020. Lower economic activity, lower consumption, and lower investments by both households and corporates likely to restrain household wealth growth for many coming years. The growth rate may not recover to pre-pandemic levels before the end of 2021. Global wealth per adult decreased by 0.4% in the first half of 2020. China is the biggest gainer and Latin America along with Africa are the greatest losers.
Though low-interest-rate environment, making time deposits less attractive, likely to boost funds flows to capital markets and demand for wealth management services.
At the same time, social distancing is forcing digital adoption in wealth management. Apart from that, the great wealth transfer will mean that the wealth management sector needs a paradigm shift in their client engagements. The expectations of tech-savvy millennials are very much different from the older generations. Instant gratification, higher involvement in the process, and constant monitoring are some of the features Millennials expect.
Micro-Investment platforms and Online Brokers are expected to be immensely beneficial as tech-savvy Millennials control more and more wealth. Self-service platforms that specialize in passive products (MF, ETF) are especially lucrative.
Hybrid services that combine human touch with tech efficiency will likely to become mainstream as wealth management firms push for cost-cutting and younger generations control more and more wealth.
As many traditional wealth management firms will look to increase their digital capabilities, WealthTech firms with proven business models are expected to be seen as attractive acquisition targets.
Before the pandemic, themes that were driving technology demand in the capital markets were regulatory compliance and cost-cutting.
Technologies in demand in the capital markets in recent years were Big Data, AI/ML, Blockchain, and Cloud Computing.
Even amid the global economic gloom, the capital markets were not uneventful. As per S&P Global, the global bond issuance is expected to be 16% higher in 2020 compared to 2019 amid record-low interest rates and markets flooded with liquidity. As per data from the World Federation of Exchanges, the value of share trading globally registered a 49.74% increase in H1 of 2020 compared with H2 of 2019. Exchange-traded derivatives volumes were up 23.4% when compared with H2 2019, reaching a record 21.72 billion contracts traded.
Cost pressures, exacerbated by COVID-19, likely to accelerate automation initiatives as banks cut headcounts rapidly.
Technology implementations due to compliance requirements such as the Second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID2) and the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB) likely to be sources of demand for companies providing technology to the capital market sector. The companies providing automation of compliance processes are already attracting a higher amount of venture funds. Technology providers focusing on Data Analytics, AI/ML, IaaS and Biometrics, etc. are expected to gain from the trends.
Another important factor is the rapid adoption of work-from-home culture. A significant portion of the firms may opt for a permanent work-from-home or a hybrid work culture. This shift is likely to increase demand for cloud transformation services.
Even though many financial services firms may cut IT spending for a few quarters, compliance automation, cost-cutting initiatives, and cloud transformations will continue to create demand for capital market technology providers.
The Emergence of Open Banking and COVID-19Sam Ghosh
Think about Google if it were only collecting a lot of data but never used or shared that data with anyone. That is how the traditional financial service companies are - they have enormous amounts of data but rarely use that data for any tangible purpose. Dormant data with the financial service providers can be used to not only create new applications but revolutionize credit markets, personal finance, business finance, wealth management, etc. in ways we cannot even totally envisage now.
Open Banking is a practice where banks provide access to consumer data to non-affiliated third parties generally through Application Programming Interfaces or APIs. Open Banking in the coming years is expected to lead a paradigm shift in Banking and Finance.
During the pandemic, the demand side of the equation for Open Banking is rapidly developing with growth in fintech markets and the adoption of digital channels by the consumers.
Both banks and tech companies have immense incentives to grab this opportunity and quickly tap the growth in digital markets and channels.
Concerns about data security, compliance with privacy laws, and regulatory uncertainties are acting as impediments to the growth of Open Banking.
Banks need to act quickly to leverage data to increase their reach and role. Traditional banking is rapidly getting commoditized and banks need to add data-driven value-added services in their portfolio to remain relevant. Value-added services such as personal financial planning, the alternative credit assessment, and real-time payments can not only create new revenue sources for the banks but provide strategic moats in the competitive landscape. Banks can achieve this through strategic partnerships and acquisitions. In-house development is difficult given the cultural shift needed in the banking sector may take time. Apart from that, the IT in the banking sector is generally focussed on regulatory requirements and not data-driven, customer-focused as required for Open Banking initiatives.
