 started my journey with handling the country operations for India and then I was handed over the responsibilities to lead Korea as well. Alongside these two countries there are some small countries which roll up to India like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as well which I am looking after. So that's about my role over here. When we speak about ping pong it is like a payment service provider. So when we say payment service provider not on the domestic side but on the export side of things. So we help an exporter get their money back into their bank accounts at a very low rate and at a good time frame. So that's about ping pong. In India we deal with export remittances and outside of India we have other products as well like you know we help in supplier payments to the importers. We have our own wallets also we have a payment gateway which works for the you know D2C brands who have their own website right. So our payment gateways they actually we own the entire life cycle so right from payment reception into the payment gateway to finally the payment being converted into the desired currency and then remittance into the bank account is something that we own entirely. So that's about ping pong. Yeah that's been the journey of ping pong so far. Active into the export businesses so helping the exporters to get their payments is something that we are doing and within the export segment also when we when we started our journey in India in 2019 we had started with e-commerce exports so like companies like eBay and Amazon sellers who used to sell in these platforms used to take payments from us but with our experience and with our experience in the country for some time we quickly understood that the market was very much ready to you know to you know tap into the other segments also not only e-commerce exports but you know traditional exporters also for that matter traditional goods exporters freelancers service exporters so nowadays we are catering to all these segments B2B services and goods freelancers we are expanding our portfolio to some other niche platforms like affiliate marketing also so yeah that's these are the some of the segments which we you know cater to frankly speaking I joined ping pong somewhat late I mean the operations had started in 2019 only in fact 2018 we were busy getting the required licenses from RBI to operate in this country so that's that's been our mantra that wherever we operate we operate after getting the required licenses so from 2018 to 2019 this was a period of getting market ready and from 2019 we started our operations so we started with e-commerce as I said we we didn't know how exactly India is going to perceive a fintech company like us right so we wanted to go with a very stable business and learn the compliance practices product requirements of the country through through a stable platform like Amazon and other e-commerce platforms right so that's how we had started in 2019 and immediately after that you know like 2021 after like I joined we realized that we were already catering to a good you know a good deal of e-commerce customers right and they were our majority segment at that point in time so we realize the need for expansion we realize the need of diversifying ourselves to other segments and that's when we started introducing offline product like offline exports as well so when we say about offline within offline basically all the traditional exporters come and within offline you can in fact count some of the D2C exporters as well like who operate but not through a proper market place but through their own platforms like be it website or through other means so we started venturing into those product categories last year was I mean 2022 and 2021 late end of 2021 was the year of experimentation for us while we were definitely doubling down on our you know other staple categories like e-commerce exports and all we were trying to experiment with these segments as well like freelancers service exporters goods exporters who used to deal outside of a marketplace so it's been a very good journey so far we have been able to work backwards from the requirements of Indian customers and according to that we are coming up with new products to cater to those segments also so very positive if I can say the evolution of ping pong in the last three and half years has been very very positive we are growing at a rate of like until last year we grew at a rate of more than 200% each year on year this year also we are looking for a three-digit growth even though the base is much higher we are buying a three-digit growth so from our operations perspective things have been very positive we are getting you know favorable investments to do in the market in the Indian market and at the same time from market readiness perspective we are being well appreciated by all our partners all the you know the bodies government bodies and all who we work with so yeah I mean that's look things are looking pretty good here yeah sure so what we realized after we started operating here for some time we started realizing that the core product itself may not be enough right because when we speak about the traditional methods of getting the payments in you know it has always been banks you know so and banks have so many things to provide to an exporter is like talk about letter of credit and all the traditional things which really goes a long way in helping a customer's journey right so what we realized was if we stick to our core product which is just helping an exporter to repatriate the funds into the bank account that may not be enough right so we had to we had to experiment with with our value proposition as well at the same time we had to look for different ways of serving our customers right so when we when we talk about the value proposition we started like you would say we probably were the first PSP who introduced