Women are Looking at Alternative Forms of Investments and Tech is Here to Help It is really encouraging to see that more and more women in India are ditching traditional tools of investments and exploring new and more lucrative forms of it

When you think about savings and investments, it's the usual run-of-the-mill ideas that come your way. The usual course is to open a Fixed Deposit account or a Recurring Deposit one and patiently wait for returns to start coming in.

When it comes to women, they have not been very enthusiastic about investments. In fact, they have always been dependent on someone else to manage their investments, if any.

But players in the industry are witnessing a change. More and more women are taking charge of their financial decisions and moving beyond the usual investment routes and looking at P2P lending, mutual funds as options.

Entrepreneur India spoke to experts in the industry about how they have seen a surge in the number of investments from women.

By Women, for Women

Women in their environment have also been noticing a change and like in every other sphere of life, are helping each other out through financial queries too. Tina Pawar, a PR professional, said that within her ecosystem, she has seen a lot of women investing into a host of financial products. "They are curious and want to understand so that they are able to better utilize their money. Technology has been a great enabler in the same, of course, as it gives us access to information and noise," she said and added that a female colleague tinkered with the idea of investing in Bitcoin, just for the experience.

Pawar agrees that women from different walks of life still rely on their fathers or their husbands for investments, but a considerably large number of them are now seen delving into research and taking active interest in financial investments. Pawar herself has invested in a host of financial products like stock markets (which she actually learnt from her mother), mutual funds etc.

No More Traditional

For long, gold was considered an important investment asset, especially for women. But with changing times, gold or real estate are no more the only preferred investment options. Rajat Gandhi, Founder and CEO, Faircent, believes that gone are the days when women investors looked only at traditional tools of investments as part of their financial planning. "These ambitious go-getters are increasingly ditching the traditional tools of savings and investments and exploring the relatively new and more lucrative forms of investments," said Gandhi.

He believes that instead of blocking their money for meagre and slow returns in FDs, women are continuously discovering newer and smarter investment portfolios promising higher returns. At Faircent, 14% of the lenders registered are women and they account for 21% of the total amount disbursed through the platform. "Female lenders on our platform are earning an average NAR of approx. 20% p.a proving that women tend to invest wisely; know how to take calculated risks, can meticulously diversify their investment portfolio across different borrowers and hence, end up enjoying better returns," asserted Gandhi.

Meanwhile, Keerti Kumar Jain, founder and CEO, of Anytime Loan, shared the following statistics from their platform regarding female lenders.

No Dependency, Thanks to Tech

The growing use of technology has also made people more financially independent. The story is no different for women investors who now have a greater access to financial products. Subramanya S V, co-founder and CEO of fisdom, said that due to an increased awareness, women are now looking at a variety of financial products, including mutual funds and insurance products. "On our platform, 35 per cent of the customers are women. The new-age, app-based models have made way for greater penetration and are enabling women to take charge of their finances," he said.

A long-standing belief was that insurance is mainly for men, as insurance secures the future cashflow. But now, financially independent working women are realizing its importance as well and insuring themselves for their future. While the number may not be high, there is a great shift which will eventually lead to higher numbers, believes Subramanya.