Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Takeoff.
Investment is all about making your future a better place. It is for the financial security of their capital that one can enjoy in the future. When a person makes an investment, it is to ensure that they get to earn higher returns. Investing in mutual funds goal is not any different.
Mutual funds are a form of investment if people are able to understand it clearly. Now, individuals are able to invest on their own in mutual funds. For non-individuals like businesses, trusts, and others, Takeoff has taken responsibility since 2020. It is India’s first online mutual fund distribution platform for non-individuals.
StartupTalky brings all about Takeoff, the platform, its Startup Story, Founders and Team, Name, Tagline and Logo, Funding and Investors, Business Model and Revenue Model, Challenges, Competitors, Awards and Achievements, and more in the article ahead!
The service that Takeoff mainly provides is mutual fund distribution. The main USP is that the entire process is online and condensed from 30 days to 1 day. Companies can now have the luxury to choose from all the schemes from all the AMCs through an easy-to-access platform. They have 24×7 access and the support team is always just a call away.
Takeoff also provides KYC services for non-individual clients like businesses, trusts, government bodies etc. Gone are the days when one has to send mountains of documents to the AMCs and has to suffer the two months of hassle while their KYC was being processed. The Takeoff team takes only minimal documents and gets the KYC processed within just 7-10 working days.
The mutual fund industry has witnessed a growth of 30.82% from 2020 to 2021 with Rs. 26.07 trillion AUM (Assets under Management) in 2020 to Rs. 34.10 trillion AUM in 2021.
Split of investor accounts:
The total number of investor accounts of Takeoff as of March 21 was 9,78,65,529, from which 7,91,859 (0.81%) is Institutional investor accounts and 9,70,73,670 (99.19%) are Retail and HNI investor accounts.
Split of industry assets:
The Total industry assets of Takeoff as of June 21 is Rs. 34,10,403 crore, from which Retail investor assets is Rs. 18,33,568 crore and Institutional investor accounts are Rs. 15,76,835 crores.
Takeoff – Founders and Team
Prasad R. Lendwe – Founder of Takeoff
Takeoff is founded by Prasad R. Lendwe, an Electrical Engineer. He is an MBA droupout from Kalina University, Mumbai. Apart from being the founder of Takeoff, he runs a Finance based YouTube channel, Convey by Finnovationz as well and has more than 1.8 M Subscribers.
The current size of the Takeoff team is 15-18 members. The work culture in Takeoff is very relaxed and informal. They believe in working hard and playing harder. It basically means, during office hours, one can find them hunched over their laptops. During lunch, however, the team can be found engaging in spirited table tennis tournaments and other games.
Takeoff – Startup Story
Before starting Takeoff, the company was focused on their Youtube channel Convey by FinnovationZ. Through this channel, they were able to spread financial awareness for the past 6 years.
In Jan 2020, they decided to take some of their own advice and tried to invest on behalf of their company. There are some surplus in the current account and the fact that they are earning 0% interest on it bothered them a lot. After using platforms like Zerodha and Groww in the past, it was wrongly assumed that the process would be just as easy.
It was only after the actual process started, they realised how difficult it is in reality. As there was no dedicated platform working towards the mutual fund investment needs of non-individualism, the idea of the formation of Takeoff first came into their mind.
Takeoff – Mission and Vision
Takeoff’s short-term vision is to spread awareness and encourage more non-individuals to begin their mutual fund investment journey. They intend on doing this by providing top-quality service and exploiting their first-mover advantage.
Their long-term vision is to emerge as a complete investment solution for non-individuals and to become a one-stop destination for any kind of investment that companies and other non-individuals want to indulge in.
The core belief is centred on the fact that non-individuals, whether its companies, trusts, proprietors, or any of the others, deserve the same facilities and the same ease that individuals do. In the past few years, thousands of platforms have cropped up for retail investors, but companies have, sadly, been left out. It is Takeoff intention to right this wrong and fixes the imbalance.
Takeoff – Name, Tagline, and Logo
Takeoff logo
Takeoff Fintech Pvt. Ltd. is the officially registered name of the company.