the concept of you know building a entire ecosystem for the exporters so like we started introducing you know services like business consulting for the exporters who used to transact with us helping them grow their existing business and helping them venture into the new businesses as well so we came up with new products which which especially deals with those things something like a ping-pong BAP program ping-pong Accelerate program which is nothing but a business consulting for a customer who is already in a certain marketplace to help them grow the business in those existing market places at the same time help them diversify into the new market places as well right so that's something that we started doing we probably I mean we can say it with a lot of pride that this year we have been able to sway a lot of customers from banks and other competitors to ping-pong just because of this additional offering that we are providing and thankfully what we are observing is our competitors are also trying to go the same route that you have to you know you have to expand your overall value proposition for the exporters so that's something that we have been doing we are also experimenting with some of our internal products which can help our customers like you know there is one way of so basically the way ping-pong works is is through the virtual bank accounts that we provide to the customers right and these virtual bank accounts in turn comes from the partner banks that ping-pong has here so those bank accounts are given to the customers and the customers integrate these bank accounts from all the platforms where they expect the payments to come to them right so this was an ongoing model for us but we realized then that in this model there was a lot of hand-holding which was required to help the customers in integrating the bank accounts in the desired platforms and in clearing the funds also when the funds hit ping-pong and all right so we started thinking about ways to solve it and back in 2021 January I think we introduced a new product which goes by the name request payment so request in request payment there is a payment link which is created in the customers dashboard itself and the customers can use that link to you know to upload their invoices and send it to whoever they want to receive the payments from so this is really making lives easier for especially the freelance segment who want to receive like smaller value payments and all right so that's that's another thing that we are doing so basically not just value proposition we are experimenting with the new products also which can cater to the customers then at the same time we are also looking for ways to expand our target segments like I already briefly touched upon that that we had started with e-commerce now we are experimenting with new categories like B2B and B2C goods and services sectors we are catering to the affiliate marketing segment also freelance segment also and with all these new segments that we are adding to our hold there comes a requirement of building the required compliance practices to make sure that nothing wrong is coming through us you know it is getting approved through us so we are getting completely ready with respect to our processes and our approval processes as well to make sure that we do a legit business for all those who are transacting with us so that's that's that's how we are you know growing in this and that's how we are experimenting in Indian context I'll not be in a position to quote any number as such but in terms of percentages I would say that when we had started in 2019 like for the first year or so we must have been like in the e-commerce segment we are our market share was less than 10 percentage and at this point moment while we are speaking in terms of the different PSPs who are in this market we have been able to capture at least 40 percentage of the market share in the e-commerce segment itself and we are going very strong in that respect so yeah that's that's that's that's that's how we are growing I'll not be in a position to quote any number as such but in terms of percentages I would say that when we had started in 2019 like for the first year or so we must have been like in the e-commerce segment we are our market share was less than 10 percentage and at this point moment while we are speaking in terms of the different PSPs who are in this market we have been able to capture at least 40 percentage of the market share in the e-commerce segment itself and we are going very strong in that respect so yeah that's that's that's that's how we are growing and basically whoever is this this increase in the percentage share that I mentioned it is definitely coming from our competitors absolutely absolutely I mean all I can say is India was the fourth country which Pingpong had you know started their operations in like when we speak about the country like global countries so you know we started our operations with us we went to other countries like Vietnam Luxembourg and then we came to India so 2019 till now three and a half years of experience you know in Indian marketplace what we are realizing is we have been able to show the the potential that Indian you know the Indian sellers have here right and at the same time we have been able to prove through the numbers that we are doing so we are as I already mentioned that we are growing by three digit number consistently for the last three and a half years so that's that's been the top reason why the like the company is also investing quite a lot in India it's like with respect to human resources with respect to the different products which Indian team needs right I mean for that matter the product that we mentioned the request payment product that was a genesis of the Indian team itself so we we we felt that there is a need for us to do something to for those who would you know transact in