Digital identity and transactions management solutions firm eMudhra is charting out aggressive growth plans for the domestic and international market. In an interview with ETCIO.COM, V Srinivasan, Founder Chairman, eMudhra explains how the startup is focusing on digital transformation and cybersecurity to drive growth.
For those who might not be familiar with it, please provide an overview of eMudhra.
eMudhra is a technology, digital identity and transaction management company providing solutions which ease financial and statutory needs of consumers.
A digital transformation journey typically focuses on moving all touchpoints between a customer and an enterprise to a fully digital experience. Our digital transformation efforts directly address one critical piece of this journey- elimination of paper at the last mile through the use of digital signatures and solutions that help businesses go paperless. Given our exclusive focus in this space, we have built strong IP’s for authentication and paperless office that are offered to customers at competitive price points.
We have been able to consolidate its market leadership in the digital signature space by rolling out several new solutions that helped businesses completely eliminate paper. We have issued around 15 million digital signature certificates serving more than 35 million customers and have partnered with more than 400 large enterprises and government agencies to help their systems go paperless.
Our solutions are now deployed at over 400 large enterprises to automate workflows with respect to customer, vendor onboarding, eInvoicing for GST, contract management and for several other use cases.
Our major focus verticals are eGovernance and BFSI. In terms of the some of the major clients in eGovernance, we have worked on several large Central Government projects such as GST, MCA, Income Tax. In terms of the some of the state Governments, we continue to work across states to help roll out several mission mode projects. In BFSI, our clients include 45 Banks, 75% of top companies in Financial Services and Capital Markets.
We work with more than 15 state governments as part of their efforts to go paperless under Digital India. We are also now working on several smart city projects to provide security and analytics solutions.
eMudhra started off by issuing digital signatures. But it is now moving beyond authentication solutions to focus on digital transformation and cyber security products? What’s the business rationale behind this transition?
Digital signatures are actually one piece of the puzzle. A digital certificate helps one prove their identity in a legally non-repudiable manner as part of an online transaction or while digitally signing documents. For businesses to go paperless, they must accept the use of digital signatures as part of their online platforms that either authenticate users or allow them to sign documents.
eMudhra’s solutions precisely address this need of the market and helps build a comprehensive digital transaction management platform that eliminates need for paper and ensures that start and end of a transaction is completely digital.
eMudhra has aggressive plans to expand its international operations. How are you chasing growth in in the foreign market?
We are working on expanding our global footprint through a combination of direct market presence and resellers who can take our solution in various markets. Both Africa and Latin America are emerging economies which are looking at adopting digital signatures to mitigate fraud similar to the adoption as a result of Digital India. In these markets, our resellers are local market experts who have deep relationships with their customers.
In 2019, we plan to establish direct market presence in US and Europe given the size and scope of opportunities these markets offer.
We are in the process of setting up our global root which will allow us to issue end user certificates in these geographies.
In Europe, last year eIDAS came into effect which places more emphasis on the use of identity based digital signatures and in US, because of the eSign Act and Paperwork Reduction Act, more are more businesses are now looking at putting in place a digital transaction management system that eliminates paper.
You have an R & D center in Bangalore. What R & D activities is the Bangalore center focused on?
Our business is IP focussed and we continuously innovate in the digital signature and public key infrastructure space to bring new solutions. Both our flagship authentication and paperless office solution are developed here.
We are also working on interoperability of Blockchain platforms with legally valid digital signatures. In IoT, there is a huge need for ensuring security of Smart Devices and we are working on creating a device identity management platform that will allow devices to authenticate themselves and send data securely.
To further our R& D efforts, we are constructing our own campus near the Bangalore airport which can accommodate around 2000 people.
How is eMudhra engaging with the Smart Cities initiative?
eMudhra’s IoT device identity management solution is aimed at securing communication in Smart Cities between various actors through the use of IoT device certificates and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology that not only allow devices to establish identity but allow encryption of communication channels. This helps mitigate the risk of man-in-the-middle attacks and allows only the intended parties to view the original content like video feeds, data from traffic signals and data from other sensors.
The PKI based identity management and authentication system provides provisioning of strong and secure identity governance for devices connected in a network as in the case of Smart Cities.
How are you leveraging Blockchain and IoT for these initiatives?
Blockchain uses digital certificates to sign transaction data so that they cannot be tampered. We are working on the ability to use digital certificates issued by a Certifying Authority on any Blockchain platform so that Blockchain transactions and smart contract become legally binding.
In the context of IoT, our focus is to ensure security in Smart Cities through a device identity management platform that allows provisioning of digital certificates in sensors so that sensors can identify themselves and data channels in smart cities can be made secure.
Going forward, what are the key growth drivers for eMudhra?
Cyber security and paperless transformation as a result of Digital India are big drivers for growth. Digital transformation is all pervasive and gradually we are seeing huge interest in Education, Healthcare and Manufacturing where multiple clients want to move their process paperless.
Our focus is to continue to innovate so that we can win more deals under Digital India and deepen our market penetration. We will look to win meaningful opportunities in select markets in APAC and MEA.
Source – https://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/corporate-news/chairman-v-srinivasan-reveals-the-growth-strategy-of-emudhra/65673500
