At Protean eGov Technologies, product innovation isn’t about chasing hype or building features for the sake of novelty. For Bertram D’Souza, Chief Product and Innovation Officer, it is about identifying growth engines that align with the company’s DNA while solving large-scale, real-world problems. “The likelihood of success is higher when you build on your strengths,” he says. “For us, digital identity is central — and we are creating products on top of existing digital rails to unlock greater value.”
When D’Souza joined Protean over three years ago, the company’s foundation rested on three key businesses — tax services, pension management, and digital identity through Aadhaar integration. Protean had already established itself as one of the first Aadhaar registrars, helping onboard over 10 crore citizens, and had moved into the authentication space, enabling BFSI institutions to verify identities and demographic data at scale. Building on this foundation, D’Souza has shaped a growth strategy along two parallel tracks: the infrastructure layer and the innovation layer.
The infrastructure layer focuses on long-term Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) projects such as Aadhaar-based authentication and eSign services, central KYC revamps, and consent management platforms for regulated sectors, including agriculture. The innovation layer, on the other hand, is about building new B2B and B2B2C products on top of this infrastructure — workflow-based eSign solutions, RegTech platforms, onboarding and verification APIs, and data analytics tools that can serve BFSI, healthcare, agriculture, commerce, and any other sector burdened by heavy paperwork. This multi-sector approach has paid off, with more than 100 new B2B clients onboarded in the last 18 months. Protean is also expanding internationally, having set up a subsidiary in Dubai to tap into opportunities across the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
A key part of D’Souza’s strategy is ensuring that AI is deployed with purpose. “The moment AI is used as a gimmick, adoption suffers. When it solves a problem, people pull it into their workflow,” he notes. Protean’s AI initiatives are designed around specific, high-friction use cases. For its nationwide distribution network, many of whose agents work in rural areas and speak regional dialects, the company is rolling out an “agentic AI” support system that can operate 24/7, interacting with agents via voice or text, mimicking a live human conversation, debugging errors, and offering instant solutions. Human intervention is required only when the AI cannot resolve the issue, which reduces dependency on call centres.
Another example is the eSignPro AI enabled risk screening feature which is being rolled out. Before a customer signs a document, the AI reads and summarizes its key clauses, flagging any that might be one-sided or risky. This is especially critical for protecting rural and first-time digital users who might otherwise sign away rights without fully understanding the terms. Even urban, educated users, D’Souza points out, often scroll to the bottom of lengthy “terms and conditions” and click “accept” without reading. Protean has also embedded AI into its developer onboarding process for the RISE API platform, allowing developers integrating identity and verification APIs to troubleshoot errors in real time, speeding up integration and improving partner self-sufficiency.
Beyond AI, Protean’s work in consent management is becoming increasingly relevant as India prepares for the rollout of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act. The company has already developed secure consent frameworks in highly regulated sectors. A notable example is AgriStack, which connects state-held farmer data with financial institutions by standardising land and crop data formats across states. This allows lenders to assess creditworthiness more accurately, enabling productive farmers to access fairer loan terms. Protean also operates Protean Suraksha — an RBI-licensed Account Aggregator service — which gives citizens more control over their financial data and consent.
All of Protean’s core intellectual property is developed in-house by a tech and AI team spread across Mumbai and Pune. This marks a deliberate shift from its earlier service-oriented DNA to a product IP and SaaS-first model. While the company keeps product ownership internal, it selectively partners with startups that can provide specialised capabilities, integrating these into end-to-end solutions for institutional clients. It also mentors and collaborates with emerging ventures through forums like IIMB’s research cell, with the potential for strategic investments in promising partners.
“Measuring the success of innovation requires a staged approach,” explains D’Souza. In the early stage, the goal is to achieve product–market fit by onboarding the first five to ten customers. The next phase focuses on scaling from 10 to 50 customers and generating meaningful revenue traction. The final stage is achieving a leadership position — being recognised as a challenger brand with a clear right to win in its chosen markets.
This disciplined approach to innovation is reflected in the kind of talent Protean hires. With AI automating many operational tasks, D’Souza stresses that product talent must either bring deep domain expertise in a specific problem area, the ability to uncover unique pain points through research, or the skill to turn these insights into scalable products. In every case, AI fluency is non-negotiable. “It’s like a language now — without it, productivity, quality, and agility all suffer,” he says.
Looking ahead, Protean’s vision is to be recognised both for building “digital roads” — the infrastructure layer — and for creating the “vehicles” that travel on those roads, the innovative, human-first products built on top. The company is exploring the use of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) for secure, verifiable credentials in areas such as travel, employment, and education. All new products are being designed to be conversational and multilingual by default, reflecting India’s linguistic diversity. The aim is to scale AI-powered tools that empower not just end-users, but also the agents and institutions that serve them.
“We want to continue being seen as a company building the future of digital roads for India and global markets, while also creating the vehicles that travel on those roads — products that solve real problems for citizens and enterprises,” D’Souza concludes.
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