Takeoff is working on a distribution model. The platform is currently free to use for all of their clients and it will always be free to use. Any non-individual can register and open accounts in Takeoff. No amount is charged from the clients. The revenue comes from the AMC (Asset management company). A fixed brokerage amount is paid for each AMC.
Takeoff – Challenges Faced
The lack of awareness among the non-individuals in India that they too can invest in mutual funds on behalf of their organization is the most challenging part of Takeoff. The conversion is not easy from a lead to an active investor, as the company has to explain the whole product and the industry at the same time over a very short span of time to their clients.
Takeoff – Growth
The journey from 0 to 100 Clients
The journey was of severe ups and downs, like a roller coaster. Takeoff got their first client in December 2020 on their beta version and after some infertile months, the platform started gaining recognition, through several marketing campaigns. Currently, they have over 550 registered users and the company is experiencing slow but steady growth, they believe in value over volume.
Customer Retention
Takeoff believes that the best customer retention can be achieved only through superior customer service. Investments are a fairly complicated process, even if one makes it seems as easy as possible, clients will still have doubts. It is very important to make the clients feel as though the company is with them at each step along the way, in case they encounter any kinds of difficulties. This process has helped Takeoff in retaining its clients.
Takeoff – Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns
Takeoff has tried various platforms and a plethora of campaigns to generate leads and convert them to active investors. LinkedIn ads and their own Convey YouTube channel have been proved a constant success for the company. The company is looking forward to more events and other activities so that they can reach out to the target audience and make the platform enriched with the soul vision of the company.
Takeoff – Future Plans
The company is doing quite well. It has started to make a name for itself and is experiencing a steady inflow of clients in future. Both their client base and the AUM have started to increase.
Takeoff is India’s first online mutual fund distribution platform for non-individuals. They help non-individuals like companies, government bodies etc to invest in mutual funds.
Nowadays, people are working for future prosperity, where something you have earned in the present will reflect as a beget in the future; that too something huge in return.
Have you heard of Mutual funds, where a pool of money is collected from many investors to be funded in securities, bonds and other money market instruments? A Mutual fund plays as an investment as well as a company. Mutual funds works, where you as an investor buy a unit of share of a part of the mutual fund say as, portfolio’s value. Therefore, technically, the investor buys partial ownership of the company and its assets.
If the funded amount showed positive returns which highly depends on the securities the investors decided to buy, then the investors receive profit, while in the case of deprivation in the return; vice-versa. The investor of mutual funds earns their returns in three different ways such as- dividends, Capital gain and a hike on the mutual fund’s scheme.
Most prevalent mutual fund schemes in India where investors participate in stock markets in the long run because the return in those markets is comparable high to others.
Sector-specific fund
These mutual funds have high risk in terms of high potential return, where the investors fund their money in specific sector segments such as mining, banking, infrastructure etc.
Index funds
Index mutual funds are a medium risk factor, to those who don’t want any fund manager to manage their returns.
Tax saving funds
These funds are a tax deduction, where these investments have a 3 year lock-in period that plays as tax benefits to the investors.
Debt Funds
These ilk of mutual funds are credit risk, which has a low-risk appetite as well as low outcome. Debt funds are suitable for those investors who are coveting steady income from the fixed investment such as Government bonds or debentures.
Money Market Funds
Investors who are seeking reasonable returns in the investment over a short period of time can enroll into money market funds. Moreover, it has a low-risk factor where the return comes in liquid form so it will be a reasonable return on investments.
Hybrid Funds
It is similar to Balanced funds, despite the proportion of equity assets being juxtaposed to balanced funds. This kind of mutual fund is highly recommended to retired or geriatric who expect low risks.
Balanced Funds
Balanced mutual funds divide the investment between equity and debt mutual funds, where moderate returns with comparatively low risk vary according to the market risks.
Open-ended funds:
Here, the investor can enter, redeem or exit at any point in time because an open-ended mutual fund doesn’t have any fixed maturity period
Close-ended funds
Close-ended funds have a fixed maturity date, so the investors can only enter into the market during the initial period of any mutual funds scheme known as the new fund offer; Furthermore, their investment can be redeemed only when the maturity period expires.
Gilt funds
These mutual funds invest only in Government securities, which has no credit risk associated with their investment but has a high interest risk rate.
