In a candid conversation with ET BFSI on September 17, 2024, Suresh Sethi, MD & CEO of Protean eGov Technologies Limited, discussed the company’s transformative journey post its public listing, its contributions to India’s evolving Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) space, and the ambitious roadmap for future growth. Below, are key insights from the discussion, highlighting Protean’s strategic initiatives, innovations, and vision for the future.
Q: How is Protean shaping up post-listing, and how are you contributing to the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) development?
A: Protean is at the forefront of building India’s DPI, integrating emerging technologies across taxation, pensions, social security, welfare, and digital identity. We are extending our focus beyond BFSI to sectors like commerce, mobility, agriculture, education, skilling, health and sustainability. Our interoperable network approach is creating digital rails to foster discoverability and efficiency. For instance, we are vertically integrating digital identity solutions and empowering corporates to leverage eKYC, e-Sign, and online PAN validations. With over 17,000 transactions per minute and up to 10 million PAN validations everyday, Protean demonstrates unmatched scalability and reliability.
Q: How does Protean generate revenue and profit given the high transaction volumes?
A: Our core revenue streams include:
- PAN Card Issuance (B2C): Serving individuals directly.
- Pensions (B2C): With a ~97% market share as the Central Record Keeping Agency, this segment is a robust and growing.
- Identity Services (B2B): Providing infrastructure for corporates and fintechs to leverage DPIs like eKYC, authentication, and data-driven solutions.
These segments form over 90% of our revenue. To diversify, we are expanding into emerging areas such as digital commerce (ONDC), Agri-tech and Health-tech. Additionally, our account aggregator license enables us to build applications for digital onboarding and lending, while our cloud initiatives position us for further growth.
Q: What is your revenue model with corporates and BFSI companies?
A: We operate on a B2B model, wherein we provide infrastructure for services like eKYC, charging a market-driven, slab-based fee. Our contracts often involve prepaid fee based on estimated API usage, ensuring flexibility and scalability for our clients.
Q: What is Protean’s roadmap for the next 2-3 years, including investments and new initiatives?
A: Our vision is to transition from a system integrator to a technology service provider with an asset-light model. Investments are focused on two fronts:
- Talent Acquisition: Building expertise in emerging technologies and sector-specific domains.
- Technology Development: Emphasizing open-source and full-stack engineering to ensure scalability and innovation.
We aim to diversify our revenue streams from three core businesses to six or seven over the next few years, with a targeted shift in contribution from a 90/10 split to 70/30. International expansion is a key pillar of this strategy, with active engagements in Africa and Southeast Asia to globalize India’s DPI model.
Q: What are your international expansion plans, and what demand are you seeing?
A: We see significant demand in regions like Africa and Southeast Asia, where governments and multilateral agencies are interested in implementing national identity systems, tax platforms, and welfare solutions. We are actively engaged with over 14 countries to replicate India’s success with DPI and introduce new stacks like Agri-tech.
Q: How are you partnering with and embracing innovations from fintechs?
A: Over the last 28 years, Protean has been one of the cornerstones of Digital India evolution - right from creating population scale e-governance platforms for taxation and social security (Pension CRA) to enabling digital identity through foundational DPIs across Identity, Payments & Data. As part of company’s strategic intent and in line with stated government thrust to create National Open Digital Eco Systems (NODES) across multiple sectors of the economy, Protean has expanded its sector reach to diverse sectors such as eCommerce and Transport (ONDC), Education and Skilling (ONEST), Agriculture (Agristack), Sustainability and CSR (ONUS) & Health (ABDM certified solutions). The foundational digital infrastructure built by Protean enables fintechs and start-ups to innovate, collaborate and build solutions.
In its new avatar, Protean is also building on its existing foundational identity stack (Aadhaar eKYC, Authentication, Online PAN Verification and eSign) to create innovations across Data & Allied Services. The comprehensive Reg-Tech Stack offered by Protean helps financial institutions to reduce risks & time to on-board customers, improve data accuracy and empower them to create seamless digital experiences.
Q: What's your outlook on the Indian fintech landscape over the next 2-3 years?
A: India has emerged as a global hub for fintech innovation, attracting significant international investment. We expect further advancements driven by emerging technologies such as AI and enhancements to DPIs. As digitization deepens and data-sharing ecosystems evolve, data analytics will play an increasingly vital role, fueling exponential growth across the fintech sector.
