India MSME Summit 2021] How MSMEs have adopted BFSI and contactless payments amidst second wave of COVID-19

During YourStory’s third annual India MSME Summit 2021, Sumit Agarwal, Founder, Vyapar, and Anand Bajaj, CEO, PayNearby, came together to discuss how BFSI solutions and digital payments acceptance among MSMEs have evolved during the pandemic.

It is an open secret that the two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic have accelerated the adoption of digital payments in India.

Digital payments will grow at a rapid pace over the next few years and account for a 71.7 percent share of all payments in India by 2025, according to a March 2021 report by ACI Worldwide, which added cash and cheques will occupy only 28.3 percent share.

During YourStory’s third annual India MSME Summit 2021, Sumit Agarwal, Founder, Vyapar, and Anand Bajaj, CEO, PayNearby, came together to discuss key insights on how BFSI solutions and digital payments acceptance among MSMEs have evolved during the pandemic.

1. Digital builds resilience amidst second wave

With over 5 million downloads on the Google Play Store, Sumit’s app Vyapar helps MSMEs manage business finances, collect payments on time, keep track of inventory, generate GST reports, and more.

Looking at the data present on the app, Sumit said MSMEs using digital payments and Vyapar’s accounting solutions have fared better during the second wave of the pandemic.

“The first wave saw our users’ business impacted by around 70 percent; there was only around 30 percent traction on average. This time, as our users built the mindset of digitising their business, it has flipped - there is around 70 percent traction and 30 percent slowdown among our users,” he said.