Reimagining SME banking by innovating digital solutions beyond traditional banking
DBS Bank India announced its partnership with Gofrugal Technologies Pvt. Ltd., a seller-centric platform offering Omnichannel ERP solutions. The company empowers enterprise customers, including micro, small and medium enterprises and retail merchants, to adopt Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and enables them to expand their digital commerce footprint. The partnership furthers DBS Bank India’s commitment to reimagining SME banking through innovation and providing digital solutions beyond traditional banking. It also reaffirms the bank’s focus on serving MSMEs and SMEs profitably while finding new ways to deliver better service.
Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), an initiative by the Government of India, is a platform based on an open protocol that will enable local commerce across mobility, grocery, food order and delivery, hotel booking and travel etc. The government launched ONDC in April as an alternative to global e-commerce giants that currently enjoy the bulk of the market share in India. The platform aims to create new opportunities by offering MSMEs a level playing field. ONDC will further digital penetration in the country and foster innovation, particularly in the start-up ecosystem. ONDC is expected to drive the Gross Merchandise Value of India from 4.5 lakh crore to 7.5 lakh crore. Gofrugal Technologies acts as one of its technology partners and is a front-runner in the field of ERP for onboarding seller apps by digitising their store, inventory, and operations.
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Through this partnership, DBS Bank India is integrating its digital solutions with Gofrugal Technologies to help small businesses catalogue their products quickly and expand their sales channels via ONDC.
Divyesh Dalal, Managing Director & Head – Global Transaction Services, DBS Bank India, said, “India’s burgeoning e-commerce market is expected to reach US$120 billion by 2026, according to a FICCI-Anarock report. With ONDC opening opportunities and levelling the playing field for merchants across cities, the sector has demonstrated tremendous potential to grow in tier 2/3 markets and metro cities. Our partnership with Gofrugal enables us to drive tech-based solutions for merchants desirous of joining the ONDC network, thereby enabling wider participation in the next wave of e-commerce sector growth. A partner like Gofrugal is integral for bringing the ecosystem together and accelerating the time-to-market. We are grateful to our partners and intermediaries, including regulators, who’ve collectively worked towards delivering this innovative solution to the merchants.”
“Gofrugal is excited to partner with DBS Bank India to help SMEs acquire a significant share in the fast-growing digital commerce ecosystem. DBS Bank India is a strong SME enabler, and Gofrugal is the omnichannel ERP of choice for SMEs in India. We expect this partnership to offer significant benefits to SMEs by enriching their customer experience in accessing capital, processing payments and reducing the friction and effort in managing their finances. This will help the proprietors and partners of SME businesses to focus more on market opportunities and serve their customers well. In line with the vision and goal of ONDC, it will truly enable SME businesses to defend their dominant hyper-local position, which offers increasing opportunities to them,” adds Kumar Vembu, CEO of Gofrugal Technologies.
DBS Bank India aims to offer its robust digital platforms and straight-through processing to improve the servicing of loans. It seeks to reimagine the entire customer journey to shorten the lending cycle. Looking ahead, the bank will expand its digital solutions beyond traditional banking, such as loans and cater to the other requirements of SMEs and MSMEs, such as the ability to efficiently handle payments, payroll, cash management, insurance, and third-party products.
DBS Bank India has been enabling impact beyond banking, supporting like-minded ecosystem partners who are motivated to drive positive outcomes in sustainable food and agricultural systems to reduce food waste. Earlier this year, the bank announced its partnership with Stellapps to create greater access to digitisation for dairies while also helping improve financial inclusion.
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DBS Bank India has been proactive in identifying business needs and creating customised banking solutions for large enterprises as well as small and medium businesses to meet their end-to-end requirements. In 2020, the bank introduced a digital and innovative payment solution for the Transport Corporation of India Limited (TCI). It had also partnered with ODeX to introduce ODeX Pay Later Solutions powered by DBS – a hassle-free credit solution for freight forwarders and had launched real-time online tracking for cross-border collections for businesses in India in partnership with SWIFT Global Payments Innovation (gpi).
In line with its vision to support promising start-ups in India, DBS Bank India has joined hands with start-up venture capital fund Anthill Ventures and evangelist network Headstart Network Foundation to launch DBS Business Class foundED in April this year. The bank also announced the launch of a new grant programme to support SMEs looking to kickstart their transition towards becoming more sustainable businesses.
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