1/ We love *Spend lines* at @Stellaris_VP, and have recently invested in two i.e. @GoKiwiNow and other’s still in stealth.

I remember me and @jindalprateek87 being completely blown away the first time we heard it in 2018 at Ola FS. A #fintech thread 👇 2/ Definitions first:

Spend line is a credit line designed to drive convenience for daily /weekly spends, while Lend line is a credit line or credit designed to drive affordability or liquidity in times of need.

1/ Recent “Credit line on UPI” launch by @NPCI_NPCI is a pivotal point in India's credit journey, one which will breed several #fintechs.

View In 1-line: Credit line on UPI will be what Debit card EMI could never become, and much more! 2/ For the uninitiated, Credit line on UPI brings all pre-approved bank lines at the point of consumption, i.e. ~30M UPI merchants and 1M+ terminal merchants (carrying ~6M terminals), accessible through any UPI app.

1/ @Stellaris_VP PoV on #B2B #speciality #chemicals #export opportunity from India.

In 1-line: Large market, massive tailwinds, high margins however getting suppliers export-ready and solving for high lead times to acquire buyers are 2 key challenges.

@rchowdhri @rupaligoel9 2/ Let's start with 101 definitions.

Speciality chemical is any chemical which imparts a very specific property to a finished good. Eg. Colour, fragrance, durability.

It's formulation is done working backwards from the desired property required in the finished good.

1/ Thread on our investment thesis in "Payment reward infra".

Thesis in 1-line: There is an opportunity to build pipes (and later on intelligence) between issuers and merchants to enable payment linked rewards at point of sale (PoS).

@Stellaris_VP #fintech #india #infra #BaaS 2/ Definitions first.

Issuer is broadly referred to as any entity like a bank, NBFC or fintech which has issued payments instruments like credit cards, debit cards, pre paid cards, wallets, EMI cards etc.

Merchants could be online or offline, large, mid-sized or small.

1/ Thread on our investment thesis in "in-store credit" market. We like to call it "Offline checkout".

In 1-line, transfer of workflow control in-store from merchant to consumer will unlock the in-store credit market in India.

#offline #checkout #thesis #fintech @Stellaris 2/ To begin with, let's understand the market top-down.

Annual consumer spends on offline merchants are over $1T, of which only a sliver is bought on credit.

Consumer durables and mobiles is the only category where over 25% spends are on credit. Rest categories are all small.

1/ Thread on "what an urban consumer wants" when it comes to offline payments.

Answer in 1-line: a UPI mobile credit-card.

#fintech @Stellaris_VP 2/ Let's list down the various things a consumer looks for while making an offline payment:

(a) Convenience
(b) Rewards
(c) Affordability /Guilt reduction
(d) Status

Wanted to crowdsource from the good folks at Twitter as to where all lies massive under penetration in #insurance in India? What all categories, both existing and new?

Let me quick this off with some obvious ones.
1) retail health = only 35M lives insured as of FY18
more 👇 2) group health = only 100M lives insured as of FY18 (includes employee and his family members he's opted)

3) life = estimates peg penetration at ~25% lives; however claim significant under insurance at ~10% of the desired sum cover

1/ Shopify yesterday announced going permanently remote, for most if not all employees. Twitter has made similar claims. Google, Apple, FB also remote for 2020. I’m still struggling to understand why remote is more efficient in long run. #remote #work #startups #opportunities 2/ I understand that remote could supplement the traditional in-office work. But why should remote be the new default? In what scenarios is remote more efficient? For what job roles has remote proven to be more efficient? What has been the key drivers for trying remote in past?

1/ Thank you everyone for your overwhelming responses on my earlier tweet. Sharing my key findings below.

Below table compares the PnL of DMart vs Spencers Retail vs Future Retail - in FY19.

Commentary on what DMart does well is as follows: 2/ DMart has - by a distance - the highest sales throughput (per sq ft of retail space) in the brick and mortal industry.

They operates at Rs 35K per sq ft. This is 3x of Future Retail. And 2x of Spencers Retail. And 3x of Kirana (though Kirana is not a like to like comparison)

1/ 👇A thread on the much talked about and somewhat controversial ‘founder-market fit’. This thread takes examples of markets to understand market-level nuances, bottom up founder profiles - and makes hypothesis on founder-market fit. #founder #market #fit 2/ Objective is to share these views with the founders and get perspectives from them. Would love you to comment - and keep this thread interactive. Please note that this thread doesn’t talk about non-market specific founder nuances.

1/ 👇Thread on a top-down view of travel in India - revenue pools, margin pools and high level opportunities for tech startups (I know the absolute worst time to talk about travel, but maybe a distraction from the current overflow of Covid19 news). #traveltech 2/ Travel can be seen in 3 buckets: 1) business travel, 2) domestic travel and 3) outbound travel. Let's uncover each of them in this order (a top down lens).

1/ Thread on key gaps and opportunities I see in the blue and grey collar recruitment and staffing industry in India. I believe there is an opportunity to build a ‘vertical focussed’ tech-enabled ‘full stack’ staffing business.
@Stellaris_VP #BlueCollar #staffing #recruitment 2/ Lets start by unpacking India’s workforce. It’s est. that ~40% of India’s population is working i.e. ~500M ppl. Of this, ~230M (46%) are employed in agriculture, either self employed or working in other people’s farms.

1/ 👇Thread on key gaps I see in the Class 8-12 after-school group coaching /tuition market in urban India.
@Stellaris_VP #edtech #india 2/ Let’s start with the market overview first. By various estimates this market is pegged at ~$6B. This market is focussed on preparing students for school exams, board exams and state level entrance exams.

1/ 👇Thread on key gaps I see in the motor insurance industry in India. Summarising the root cause in 1 line: “almost all inefficiencies are because the distribution channel owns the customer, and not the insurer”. 2/ First a quick overview of the market. Motor insurance in India was a ~$8B premium market in FY17-18. Of this, ~$4M came from private car insurance (Car), ~$3B from commercial vehicles (CV) and ~$1B from 2-wheelers (2W).

1/ Thread on the fascinating Credit Card economics ahead of SBI Cards IPO. Quoting someone - “Credit Cards (CC) is in the business of transferring money from poor to the rich.'' 2/ Qn I’ve always wondered: is credit card a payments product? Or is it a rewards product? Or is it a credit product? Or is it a social status signalling product? Or is it all of them? Let’s uncover this.

1/ 👇Thread on gaps I see in the preschool and daycares in India, and opportunities for startups. 2/ It’s estimated that Urban India has ~40M kids in the preschool age group i.e. 1-6yrs resp. Of these, estimates say ~10M kids go to preschool today. On avg they pay ~Rs 20-25K /yr. Thus a ~$3B market. One that’s doubling every 4-5 yrs.

Total outstanding bank deposits (as of 31 Mar'18) ~$1.7T (~70% of GDP)

Total outstanding bank credit (as of 31 Mar'18) ~$1.2T (~50% of GDP)

Credit-to-Deposit ratio ~75%
[with 23.5% to be mandatorily reserved per RBI in form of SLR (19.5%) and CRR (4%)]
#banking #india Split of ~$1.7T deposit by source:

1. Term deposits /FD ~60%

2. Savings Ac ~30%

3. Current Ac ~10%
#banking #india