If the likes of Amazon Pay, PhonePe and Paytm tried to go the super app way in the first fintech wave, traditional financial services are taking a stab at it now.
Businesses like Aditya Birla Capital, Angel One and Muthoot Fincorp are building one-stop applications for all sets of financial services. This comes at a time when large conglomerates such as Reliance Industries and Tata Group have already built digital platforms for everything from shopping to payments and credit under one roof.
The traditional financial services companies are carrying out this diversification through acquiring and partnering with fintech companies, or by creating their own platforms.
Last month, Aditya Birla Capital introduced its omnichannel direct-to-consumer platform, Aditya Birla Capital Digital. It offers 22 products and services, including Unified Payments Interface-based transactions, bill payments and online recharges, in addition to financial services like loans, insurance, investment options and personal finance tracking tools.
The platform aims to attract 30 million users within the next three years, Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said at its launch. The super app also offers its own range of products, including a portfolio consolidator and spend analyser, catering to various customer needs through a single platform.
Fintech super apps integrate multiple financial services to offer consumers seamless experiences, potentially leading more people to prefer these integrated apps over traditional financial applications.
In August 2023, Muthoot Fincorp launched Muthoot Fincorp One to offer MSME and gold loans, investments in products such as digital gold and non-convertible debentures (NCDs) and insurance products, along with options for utility and loan payments on a single platform.
Chief executive Shaji Varghese said the application has been downloaded by about 1.23 million customers and that it is showing promising usage rates, with over 600,000 customers using it monthly.
“We need a good fusion of both physical infrastructure and digital. So, we believe we need ‘phygital’ as the required strategic impetus… All products and services that we offer in the branch will eventually come under the same platform,” Varghese said.
The company invests more than Rs 100 crore annually to enhance its technology, including the super app, he added.
During its March quarter earnings call, stock broking platform Angel One said it is in the process of adding new products to its super app, such as consumer credit and fixed income products, which are currently in beta testing with select clients. The Angel One super app provides services such as online trading and investing, direct mutual funds, sovereign gold bonds and NCDs.
“We believe time has come that we have to leverage our super app platform where we offer multiple services to customer to increase their lifetime value and engagement on our platform. So, because of that, we will see lots of active customers,” Dinesh Thakkar, chairman and managing director of Angel One, said during the company’s earnings call for the last quarter of FY24.
As per the company’s quarterly presentation, increased digital engagement results in a higher number of clients becoming active over time. Approximately 54% of clients acquired in FY21 became active over the following four years across various segments on its platform.
However, navigating the intricate regulatory environment of financial services can sometimes pose challenges for numerous super apps, particularly spanning various sectors and regulatory entities.
“For us, regulation is an empowerment so that we know the scope and the boundary within which we have to operate. Given that there are various regulations, each business develops the needful compliance and regulatory environment within the organisation first, and then they do business. This is in the larger interest of both the customers and the industry,” Varghese said.