Mutual fund value as a part of individual wealth in financial assets
The mutual fund industry in India was established back in the year 1963 at the launch of Unit Trust of India by the Government of India. The first very step to the millennials happened in 1964, where UTI introduced the first mutual fund scheme in India and public sector enterprises likewise SBI, Punjab National Bank, Indian Bank, and Bank of Baroda entered the scheme, which was worth 6,700 Crores at the end of 1988.
After a great heyday in India regarding mutual funds, the industry colluded to open a portal for the private sector and by 1993 onwards India has burgeoned in the Mutual fund Industry.
According to the statistics, it is reported that the Indian mutual fund industry had assets under management of 31.43 trillion as of March 2021 which resulted in a jump of 41% in fiscal 2021.
Recent changes by SEBI in the Mutual Fund Industry in India
In June 2021, some amendments were made to SEBI regulation 1996, where they should comply with those new rules of the mutual funds’ stated by 1st September 2021. The mutual fund is required to share details of risk, performance, outcomes, portfolio to investors only for the scheme they have invested in.
Major Players in the Mutual Fund Industry in India
The money invested in the mutual funds is managed and the schemes are operated as per the regulations of mutual funds by entities registered under the companies act for this specific purpose and they are known as Asset Management Companies. The major AMC offering services in India 2021 are:
Current Condition of the Mutual Fund Industry in India
The Mutual Fund Industry’s Assets Under Management (AUM) saw a rise of 41 per cent in FY 2021. As of 30th June 2021, the AUM was valued at INR 33.67 trillion. In fiscal 2021, the biggest attraction was the corporate bond funds with net inflows of INR 3,299 crore. The highest net outflows of INR 28.923 crore were seen in credit risk funds.
Conclusion
Indian People are big fans of Cricket and the players too. And these cricketers are big fans of Mutual Funds or it seems as they say “mutual funds SAHI HAI!”. The mutual fund industry is rapidly growing and the SAHI HAI campaign that was launched in 2017 has contributed a lot to this growth as people are aware of mutual funds and results in investor education.
The first quarter of FY 21-22 added 12 lakh investors to the fast-growing mutual fund industry in India. As more people learn about the benefits and security provided by mutual funds, the industry is expected to see favorable growth in the coming years.
FAQ
What is the mutual fund industry?
Mutual Fund Industry are the companies that pool money from various investors and invests the money in securities like stocks, bonds and short term debt. A portfolio is the combined holdings of the mutual fund of the company.
What is the total revenue of the Mutual Fund Industry in India?
As of 30 June 2021, the AUM (Assets Under Management) of the Indian mutual fund industry is around INR 33.67 trillion. The AUM of the Indian Mutual fund Industry as of 30 June 2016 was INR 13.81 trillion. The industry has seen a two-fold increase in the span of 5 years.
Who is governing and regulating the mutual fund industry in India?
Mutual funds are primarily regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on a mutual fund is required to provide a guaranteed returns scheme. The Ministry of Finance of India acts as the supervisor of the RBI and SEBI. The mutual funds are regulated by SEBI, RBI, the Companies Act, Indian Trust Act, Stock exchange and the ministry of finance.
Mutual Fund investments are considered as one of the best ways to increase your money in the long run and to beat the inflation rates. This can be a way through which you can achieve financial freedom. With the availability of a lot of mobile applications in the market investing in Mutual Funds has become easier when compared to the days prior.
But choosing the best platform to invest in Mutual funds has become hard as choosing from a wide range of options is a hard process. You can go through this article to choose from the best Mobile Applications available for you to start your Mutual Funds Investment journey.
Groww is a mobile application you can use if you are a beginner in Mutual Fund Investing. The platform provides an interactive and simple user interface. The application offers various resources such as blogs and learning videos that are related to mutual funds to help you in Mutual fund investing in case you are a beginner.
Through the Groww application, you can easily invest in mutual funds at a zero commission rate. The platform provides an easy-to-use interface where you can track all your investments, total returns, and annual returns under one dashboard. You can also create an account easily with a one-step KYC process.
Groww Mobile App
They also have a Mutual Fund SIP calculator this will let you calculate the return on your investments easily and you can even start investing in mutual funds through a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) at a very low price of INR 100.
