Digibank will offer only savings deposits initially, but will expand to include investments and lending in the coming months.
While Gupta, 60, can rightfully bask in the glory he has achieved for his bank in the subcontinent, his peers in foreign banks will have to revisit their India play, especially the local incorporation model, says Raghu Mohan.
In the start-up world, hitting the $1-billion mark, which accords the "Unicorn" tag, is a milestone. Enterprises typically reach the milestone only by series C or series D, or three to four funding rounds later. Zeta achieved it at the first one. On May 25, the six-year-old banking tech firm raised $250 million from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, at a post-money valuation of $1.45 billion. "This is the first time we have raised institutional money," Zeta co-founder Bhavin Turakhia beamed on the conference call. This trajectory is uncommon in start-ups.
Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar, among the richest sportsmen in the country, recalled a time in his life when he did not have money to hire a cab for a ride home from the railway station on his return from Pune after an under-15 cricket game. "I was only 12 years old and was selected to play for the Mumbai under-15 team. I was excited, carried some money and we went to Poona (Pune) to play three matches and it started raining there," Tendulkar said at the launch of 'digibank' initiative of DBS. "When I got my turn, I was out on 4, run-out. I was only 12 and could barely run at a decent pace. I was disappointed and came back to the dressing room crying and after that I did not get another chance to bat," he said. "Because it had rained, we had nothing to do the whole day, except to go out, watch a movie and eat. Without knowing how to spend my money and how to equally pace myself and save money, I finished everything and when I came back to Mumbai by train there was not a penny in my pocket. "I was carrying two big bags, we got off at Dadar station and I had to walk to Shivaji Park because I had no money," Tendulkar recalled, ruing that it was the pre-cell phone era.
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