Policy uncertainty can severely hamper the growth of Open Banking. Policymakers need to balance caution on security-privacy matters but at the same time clear policy confusion to allow the sector to grow.
As per the Akamai report, “2020 State of the Internet / Security: Financial Services – Hostile Takeover Attempts”, cyber attackers are increasingly targeting API endpoints of financial services.
As per a Gartner report, by 2021, APIs will account for 90% of the attack surface. By 2022, according to Gartner, API abuses will become the most-frequent attack vector.
This is a cause of concern for the Banks contemplating opening up data access using APIs.
Global Alternative Lending Industry amid COVID-19Sam Ghosh
Alternative Lending emerged to provide credit access to individuals and businesses who lack credit history or in other words - the ‘thin file’ borrowers.
The primary segments of Alternative Lending are Consumer Finance and Small and Medium-Sized Business Finance.
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing most economies to shrink in 2020 causing enormous job losses, revenue losses for businesses, and in some cases business closures.
Consumer spending took a significant hit due to the pandemic. As per data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, Retail Sales of Consumer Goods contracted by 20.5% in January-February 2020 compared to January-February 2019. The growth remained in the negative territory for the first two quarters of 2020.
Data from VISA and Mastercard show a drastic drop in credit-card debt use. Demand for household short-term credit is still subdued. As unemployment rates improve and retail sales pick up the pace, demand for consumer finance is expected to improve in the coming quarters.
Many SMBs are going through severe financial distress primarily due to lower demand and lack of access to credit. Many may not recover and close their businesses.
Lack of demand may hinder the SMBs from accessing and/or getting approval of business loans.
On the supply side, the alternative lending companies may struggle to access low-cost capital due to deteriorating balance sheets of the banks and NBFCs who likely to increase risk-premium and even avoid exposure to the high-yield segments.
Increasing bad loans may push policymakers to put safeguards in place which may lower profitability and limit access to capital for the alternative lenders. For example, China's Supreme Court slashed the legally protected ceiling of informal lending rate in August 2020. This is expected to unfavorably impact the profitability of alternative lenders.
Established fintech (Square, PayPal, etc.) are entering the lending business, and as credit demand improves we may see more of this trend.
Many large retailers such as Amazon, Macy’s, etc. partnered with financial services companies to extend consumer credit to their customers. We may expect to see acquisitions of fintech lenders by the retailers.
Stressed balance sheet likely to increase M&A activities in the sector.
Impact of COVID-19 on Indian Economy: 28th November 2020Sam Ghosh
Indian economy entered a technical recession with two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction in Q2 of FY 2020-21. Results released by the National Statistical Office shows that the GDP of India during the H1 of FY 2020-21 contracted by 15.7% at Constant (2011-12) Prices and 13.3% at Current Prices. While quarterly GDP in Q2 FY 2020-21 in rupee terms improved from Q1 FY 2020-21 by 23% at Constant Prices and 24% at Current Prices, it is still 7.5% and 4% lower than Q2 of FY 2019-20 at Constant and Current Prices respectively. The contraction was caused by a drastic drop in private consumption (which contributes around 60% of Indian GDP) and a drop in gross fixed capital formation.
The policy repo rate has been reduced by 115 basis points from the beginning of 2020 to record low levels. Apart from that, RBI is injecting liquidity through various Open Market Operations and Long Term Repo Operations. Currency with the public increased by ~20% from the end of 2019 to the end of October 2020. We can safely say that the Indian economy is flushed with liquidity.
Consumer inflation remains above the policy range of 4%+2%, and with a GDP contraction, the Indian economy is dealing with stagflation.
On the fiscal front, total monthly receipts remained lower than the same period last year for the whole Q1 and Q2 (April - September) FY 2020-21. October receipts show signs of improvement. Fiscal expenditure on the other hand was maintained at the same levels of FY 2019-20 in FY 2020-21 till October. The fiscal deficit stood at 119.7% of the Budget Estimates as of October 2020 due to lower receipts.