small amount so in that way if like the company is investing in terms of products they are investing in terms of human resources and all the things are growing strength to strength for us at the same time not from company perspective what we are realizing if you see about the overall macroeconomic perspective for India right last year we ended up doing somewhere close to 500 billion dollar plus in terms of exports talk about the different initiatives that the government is taking talk about the tax holidays the government is providing to the exporters and all right so everything has been very positive in the last few years even though we were struggling through COVID period and all in terms of exports there was not a big lull period so as to speak about exports from India so the priorities are well cut out for the government itself also and we are well assisted by by all the government bodies we are working with at the same time we are having strong tie-ups with our partners also who are helping us in introducing to the right people who can make lives easier for our customers so yeah I mean things are looking pretty positive for us if you talk about CVDC I mean in December like December itself it got introduced with four regions in India right at the same time when we talk about the the institutions who are going to immediately adopted they are going to be four banks who are starting with it right one of them being a government bank and the other one are like the most prominent national banks in India if I have to save from banking perspective we are not tied up with any one of these partners who are going to adopt CVDC for now right so of course I mean there are a lot of banks which are which are planned next to adopt this this you know digital repeat when that happens that happens and at that point in time definitely there can be some impact but at the same time another perspective that I wanted to add here was that the the RBI RBI has a regulation that all the third-party payment service providers like us we are not supposed to hold the money into the into our wallet so basically when a customer is looking to receive a payment the money comes into the virtual bank count of ping-pong customers and from there it is automatically withdrawn into the bank account so the other part of that is also true that if the customers are willing to make a payment first of all they need to top up their wallet there they need to talk of the ping-pong wallet but that part is not allowed here right so when we talk about digital repeat where I'm like this is this is a new thing for me also and probably needs to be studied more but all I can I can see is this will be more pertinent to someone who has to make supplier payments for their imports right because they can make the supplier payments through the digital repeat and on through the CBDC but for us we only can support due to the RBI norms we can support only inbound payments where the CBDC is not going to play a role if we look forward by maybe a couple of years more let's say a couple of years down the line in that case there is a possibility that CBDC can be adopted by other countries who we are transacting with like where where are important like where our exporters are receiving the payments from so when that happens then we have to be market ready to you know integrate with the right banks to receive the payments so that's that's how I would want to put it that maybe we need to think it from not from India perspective but from where Indian exporters are receiving the money from right and then we have to be ready in those countries to receive the money into our bank accounts in in in that currency so that could be the way to go for us two to three years our success mantra in the last three and a half years has been probably being patient and understanding our customers needs you know obsessing over our customers that's that's something which is in our DNA and which runs through every one of us who work in ping-pong so that's not going to change for sure and that is going to that is going to be our you can say a torchlight which we would look after to do everything in India be it coming up with new products to make lives easier for our customers for our exporters so we would definitely want to experiment with a few products which are traditional banks are providing to the big customers right or be it lending or be it you know different products which kind of increases the overall cash cycle and all so that's something that we would like to innovate around and as I said our philosophy will be to you know know more about our customers look for ways to get closer to them right look for ways to connect with them and hear from them the different things which might be still a pain point for us even though they might be with ping-pong there is a possibility that there could be a few things which they are not able to reveal to us right so we would look for ways in which we can connect to our customers know about their requirements and then work backwards from there to come up with right products and right processes to make lives easier and to have to make their lives really pleasant with respect to their association with ping-pong so that's something we would look to do at the same time if I can say from finance perspective our goal would definitely be to make a regional Unipon in India in the next couple of years that's something that we are definitely looking up to that we would want to make a regional Unipon in India and if that has to be done then it will definitely you know entail a lot of investments from human resource point of view it will definitely require investments from product point of view to cater to wider segment of customers who can bring in right you know business to ping-pong so these are the things that we are looking forward to with respect to the Indian context in the next couple of years