Ram Shriram, Founder & CEO

Govt. and RBI have made several efforts to promote financial inclusion, but a significant percentage of the population in India still remains unbanked due to lack of last-mile connectivity. Ram Shriram, during his visits to different parts of the country, figured out the need to provide millions of unbanked Indians who do not have the ability to avail basic banking services, government schemes. After deep delve into the market, he narrowed down to a solution that would benefit the unbanked population from the advent of low-cost travel, retail and financial services offerings on the Internet. This is when he launched a platform helping basic banking and govt. services with the intention of taking finance to the deepest pockets of India. Eventually, he started with an NGO and techcompany initially focused on spreading financial awareness and development alternate payment technologies to enable banking on nearby grocery stores and PDS

shops. “We believe that the Internet can change people’s lives – sometimes the Internet needs a little help though to reach out to every corner of India. We have integrated a wide range of services together on a robust transaction platform and built a nation-wide retail partner network,” says Ram.

"Mahagram now has expanded across 17 states with a strong foothold in Western, North and Northeast states"

Mumbai based fintech firm pioneering for the cause of financial inclusion and also a preferred BC (Business Correspondent) to several public & private banks, Mahagram over the years has carved a niche for itself in the market and is known as a tech-driven company focusing on innovative banking & financial technologies to help digitalizing villages. By partnering with banks and financial institutions Mahagram is providing solutions to resolve basic banking services and government schemes through their 20000 established chain of retail outlets called eGram Kendra. The idea is to help poor and needy people with financial, government and banking services through neighbourhood shop owned and managed by the local residents.

The platform helps government, banks and local government bodies with implementing citizen-centric projects in rural India. It offers Aadhar enabled payment services which work as an ATM

used for cash with drawal at places where there are no banks within accessible limits. Also, we have domestic money transfer options that help the labourers from out of the state to send money to their family on an immediate basis. “We also have bill payment services and have secured the rights to the making of new PAN card and duplicate pan card,” he says.

The Success Ladder
Mahagram is indebted to the city of Mumbai which has helped it garner advantages; also securing its top partnerships with top Indian and multinational financial Institutes. “Being based in Mumbai gives us an edge of having the best brains in the industry working with us. The insight and the impetus needed for continuous growth is what the city has given us,” Ram mentions. The company by now has expanded across 17 states with a strong foothold in Western, North and Northeast states.

The Mahagram team has a mission to create the largest distribution network of 4 lakh RBC outlets accessing over 30 million rural and urbanpoorby providing world-class technology, reaching the last mile customer. Ram informs, “We have now started concentrating on making more business partners across the nation so as to reach the deepest pockets of the country. From a modest 600 agents in 2015 to whopping 20000 + retail points at present, we have reached out to over 30 million rural population.”