Credit growth remains sluggish especially due to lower credit uptake by the industry. Credit demand for smaller companies was low from the beginning of fiscal 2020-21 which improved after August. Credit uptake by the large corporates dropped after July 2020.
Household savings increased dramatically from Rs.5.32 lakh crores in Q4 of FY 2019-20 to Rs. 8.16 lakh crores in Q1 of FY 2020-21 - a more than 50% increase. Most of the increase in household savings resulted from an aversion to liabilities. It signifies that the households turned conservative about their finances to deal with impending financial distress.
The unemployment rate shot-up in April and May 2020 above 20% and moderated to below 10% levels after June 2020. Employees' Provident Fund records show healthy job creation in September 2020.......
Global Digital Payment Industry amid COVID-19Sam Ghosh
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a drastic decline in economic activity worldwide. This decline of economic activity affected the digital payment industry as well.
Data from VISA and Mastercard show that payment volume decreased by ~20% in the April-June 2020 quarter from the Oct-Dec 2019 quarter. The July-September 2020 quarter saw a slight recovery but the volumes were still lower than the Oct-Dec 2019 quarter. Debit payments seem to recover quicker than credit payments, especially in the US.
Cross-border transactions were severely affected due to lower trade volumes and international travel restrictions. This resulted in a drastic drop in cross-border transaction revenue for both VISA and Mastercard.
Though the payment companies are facing revenue pain in the short term, long-term prospects are brighter. The pandemic has quickened the adoption of digital payments across age groups. Adoption of digital payments by the elderly population is especially encouraging and can open up new business opportunities.
Big-Tech companies are also rapidly increasing their foothold in the payments industry through acquisitions, patents, and partnerships.
New technologies such as contactless payment and real-time payment also got a boost due to the pandemic.
Governments around the world encouraged residents to use digital payment systems as the pandemic emerged. In some cases, restrictions were placed on cash withdrawals and cash transactions.
Fee waivers, compliance relaxations, consumer protection, etc, measures were taken to boost digital payments.
In India, the Reserve Bank of India has introduced a framework for the recognition of a Self-Regulatory Organisation for Payment System Operators.
Emerging Cyber Security Opportunity in IndiaSam Ghosh
$1.5 Trillion - that was the size of the Global cybercrime market in 2018. In comparison, the Indian GDP in the same year was US$2.7 trillion. The Dark web activity has spiked over 300% since 2017. As per NortonLifeLock Cyber Safety Insights Report, 2019, globally 350 million consumers became the victim of cybercrime only in one year.
Back in India, the rapid growth of data-driven tech companies prompted the lawmakers to enact a legal framework for cybersecurity, especially around financial services. These legal requirements have driven the Indian Cybersecurity industry.
Just when the COVID-19 lockdowns started, cyber-attacks also surged. Between March and April 2020, India has witnessed a staggering 86% increase in cyber-attacks.
Due to social distancing, many industries are rapidly getting digitised almost in a haphazard manner, bringing more and more critical data online. This is creating a fertile ground for cybercrime.
The pandemic is bringing unique challenges for both enterprises and individuals in terms of protecting their sensitive data from cyber-attacks.
People who never shopped online are now shopping online, people who shopped online before are shopping for things online which they never shopped online. The rapid growth of e-payments is bringing unique challenges not only in terms of payment security but also privacy and fake/illegal eCommerce sites.
The IT spending is expected to be lower this year but companies are prioritising security spending with spending on cloud and collaboration.
The medium to long-term prospects for the cyber-security industry looks promising given the rapid digitisation of digitally naive industries, increasing access to enterprise systems from mobile devices, migration of critical processes to the cloud systems, and increasing online transactions, etc.
Apart from that, as many small and medium-sized businesses are forced to adapt to the increasingly digital world, demand for cyber-security products/platforms is expected to increase as many smaller businesses may not have the resources to avail security consulting services.
