This Entrepreneur Expounds On Two Key Issues In E-Payment Sector In the past two years, India has witnessed an exponential increase in digital payments.

Studying the present trend, experts have predicted that half of the internet users in India will switch to digital payment options in near future and the top 100 million users will drive 70 per cent of the GMV (gross merchandise value) — a clear indicator of the growing importance of digital consumers.

In the past two years, India has witnessed an exponential increase in digital payments. Next four years are expected to be critical as this mode will see intense growth with ever-increasing penetration of smart phones. Entry of several non-banking institutions offering payment services, consumer readiness to adopt digital payments, progressive changes in the regulatory framework and most recently, demonetization move by the Indian government are some of the other factors boosting the trend.

Riding on the wave, each start-up in the category is working to add to consumers' experience of digital payments. But are they suitably equipped to provide the services?

In an exclusive interview with the Entrepreneur India, Sony Joy, CEO and Co founder Chillr, a mobile banking platform providing peer to peer payment solution, shares his opinion on two very basic issues for tech start-ups — hiring and tech-support.

#Hiring

Selecting The Right Talent For Start-Ups

"Right hiring for any start-up is a challenging task and this sector is no exception. Unlike big corporate houses, start-ups can't and don't hire in bulks. In start-ups, rather than just looking for a certain background/experience or skill set, the utmost priority is to find people who share the same vision and passion as you do. Also, you need to hire people who will evolve with the journey, would be able to take up challenges, completely outside their comfort zone, and, above everything, take everyone along in their growth path. Subject matter experts might not always be the best choice for a role in start-ups," notifies Joy, who presently works with a team of around 90 people.

Hiring Strategy For Start-Ups Should Be Sufficiently Backed By Awareness

Joy said start-ups mostly identify gaps which a new person with new skill sets or perspective would be able to fill, and hire accordingly. "However, its time the hiring plans be aligned to strategies based on data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence as it is the next big thing in the sector. We believe that going forward, data will be a big differentiator and we have already started working towards making it our strength. We have a data analysis team in place," he added.

#Tech-Support

Multiple Factors Contributing Towards Making India Go Digital In Near Future

"As far as infrastructure requirements are concerned, huge costs were involved with PoS installations and maintenance. But, there is nothing much needed for Unified Payment's Interference (UPI). UPI just needs a bank account, a smart phone and an internet connection to work and, fortunately, the penetration of all three of these is increasing rapidly. The availability of cheaper smart phones, the initiatives of government towards facilitating and ensuring formal banking to everyone and players like JIO are together contributing towards the economy to go digital. Neither merchants nor users need anything more than these three things in terms of infrastructure," clarified the serial entrepreneur.

"Demonetization has already given general population a taste of the ease of digital transactions and people have responded much faster and better than expected by adapting to these means. Rural India might be slightly lagging behind in the race, but next half-a-decade will surely change the game for them as well," he said.

Youth Using Mobile Platforms Fuels Further Growth For Rech Start-Ups

Joy further predicted that the recent developments and initiatives like demonetization, BHIM have made an average Indian much more aware and receptive to digital payments than otherwise it would have been. "We are witnessing a major increase in traffic coming from Tier-I & Tier-II cities. The contribution of top metros in our traffic has now reduced while that of the suburbs is rising ever day," updated Joy.