Citi targets clients with a ‘digital nexus’, high transaction volumes

Citi, which gained a head start by looking at digital disruptors seven years back when “no bank was thinking about” them, will ensure it maintains its market share in this segment, Ghiawadwala said. While ‘digital’ is the most common identifier, the term covers a vast array of what constitutes the new economy such as e-commerce, fintechs, online travel agencies — “any client that has a digital nexus to it”, she said.

“We bank 45% of the total unicorns in India. While most of these clients are bespoke in nature — each is different. A medtech disruptor is not the same as perhaps a payment company or a fintech. But now that you’ve understood the art of assessing their risk and cash flows, we believe that we will be able to maintain this lead on the street,” she said.

Moreover, with the startup sector seeing a funding winter amid lofty valuations over the last couple of years, owners and founders have recalibrated expectations and trained their sights on improving key operational metrics. Given that the soaring startup valuations that dominated global headlines in 2021 are unlikely to come back for a while, clients have become more patient with some of them viewing the prevailing market conditions as satisfactory enough to launch public offerings.

“We get two types of thought processes with our clients—one where the valuations have gone up sufficiently for them to want to think that now is the time to press the button. We are starting to see some flow of IPOs happening all over the world.”

“Then there are the other clients — they feel like there’s no rush. What they are doing in the meantime with some of the investment money that’s available, is small acquisitions and improving their businesses,” she said.

While customers in other countries look at as drivers of growth, the feedback from local emerging corporates and MSMEs suggests that the more attractive growth driver for that segment is in India itself, given the sheer size, scale and performance of the country's economy, she said.

“I think Indian clients see the cross-border opportunity but actually the more attractive opportunity is India itself. That’s because the consumer base is so big, the economic growth is so attractive,” she said.

Listing out sectors in India that the US banking giant was focusing on, Ghiawadwala picked out businesses that have , such as industrials, auto supply chains, manufacturing, and mobility.

“Any business that has high transaction volume needs, we do well with those. What that means for us is that sectors like industrials, the auto supply chains, manufacturing, some of the emerging clean energy, mobility, these are captured.”

“The other segments include consumer and healthcare. Consumer, because (India has) 1.4 billion people and healthcare, I think globally is a fantastic sector and we see good opportunity in pharma, medical devices, these kinds of players,” she said.