The SaaS Opportunity and Indian SaaS IndustrySam Ghosh
As per a recent NASSCOM report, India is the birthplace of more than one thousand pure-play SaaS vendors with 150+ companies generating more than US$1 million Annual Recurring Revenue. There are already at least 6 SaaS unicorns. These companies generated ~US$3.5 billion in revenue in FY20.
As per the same report by NASSCOM, the addressable SaaS market by 2025 is expected to be US$400 billion. Indian players are well positions to tap this opportunity with their lower cost structure, competency in online & inside-sales, large workforce proficient in SaaS and mobile application development, and role models such as Zoho, Freshworks, Icertis, Druva, and Postman.
With the growth of work-from-home culture and rapid digitisation, the future of the SaaS sector looks bright especially for companies offering collaboration and security services.
Prospect of rapid digitisation of the Indian MSME sector likely to help Indian SaaS companies grow their domestic revenue base along with the export market on which the SaaS sector is traditionally dependent.
Although many SaaS companies may face short-term challenges due to lower IT spending by corporates. As per a Gartner report, Global IT spending in the year 2020 is expected to be 8% lesser than in 2019. Vertical SaaS companies focused on sectors such as Travel, Hospitality, Restaurants, etc. may face considerable challenges due to the pandemic.
As investor focus changes from “growth at all cost” to sustainability and profitability, SaaS offers business models with a clear path to profitability.
As Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu suggests, the pandemic may cause the SaaS industry consolidation as SaaS businesses driven by venture capital money may face challenges in raising further funds and their customers tighten their wallets.
Impact of COVID-19 on Indian Venture Capital IndustrySam Ghosh
Given considerable ambiguity around changing economic and industrial landscapes, most VCs may refrain from investment in companies other than their own portfolio companies. As many sectors are being disrupted significantly by the pandemic, many portfolio companies may need funding just to keep afloat. Given India focused VCs ended 2019 with a record amount of dry powder, they are positioned well to increase their stake in existing portfolio companies through additional equity infusion at attractive valuations.
Early-stage companies will have a hard time raising funds in the coming few quarters as VCs likely to prioritise strengthening their own portfolio companies and companies with proven product-market-fit and revenue models. At the same time, late-stage startups may reap the benefits of their user base and move to develop revenue sources.
Investment instruments and terms may become more and more conservative both in terms of economics and control. We can expect stricter liquidity preferences, stricter vesting schedules, and protective provisions.
Venture debt is becoming popular as startups try to avoid dilution at unfavourable prices and terms.
The current situation creates unfavourable circumstances for VC exits. Venture Funds may like to delay exits if possible to avoid selling at deeply discounted valuations. This may result in a longer holding period and thus lower IRR. Funds at the tail end of their lives may be forced to offer exits to their limited partners (LPs). This may lead to underperformance and/or increased sales by the LPs to secondary funds. The pandemic has caused rapid digitisation of various sectors. Established offline players may look for acquisition to grow their digital capabilities. This may bring strategic deal opportunities for digital startups and exit opportunities for VC firms.
Fundraising activity is expected to be slow in the coming quarters given fund managers may want to limit their exposure to risky investments in the current economic scenario. The pandemic has caused and going to cause a correction in various asset prices from public equity, real estate, and commodities. Restructuring of portfolios likely to further discourage fund managers from investing in venture funds.
In this tough fundraising scenario, tried and tested fund managers will have a significant advantage over new fund managers.
Impact of COVID-19 on Indian IT and BPM SectorSam Ghosh
India is the world leader in IT and BPM services accounting for ~55% of the global services sourcing business.
As per a Gartner report, the global IT spending in 2020 is expected to be 8% less than in 2019. Not only that, the technology demand mix is going to be very different in the post-pandemic world than in the pre-pandemic era.
The industry which is primarily dependent on export markets is being tested by travel and VISA restrictions. This brings a lot of operational challenges for the IT Service companies.
The IT service majors are adopting cloud-based operating models that require the lesser physical presence of IT professionals, enhances the security of the cloud, and enable collaboration online.
