India Finclusion Challenge by the Government of UK in partnership with EY: How a start-up competition disrupted the FinTech industry

Organized by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Government of UK in association with EY, India Finclusion Challenge was devised to identify early-stage ideas for innovative financial products. Conceptualized to pin down distribution solutions for women, SMEs and economically deprived segments of the society, such that it would help deepen the Indian financial services sector,  this FinTech challenge aimed at contributing to sustainable economic development and poverty reduction.

The Finclusion Tale

Noted in a report by Razorpay, 2019 was apparently the Era of FinTech Rising in India. With a startling growth of 338 percent in the demand for digital transactions, payments through Unified Payment Interface (UPI) broke all records with growth of as much as 885 percent. So, it wouldn’t be wrong to add that the country has embarked on a digital transformation journey and it would not be long before it will catch up with its global peers. 

This was the background behind the introduction of the India Finclusion Challenge, a unique ideation challenge that laid its primary focus on the FinTech industry. Launched in partnership with EY, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the Government of UK, this start-up competition wanted to give young entrepreneurs a platform to showcase their ideas and win big! 

With this brief in perspective, the two parties approached Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete) conveying the essentials about the target audience and the theme. This was when the team at DareCompete sat together and worked out a foolproof strategy to launch a start-up challenge, the likes of which were never seen before in the history of competitions. After innumerable brainstorming sessions, here is how the start-up competition was finally structured. 

• Stage 1: A 22-day period was provided for registration and ideation, during which participants were required to create/document their solutions.  
• Stage 2: The next stage required them to submit the Pitch Deck along with relevant product URLs if any. This round was followed by shortlisting of the Demo Day finalists.
• Stage 3: In the wake of the pandemic, the demo of the solutions by finalists was organized in a live virtual mode in front of a panel of judges, followed by the declaration of winners.

Eligibility and Guidelines

The first edition of the India Finclusion Challenge did not allow start-ups who were already registered under another incubator to participate in the competition. The ones who had graduated in the past from an incubation program were eligible. However, this criterion was removed in the second season of the FinTech challenge. Apart from this, participants had to be wary of the theme mentioned on the Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete)platform and present solutions that were developed in line with them. 

The team at Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete) also kept in mind the fact that the pitch deck submissions must be detailed, such that they could be better understood by the jury. To ensure that the challenge runs hassle-free, the following submission guidelines were added.

• Problem Statement: First, participants had to identify the big idea and find answers to questions like, “What is the FinTech going to solve?”
• Description of the desired application: Next, they had to analyze how FinTech will solve the problem, figure out competitors and how their solution is different from the rest.
• Core user scenarios: Consequently, the target market where the product can be used had to be identified. A detailed description of a few core user scenarios where the product fits was to be provided. Also, the audience for the product was to be identified.
• Team details: A separate section was to be added that specified the names of the team members and if they are working on mobile or backend implementation.
• Solutioning: The path that the FinTech would embark on was to be outlined along with the approaches adopted to develop the idea into a working prototype. The jury expected participants to mention the list of core backend-specific and mobile-specific features here. 

The outcome

The response received by India Finclusion Challenge was overwhelmingly positive. The registration numbers were encouraging and the first season left organizers in awe so much that the second season was launched in the next 3 months. Here are a few highlights from the two seasons. 

• The organizers, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Government of UK along with EY, were blown away by the registration count as well as the ideas presented by the participating teams. This made them come back for a second season within a span of the next 3 months. 
• India Finclusion Challenge chapter one garnered views of about 1,86,682 people, putting together a total of 423 registrations. The second season entered the competition space with a bang with as many as 3,17,609 impressions and double the registration count, reaching 830 this time. 
• The winning FinTech were awarded cash prizes worth INR 11 lakhs along with growth packages amounting to INR 72 lakhs over a 3-year period that would help scale their solutions and take them to market.
• In addition, the top three FinTechs were promised exclusive access to EY’s business advisory services, dedicated mentorship from successful entrepreneurs and venture capital firms, support in creating investor pitches, and access to a global network of technology firms and corporates.

India Finclusion Challenge, launched by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Government of UK in partnership with EY, was an extraordinary FinTech challenge that helped in identifying the best ideas that have the capacity to bring about a revolution. It is through challenges like these that students get a platform to showcase their big idea. Corporates on the other hand are able to ascertain the startup/s that would later become unicorns and thus provide the required support. Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete)is extremely fortunate to have been an integral part of this setup. With a hope that further editions of the India Finclusion Challenge aren’t far away, it wishes all tech enthusiasts the best and encourages them to participate in the future seasons - only on Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete)!