All your transactions through the platform will be secure as it uses 128-bit SSL encryption. The mobile application is available for both Android and IOS users.
Downloads – 10M+
Playstore Rating – 4.4
Download Size (Android) – 27mb
Paytm Money
Paytm Money Mutual Funds App is one of the best mobile applications in India for Mutual Fund investment. Through this platform, you can get access to various investment ideas from where you can choose according to your requirements.
There are no hidden charges for buying and selling of Mutual Funds through the Paytm Money Mutual Funds App as it is absolutely free of cost.
Paytm money Mobile app
You can open an account in Paytm Money in less than 30 minutes through a paperless KYC process. Opening an account is very simple and it easily makes your account investment-ready as soon as your account is opened and the verification process is completed.
You can track the performance and returns of your investments easily as it has a one-stop solution. You can start investing in Mutual Funds using Paytm Money Mutual Funds App through a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) at a very low price of INR 100.
The app is available for both Android and IOS users.
Downloads – 5M+
Playstore Rating – 4.2
Download Size (Android) – 28mb
ETMONEY
ETMONEY is also considered to be one of the best platforms for Mutual Funds investments in India. It is a mobile application under Times Network. You can easily navigate using this platform and the application is very light.
ETMONEY provides insights about your investment from the application and this can provide a lot of information and improve your Mutual Funds investment process. This is considered as one of the best features provided by the platform.
ETMONEY Mobile App
The platform also offers personal finance strategies after taking into consideration your financial goals and your duties. The app also offers solutions for tax savings for free which will help you save up to INR 46,800.
Through this platform, you can also get access to various financial products such as insurance policies, direct mutual fund investments through SIP’s, Instant loans, etc. The app also lets you transfer money into the platform through various UPI payment apps such as Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, etc.
The Mutual Fund investments through the app are free of cost. The Application is available for both Android and IOS users.
Downloads – 5M+
Playstore Rating – 4.5
Download Size (Android) – 19mb
CashRich
CashRich was one of the earliest apps available for Mutual Fund investments in India. It is the first mobile application to offer a dynamic SIP investment option. This provides much higher returns than the regular SIP.
Opening an account is very easy as it is through a paperless KYC process and the platform lets you open an account in less than 30 minutes. The application provides personalized investment options after taking into consideration your financial obligations and goals.
Cashrich Mobile app
The account you open with CashRich comes as a free account for your entire life with no account opening charges and zero maintenance charges. There are no transaction charges as well.
They provide chat support which is active 24×7. The mobile application is available for both Android and IOS users.
Downloads – 100k+
Playstore Rating – 4.5
Download Size (Android) – 10mb
Scripbox
Scripbox is a mobile application which helps you invest in mutual funds. The platform helps you achieve your financial goals in your life by letting you invest in the best mutual funds available. It is one of the most trusted Finance based mobile application in India.
There is no lock in period for both equity mutual funds and debt mutual funds except for ELSS mutual funds. The platform provides a complete view on the growth of your mutual fund investments. They even provide periodic reviews of their mutual funds which will help you stay updated and analyze the best mutual fund available.
Scripbox Mobile App
Downloads – 1M+
Playstore Rating – 4.5
Download Size (Android) – 18mb
Coin by Zerodha
Zerodha Coin is a platform which is under the largest stockbroker of the country Zerodha. Zerodha coin is also the largest platform which lets you directly invest in Mutual Funds. The platform lets you invest online with zero commission directly from Asset Management companies.
You will have access to unlimited free investments in direct mutual funds.
Coin by Zerodha Mobile app
Downloads – 1M+
Playstore Rating – 4.5
Download Size (Android) – 9.5mb
Kuvera
Kuvera is an online platform which lets you invest in Mutual Funds. The platform runs under the company Arevuk Advisory Services which is a SEBI registered investment advisor.
You can invest in direct mutual funds through the app without any fees or commissions. The platform was introduced in the year 2016. It is a wealth management platform for individual investors.
Kuvera Mobile App
Downloads – 500k+
Playstore Rating – 4.7
Download Size (Android) – 32mb
FAQ
What is meant by mutual funds?
