As part of the Digital India movement, we see several initiatives in e-governance that are bound to transform India into a digitally empowered society.
ORF: Technology carries an exponential advantage of low marginal costs and near-infinite scalability. Tell us how Infibeam has used this advantage to expand into a conglomerate today.
Neeru Sharma: Infibeam Avenues offers digital payments and software platforms to enable businesses and governments to transact online in India and abroad. Our asset light business model, highly scalable infrastructure capabilities and transaction-based profitable revenue model has enabled us to significantly enhance business and shareholder value. This is the rare combination where a company offers both a digital payments and software platform.
ORF: Infibeam’s rise coincides with the acceleration of India’s technology ecosystem in the last decade. How did you capitalise on this acceleration and what exciting developments do you foresee (both for India and Infibeam)?
NS: Over the last decade, India has witnessed a wide transformation in the way digital technologies are used to disrupt business operations and influence consumer behaviour. Both B2C and B2B customers across private and public sectors were introduced to the digital way of transacting and, owing to the pace, scale and innovation in the sector, this shift has been widely accepted. It has become the need today. Infibeam has made its mark in the technology space by catering to this need with solutions in specific areas like e-commerce platforms, payment technologies and infrastructure. Today we offer an all-in-one integrated portfolio for customer needs globally.
ORF: Infibeam is involved with the government e-marketplace. How do you view new opportunities in tech-enabled governance initiatives?
NS: As part of the Digital India movement, we see several initiatives in e-governance that are bound to transform India into a digitally empowered society. There will be opportunities in every sector as digital infrastructure is enabled for every citizen for every need. The empowerment of citizens in the digital space will ease usage, and ensure pace, transparency and increased trust for all their government dealings. Financial transactions becoming cashless and digital will lead to increased opportunities and innovation in the fintech space.
ORF: You have donned many hats in your career, both at Infibeam and earlier. What prompted you to do this, and what lessons can you share for people to leverage their technical backgrounds to build their own tech ventures?
NS: I think we are all citizens of a global digital economy today. We need to be aware of what is happening around and what it can lead to. This realisation and exposure led me on my entrepreneurship journey. Technology is a platform-agnostic enabler and a basic need today. The scale in terms of geography or size is unbounded and techpreneurs should realise this. Business insights and market research should carry a global dimension. Also, a tech business idea cannot be a snapshot in time, instead it should be an initiation of a journey of tech innovations over changing business needs for the problem the techpreneur intends to solve.
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