As the recovery timeline for different countries and industries are likely to vary significantly, the IT service companies need to dynamically organise infrastructure and human resources to defend and acquire revenue opportunities.
In general, demand for Security, Collaboration, Mobility, and Cloud applications is going to drive the demand in the coming quarters.
Need for a low-touch operating model, need for hiring local talents, dynamic restructuring of human capital, etc. favour the large diversified IT Service companies over smaller players in the post-pandemic world.
Falcon stands out as a top-tier P2P Invoice Discounting platform in India, bridging esteemed blue-chip companies and eager investors. Our goal is to transform the investment landscape in India by establishing a comprehensive destination for borrowers and investors with diverse profiles and needs, all while minimizing risk. What sets Falcon apart is the elimination of intermediaries such as commercial banks and depository institutions, allowing investors to enjoy higher yields.
how can I sell pi coins after successfully completing KYCDOT TECH
Pi coins is not launched yet in any exchange 💱 this means it's not swappable, the current pi displaying on coin market cap is the iou version of pi. And you can learn all about that on my previous post.
RIGHT NOW THE ONLY WAY you can sell pi coins is through verified pi merchants. A pi merchant is someone who buys pi coins and resell them to exchanges and crypto whales. Looking forward to hold massive quantities of pi coins before the mainnet launch.
This is because pi network is not doing any pre-sale or ico offerings, the only way to get my coins is from buying from miners. So a merchant facilitates the transactions between the miners and these exchanges holding pi.
I and my friends has sold more than 6000 pi coins successfully with this method. I will be happy to share the contact of my personal pi merchant. The one i trade with, if you have your own merchant you can trade with them. For those who are new.
Message: @Pi_vendor_247 on telegram.
I wouldn't advise you selling all percentage of the pi coins. Leave at least a before so its a win win during open mainnet. Have a nice day pioneers ♥️
#kyc #mainnet #picoins #pi #sellpi #piwallet
#pinetwork
How to get verified on Coinbase Account?_.docxBuy bitget
t's important to note that buying verified Coinbase accounts is not recommended and may violate Coinbase's terms of service. Instead of searching to "buy verified Coinbase accounts," follow the proper steps to verify your own account to ensure compliance and security.
USDA Loans in California: A Comprehensive Overview.pptxmarketing367770
USDA Loans in California: A Comprehensive Overview
If you're dreaming of owning a home in California's rural or suburban areas, a USDA loan might be the perfect solution. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers these loans to help low-to-moderate-income individuals and families achieve homeownership.
Key Features of USDA Loans:
Zero Down Payment: USDA loans require no down payment, making homeownership more accessible.
Competitive Interest Rates: These loans often come with lower interest rates compared to conventional loans.
Flexible Credit Requirements: USDA loans have more lenient credit score requirements, helping those with less-than-perfect credit.
Guaranteed Loan Program: The USDA guarantees a portion of the loan, reducing risk for lenders and expanding borrowing options.
Eligibility Criteria:
Location: The property must be located in a USDA-designated rural or suburban area. Many areas in California qualify.
Income Limits: Applicants must meet income guidelines, which vary by region and household size.
Primary Residence: The home must be used as the borrower's primary residence.
Application Process:
Find a USDA-Approved Lender: Not all lenders offer USDA loans, so it's essential to choose one approved by the USDA.
Pre-Qualification: Determine your eligibility and the amount you can borrow.
Property Search: Look for properties in eligible rural or suburban areas.
Loan Application: Submit your application, including financial and personal information.
Processing and Approval: The lender and USDA will review your application. If approved, you can proceed to closing.
USDA loans are an excellent option for those looking to buy a home in California's rural and suburban areas. With no down payment and flexible requirements, these loans make homeownership more attainable for many families. Explore your eligibility today and take the first step toward owning your dream home.