Mutual fund is a company that pools money from many investors and invests the money in securities such as stocks, bonds, and short-term debt.
What are 3 Types of mutual funds?
There are four broad types of mutual funds: Equity (stocks), fixed-income (bonds), money market funds (short-term debt), or both stocks and bonds (balanced or hybrid funds).
What is the 3 day rule in stocks?
The ‘Three Day Rule’ tells investors and stock traders to wait a full three days before buying a stock that has been slammed due to negative news.
Conclusion
Through such mobile applications investment in Mutual funds has become an easier and hassle-free process. Most of the applications mentioned in this article have somewhat similar futures. You can choose any of the platforms according to your choice and start your investment journey.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Goalwise.
Every investment is made with a goal in mind. Be it for buying a house, for children’s education or for going on the world tour that you always wanted. Though we all save money to achieve our goals, due to lack of time or investment related expertise we fail to make the most out of our savings. This is where Goalwise comes into play. Read about Goalwise, founders, business model, funding, challenges and future plans.
Goalwise is a Fintech startup based out of Bangalore, that ensures hassle-free, goal based mutual funds investing. It helps people invest for their financial goals according to their risk profile without them having to worry about asset allocation, mutual fund selection, etc. If you are looking for a good goal based investing website, you can simply visit their website or download the Goalwise app from Google Play Store or App Store to get the best investment options.
Goalwise – Parent Company | Niyo Solutions
On July 28, 2020, The Digital Banking platform Niyo Solutions acquired Goalwise for an undisclosed value. As part of the deal, the founding members of Goalwise will be joining Niyo’s leadership team and operate Niyo Wealth as an independent vertical.
The majority of stakes were picked up by Vinay Bagri (CEO, Co-founder) and Virender Bisht (CTO, Co-founder). This acquisition was intended to align with Niyo’s goal of Building a comprehensive products suite.
“With our combined resources, we will now be able to accelerate our road map for advanced features and inclusion of many more financial products,” said Swapnil Bhaskar, CEO and co-founder of Goalwise.
Mutual Fund Industry Details
According to AMFI data, assets managed by the Indian mutual fund industry have grown from INR 22.71 trillion in March 2018 to INR 24.58 trillion in March 2019. That represents an 8.25% growth.
Again, the Mutual Fund industry had added about 9.13 lacs SIP accounts each month on an average during the FY 2018-19, with an average SIP size of about Rs 3,070 per SIP account.
Goalwise – Founders and Team
Goalwise was founded by Swapnil Bhaskar, Ankur Choudhary and Savitri Bobde in 2016.
Swapnil Bhaskar, Ankur Choudhary and Savitri Bobde
Swapnil Bhaskar is the CEO of Goalwise. He is responsible for spearheading the company’s overall vision and growth and he also heads its Financial Advisory department. Swapnil graduated in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 2007. He is also a SEBI RIA (Registered Investment Advisor) and a NISM certified Retirement Advisor. Prior to establishing Goalwise, he worked as a field engineer at Schlumberger where he worked for 4 years abroad and then as a Manager at the State Bank of India where he worked for 3 years across multiple verticals of retail banking. Additionally, he is also a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB).
Ankur Choudhary is the CIO of Goalwise. He is responsible for creating investment strategies including Mutual Fund selection and asset allocation strategies, while also overseeing the product and content functions. Having graduated from IIT Kanpur with a B. Tech degree in Computer Science and Engineering, Ankur went on to work as an investment strategist at Oxus Investments, New Delhi and then as a Quantitative Researcher (Algo trading) at WorldQuant, Mumbai. Along with possessing outstanding academic credentials, Ankur also holds the distinction of co-authoring a book on a statistical analysis of cricket titled Criconomics.
Savitri Bobdeis the COO and Product lead at Goalwise. She is responsible for overseeing the execution of all initiatives undertaken by the company and guiding the operational processes of all departments. Savitri holds a Masters degree in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in English literature from the esteemed St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. After completing her education, she spearheaded the assessment unit at ASER Center, Pratham where she was involved in designing and implementing large scale assessments across India, including the flagship ASER survey that reaches approximately 600,000 children each year in almost all districts in the country.
