Chennai culture, local talent enable startup innovation: M2P Fintech founder

“We do dhanda and not PR,” said Madhusudanan R, CEO and Co-founder of M2P Fintech, highlighting how local culture and the humble upbringing of fellow co-founders in Chennai have influenced their working style. 

Chennai’s ecosystem approach has pegged it as an attractive destination for both domestic and global banks and financial platforms, according to Madhusudanan.

"If you are building for the ecosystem, there is no better place than Chennai to do it,” he proclaimed at Tamil Nadu Story 2024, YourStory's flagship event spotlighting the state's startup ecosystem.

He further added that one of the key advantages of working with local talent in Chennai is the high passion and commitment they bring to the job, along with building closely-knit teams. Their work ethic enables them to value the outcomes of their work rather than just the financial remuneration, a sentiment which is difficult to find in other hubs, the entrepreneur noted.

This sense of fraternity makes Chennai more inclusive to outsiders, who eventually find the city growing on them. 

When it comes to building a fintech ecosystem out of Chennai, stakeholders find that along with government policy, the supportive network of startup founders and outreach programmes ensure “the help that you can seek and get is far greater in terms of magnitude," said Madhusudanan in a chat with Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory. 

"That is very integral to how the city operates. You can call it the soul of the city. And then it is upon the ecosystem to really build on that," he added.

He further noted that the city is making efforts to position itself as an “equally opportunity-enabled ecosystem” for startups. Companies and founders also need to accelerate their efforts in taking technology to much smaller towns, sidestepping regional and linguistic barriers.

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Madhusudanan outlined M2P Fintech’s plan to transform India into the fintech factory of the world by expanding systems that work here to broader markets.

The company is “currently in about 25 odd markets,” added Madhusudanan. The company last year acquired Goals101 for data-driven personalisation in digital banking to provide real-time contextual intelligence for clients. 

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Regulation and innovation

The banking infrastructure provider is closely monitoring and following the tightening of the regulatory framework for fintech players. The government, market regulators, and the RBI doubling down on non-compliance and other issues may lead to framing more inclusive policies, Madhusudanan hopes.

"What has changed in the last couple of years is that whatever was not written in the regulation was probably a 'yes'. Today, the interpretation is that if it's not written in the regulation, it's a 'no',” he noted. 

This understanding of the policy has prompted many stakeholders to fear that it may impact innovation. “You will be 100% compliant by doing 0% business,” he quipped, calling for a wiggle room for entrepreneurs to test ideas and learn from them in a controlled manner. 

"There's an overarching request from the ecosystem around simplifying regulation...Regulation cannot throttle innovation," he added

M2P Fintech recently partnered with the fraud and identity management platform Bureau to strengthen fraud prevention measures in digital transactions. The company, which counts players including Jupiter, CRED, and Slice among its over 500 fintech clients, was last valued at $546 million as of December 2023, according to Tracxn. It last raised Rs 35 crore in debt from Anicut Capital in April this year.