Turin Startup Ecosystem 2024 - Ricerca sulle Startup e il Sistema dell'Innov...Quotidiano Piemontese
Turin Startup Ecosystem 2024
Una ricerca de il Club degli Investitori, in collaborazione con ToTeM Torino Tech Map e con il supporto della ESCP Business School e di Growth Capital
The secret way to sell pi coins effortlessly.DOT TECH
Well as we all know pi isn't launched yet. But you can still sell your pi coins effortlessly because some whales in China are interested in holding massive pi coins. And they are willing to pay good money for it. If you are interested in selling I will leave a contact for you. Just telegram this number below. I sold about 3000 pi coins to him and he paid me immediately.
Telegram: @Pi_vendor_247
when will pi network coin be available on crypto exchange.DOT TECH
There is no set date for when Pi coins will enter the market.
However, the developers are working hard to get them released as soon as possible.
Once they are available, users will be able to exchange other cryptocurrencies for Pi coins on designated exchanges.
But for now the only way to sell your pi coins is through verified pi vendor.
Here is the telegram contact of my personal pi vendor
@Pi_vendor_247
Yes of course, you can easily start mining pi network coin today and sell to legit pi vendors in the United States.
Here the telegram contact of my personal vendor.
@Pi_vendor_247
#pi network #pi coins #legit #passive income
#US
1. Elemental Economics - Introduction to mining.pdfNeal Brewster
After this first you should: Understand the nature of mining; have an awareness of the industry’s boundaries, corporate structure and size; appreciation the complex motivations and objectives of the industries’ various participants; know how mineral reserves are defined and estimated, and how they evolve over time.
how to swap pi coins to foreign currency withdrawable.DOT TECH
As of my last update, Pi is still in the testing phase and is not tradable on any exchanges.
However, Pi Network has announced plans to launch its Testnet and Mainnet in the future, which may include listing Pi on exchanges.
The current method for selling pi coins involves exchanging them with a pi vendor who purchases pi coins for investment reasons.
If you want to sell your pi coins, reach out to a pi vendor and sell them to anyone looking to sell pi coins from any country around the globe.
Below is the contact information for my personal pi vendor.
Telegram: @Pi_vendor_247
how to swap pi coins to foreign currency withdrawable.
Gold Monetisation Scheme
1. How to Write an
Effective Copy
H E R E A R E 5 W A Y S T O I M P R O V E Y O U R C O P Y
1 . ) WHY CONSIDER THIS?
Gold is a pure Growth investment. The Gold
Monetisation Scheme makes it possible to earn
some interest from the Gold in the form of either
Gold or cash, without losing the ownership.
2.) DON'T FLOOD READERS
WITH INFORMATION
Save extraneous details for long-form ads.
Otherwise, only focus on the most important
aspects of your product.
3.) UNDERSTAND
YOUR PRODUCT
D o s o m e r e s e al r c h b e f o r e w r i t i n g y o
u r c o p y . T e l l y o u r r e al d e r s h o w t h e y c
al n benefit from
using your product.
4.) UNDERSTAND
YOUR COMPETITION
How does your product stand out from the
competition? Why should buyers use your product?
5.) BE INFORMATIVE AND
APPROACHABLE
Regularly engage with your customers. Give them a
link to your website or Facebook page where they
can learn more about your product.
How to monetise your idle
Gold in India?
G O L D M O N E T I S A T I O N S C H E M E
2.) WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
Resident Indians - Individuals, HUFs, Proprietorship
& Partnership firms, Trusts, including Mutual
Funds/Exchange Traded Funds registered under
SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations and Companies.
The minimum deposit is 30 grams of raw Gold in
the form of bars, coins, jewellery excluding stones
and other metals. There is no maximum limit.
3 .) MINIMUM AND
MAXIMUM DEPOSIT
(i) Short Term Bank Deposit (STBD): 1 to 3 years
(ii) Medium Term Government Deposit (MTGD): 5-7 years.
(iii) Long Term Government Deposit (LTGD): 12-15 years.
5.) INTEREST
%
4 .) TENURE
(i) Short Term Bank Deposit (STBD): 0.5% - 0.6% pa
(ii) Medium Term Government Deposit (MTGD): 2.25% pa
(iii) Long Term Government Deposit (LTGD): 2.5% pa