The company currently has a team of 20 employees. Every employee is offered ESOPs to make them feel inclusive in the company’s growth.
It was in 2015, Ankur was looking for some good and hassle-free options to invest his money. However, to his disappointment, he did not find any investor friendly platform in India. Though, he noticed that there were some online platforms in the US who were using cutting-edge technology to deliver a fully managed solution to US investors.
Meanwhile, Swapnil was working in the banking sector, where he witnessed rampant mis-selling. The scenario struck the mind of the two youth, and they wanted to do something to make a difference. And finally, one day over a call Ankur and Swapnil decided to start Goalwise with the dream of making hassle-free, transparent, world-class goal-based investing and financial planning accessible to all Indians.
“We did a lot of market research before we started up and found that people connected better with their goals than with just Mutual Funds. Hence we launched Goalwise as a goal-based investing platform. In the market research days, we even promoted our competitor’s platforms within our target audience in order to uncover the objections people had with them. Even today we have a lot of conversations with our customers on a daily basis so that we never operate in a vacuum. We initially started operations from Delhi but then moved to Bangalore because of the tech talent availability (and better weather!).”, said Ankur and Swapnil.
The company had a soft-launch phase from February 2016 to April 2016 to test its product.
Goalwise – Name, Tagline and Logo
Previously, alpahfront.com was the name the company during Market reserach phase as it aligned with its former parent company Alphafront Finserv Pvt Ltd The name was later changed to Goalwise keeping in mind the goal-based approach the company follows.
“As we zeroed in on the concept of goals and financial planning, we came up with a shortlist of a few names like Goalwise, Finmiles for whom the .com domain names were available. We did a quick poll amongst our friends and although Goalwise was not the top choice because it did not sound not money related, we decided to go with it based on our gut feeling. And it seems to have turned out well for us.”, said Ankur Choudhary.
Goalwise Logo
Goalwise – Business Model and Revenue Model
The startup offers its customers a ‘set and forget’ goal-based investing platform that manages all aspects of investing including fund selection, glide path, portfolio re-balancing, target tracking for goals and more.
It is a zero-research-required platform as investors don’t need to bother about selecting or changing funds. All of that is taken care of by the in-built digital advisory. Apart from seamless investment solutions through website and app, Goalwise also facilitates one-on-one personal finance planning led by its team of in-house financial experts.
A personalized investment plan is generated after considering the customer’s age, savings, suitable risk profile, target amount and the time horizon. The plan consists of the amount one would need to invest every month, the Mutual Funds the person should invest in and what the asset allocation (debt and equity) should be.
Goalwise’s advisory engine (GoalSense) continuously monitors the investments to ensure that the investor is on track to achieve the set goal.
“Unlike our competitors that are mostly DIY platforms urging investors to do their own research after bombarding them with conflicting options, Goalwise comes as a respite where zero research is required by the investors.”, said Swapnil Bhaskar.
The startup’s revenue model is straightforward. The company operates as distributors and financial advisors and get a small % fee (known as trail commission) from the Mutual Fund companies where investments are made.
It is a zero commission platform. It does not take any charges from the investors. They also don’t have any transaction charges, account opening or maintenance charges.
One click Portfolio Rebalancing– It helps investors maintain the original desired level of asset allocation, and all the required re-balancing transactions for meeting the customer’s investment goal is done with just a click.
Tax Gain Harvesting– It helps the investors in systematically utilizing the 1 lakh equity LTCG ( Long Term Capital Gain) exemption available every financial year to lower the overall tax liability.
On-track/Off-track goal tracking– It helps the investor keep a track of his goals.
One-on-one financial planning by in-house financial planners- The startup focuses on providing the best investment experience be it via their beautifully designed product or their prompt and knowledgeable customer service.
The mutual fund investments are held directly under the name of the user, and these can be redeemed anytime.
Goalwise – User Acquisition
According to Ankur, marketing was never a priority for the company. The company focused on doing the right thing for its customers. The company acquired its first 100 customers from within friends and family. Soon, Goalwise was able to attract many customers through word of mouth publicity.
The startup was covered in some online publications when they announced their seed funding which gave them more visibility.
