India's Next Fintech Wave: SaaS Fintech-Powered Rewards and Digital Gifting - With Sonia Asher of Paramotor Digital Technology

As fintech enters a new chapter beyond payments, loyalty and digital gifting are gaining momentum. Here, Sonia Asher shares insights on why SaaS is powering the category’s rapid rise.

As India’s digital economy matures, fintech is entering a phase where value is no longer defined only by transaction speed, but by experience, personalisation, and smarter engagement. The rise of UPI transformed payments; now, the next wave is being shaped by loyalty, digital gifting, and spend-linked SaaS ecosystems. Businesses are rethinking how they build long-term customer relationships, reward users, and create frictionless digital experiences that go beyond festive peaks.

One company operating at the centre of this shift is Paramotor Digital Technology, a SaaS-led fintech platform working across loyalty, digital gifting, and enterprise engagement solutions. In a conversation with Sonia Asher, Co-Founder and Director, she shared insights on why this space is rapidly growing and how SaaS-powered loyalty and gifting models are shaping the next phase of India’s fintech evolution.

From Transactions to Experience: A New Consumer Reality

The momentum behind loyalty and rewards isn’t accidental, it’s structural. India’s digital-first behaviour is accelerating faster than many developed markets, fuelled by smartphone adoption, interoperable payment rails, and real-time settlement infrastructure.

According to a joint report by EY and the Retailers Association of India, over 74% of Indian consumers now expect personalised rewards or loyalty benefits from the brands they interact with, a dramatic shift from just a few years ago. Meanwhile, the Indian digital gifting market is growing at over 36-38% CAGR, driven by both enterprise use cases and direct consumer adoption.

“The Indian consumer has changed,” Asher says. “People are no longer just transacting - they want to feel valued, recognised, and rewarded in ways that are personal and meaningful.”

The SaaS Advantage: Why the Category Is Scaling Now

Unlike legacy programs that were fragmented, manual, and difficult to track, SaaS-based loyalty and engagement platforms offer scalability, analytics, and automation. For businesses, that means measurable ROI instead of broad, non-trackable spending.

This is particularly relevant for digital gifting, a category evolving from occasional and ceremonial use to everyday choice-driven value. Digital gift cards are now being used not only for celebrations, but also for employee rewards, customer retention, subscription platforms, field-force incentives, return resolution, and B2B reward automation.

“Software is what enables scale,” Asher explains. “A SaaS model allows organisations to automate engagement, track outcomes, and deliver rewards - at national scale, without operational complexity.”

Why India Is at an Inflection Point

India’s scale presents a unique opportunity: a digital-first population paired with increasingly value-conscious purchasing behaviour. A study by Bain & Co. indicates that Indian customers are 2–3 times more likely to switch brands if they don’t receive meaningful engagement or value-driven reward experiences.

Digital gifting follows a similar pattern. While physical gifting saw stagnation, digital gifting adoption surged, especially post-pandemic, led by corporate programmes, distributed workforces, and rising Gen-Z preference for choice-based rewards.

This momentum aligns closely with India’s fintech backbone. With secure and interoperable payment rails already in place, the next evolution is about how payments create loyalty loops, not just transactions.

The Next Phase of Growth

India’s loyalty and digital gifting ecosystem is now shifting from adoption to intelligence. Three emerging forces are shaping this transformation.

• AI-led personalisation
  Rewards are moving from generic universal offers to behaviour-led recommendation engines that improve redemption and usage.

• Embedded loyalty inside everyday journeys
  Loyalty is shifting from transactional points to strategic value - fuelled by first-party data, AI-driven segmentation, and measurable outcomes such as retention, lifetime value, and repeat usage.

• Sustainable digital gifting replacing physical gifting
  With cost optimisation and environmental responsibility becoming boardroom priorities, enterprises are replacing physical, logistical-heavy gifting with instant, trackable digital alternatives.

“As India moves toward a $1 trillion digital economy, fintech innovation will not just process payments, it will enhance them,” Asher adds. “The future belongs to platforms that make rewards intelligent, seamless, and accessible for every user - not just the urban, digital-native segment.”

A Category Ready for Scale

India’s transition from transactional banking to experience-led finance is clear, and accelerating. With SaaS now powering corporate incentives, digital gifting, and loyalty automation, the market is poised for exponential growth driven by data, scale, and evolving behaviour.

As Asher sums it up:

“This is not just a fintech moment - it’s a behavioural shift. Loyalty and digital gifting are no longer optional add-ons; they are becoming core to how businesses build relationships and how consumers experience value.”