Another channel was content – Goalwise publishes content related to personal finance and investments on their blog as well as on other websites, which helped them get in front of more customers.
“If I had to pick one thing that really worked well for us, it has been word of mouth and referrals. Because of the focus on product and service, we are today the best rated Mutual Fund app and we have grown to more than 25,000 sign-ups just by word of mouth.”, said Ankur.
Goalwise has raised seed funding worth $1 Million (around INR 6.8 Crore) in 2016 from HNI. As per the company filings, Mr. Akhilesh Chaudhary was nominated to be the 4th director of the company. Akhilesh is also the founder of quadeye Securities.
Date
Stage
Amount
Investors
May 2016
Seed
$1 million
Mr. Akhilesh Chaudhary and others
We were quite fortunate with the kind of investors we got on board as they have been extremely helpful and supportive throughout the whole journey – Ankur.
Goalwise – Startup Challenges
According to Ankur, one major challenge that Goalwise faced was of bringing the entire KYC process online. KYC for Mutual Funds requires an almost 20-field form, 2-2 documents and in-person verification. This was in 2016 so there was no Aadhaar-based KYC. The team spent a considerable amount of effort in building out the entire KYC process online which included online video recording and were one of the first platforms to provide that.
Besides, some other challenges are the lack of financial awareness and education in Indian society. Overall, Mutual funds are still at a nascent stage in India with only 2% of the population investing in it.
According to Ankur, a lot of efforts are needed by everyone in the industry to make the Indian population more financially educated so that everyone can make better decisions with their money as there are many Indians who still are only limited to investing in gold, real estate, etc.
Some of the competitors of Goalwise in the Indian Industry are, Fundsindia, Scripbox and Zerodha Coin. However, apart from Scripbox, all the others tend to be DIY platforms where the investors are supposed to do their own research.
None of our competitors including Scripbox, provide true end to end goal based investing which includes features like glide path, portfolio rebalancing and goal-tracking.
Apart from that, the company also recently released a Tax Gain Harvesting feature which is the first of its kind in the industry. It takes inspiration from similar platforms outside India like Betterment and Wealthfront as they keep raising the bar in terms of user experience.
Comparison : Goalwise Vs Scripbox Vs Kuvera
Goalwise provides zero-commission Direct Mutual Funds which makes investing with Goalwise completely FREE, Whereas Scripbox provides commission-laden Regular Mutual Funds. Scripbox is one such popular portal which allows users to invest in a pre-selected list of Mutual Funds.
Recognized by LiveMint as one of the top 10 promising brands to watch out for in 2018.
Awarded by prestigious Mutual Fund companies like ICICI Prudential and Reliance as one of their fastest growing online partners for 2017 and 2018.
Goalwise – Growth
Currently, Goalwise has customers across India, and also have NRI investors from Middle East, Singapore and Europe.
Some of the major achievements of are:
40,000 registered users across 450+ cities
over 20,000 app downloads
Highest rated Mutual Fund app on the play store and our combined rating across platforms is about 4.7
Added term insurance to its product portfolio, and is also planning to add health insurance and accident insurance soon.
Goalwise is looking forward to doubling its tech team and tripling its advisory team to efficiently meet the growing demands. The company is expecting to reach a mutual fund AUM of 1000 crores towards the end of 2020.
Goalwise – Partners
It has tied up with several Mutual funds.The mutual funds it has tied up with include Franklin Templeton, ICICI Prudential, Birla Sun Life and Axis Mutual Fund.
Goalwise – Advisor and Mentors
The company was advised by Dexter Capital, which offers services to growth stage companies as well as new-age entrepreneurs in the early stage funding process.
Goalwise – FAQs
Who is Savitri Bobde?
Savitri Bobde is the Co-founder, COO and Product lead at Goalwise.
What is Goalwise Funding till date?
Goalwise has raised seed funding worth $1 Million (around INR 6.8 crore) in 2016 from Mr. Akhilesh Chaudhary and other.
Who is the Parent Organisation of Goalwise?
Niyo Solutions, The Digital Banking Platform.
How is Niyo Solutions connected to Goalwise?
The Digital Banking platform Niyo Solutions acquired Goalwise for an undisclosed valueon July 28, 2020,
Shubham Kumar
