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Tag: neobank

  • moneyHOP Success Story – Enhancing the Cross-border Banking Experience

    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 moneyHOP.

    Being India’s Cross-Border Neobank, moneyHOP is enhancing the cross-border banking experience of Indians like never before! An interesting point to note here is – moneyHOP just commenced commercial operations and is already registering a 30% MoM growth in terms of customers.

    moneyHOP is a neobank that provides a cross-border banking experience to people via two products, i.e. HopRemit and HOP app’s multi-currency bank account with international debit+Forex card.

    In this article, learn more about moneyHOP, its founder, business model, funding, how it started, and more.

    moneyHOP – Company Highlights

    Startup Name moneyHOP
    Headquarters Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
    Industry Financial Services
    Founded 2019
    Founder Mayank Goyal
    Total Funding Raised $2.5 million (Jan 2022)
    Website moneyhop.co

    moneyHOP – About
    moneyHOP – Cross Border Industry Details
    moneyHOP – Founder
    moneyHOP – Startup Story
    moneyHOP – Name, Tagline and Logo
    moneyHOP – Product and USP
    moneyHOP – Business Model and Revenue Model
    moneyHOP – Startup Launch and Customer Retention
    moneyHOP – Funding and Investor
    moneyHOP – Achievement and Recognition
    moneyHOP – Challenges Faced
    moneyHOP – Competitors
    moneyHOP – Future Plans

    moneyHOP – About

    moneyHOP is a neobank that provides a cross-border banking experience to Indians via two products, i.e. HOPRemit and HOP app’s multi-currency bank account with international debit+Forex card.

    HOP Remit extends instant, secure, and cost-effective remittance solutions to Indian customers for their outbound needs. On the other hand, the HOP app empowers its customers with a truly globalized banking experience with the ability to save, invest, borrow, and spend via ‘ONE Global Account, ONE Global Card’. It provides multi-currency wallets, charges nearly 0% forex markup, and offers completely paperless currency exchange in an ‘anytime, anywhere’ format. Furthermore, moneyHOP empowers its customers to lock in currency exchange rates for their future needs.

    Mayank Goyal, Founder & CEO of moneyHOP says “Indians are increasingly becoming global citizens. They wish to live and travel abroad. However, the current banking infrastructure is such that it pertains to a sovereign nation. Our core belief is to leverage technology and provide a seamless cross-border banking experience to anyone, anywhere, and anytime”

    moneyHOP – Industry Details

    moneyHOP operates in the cross-border payments and remittance industry. At around $83 billion, India is the world’s largest market for inward remittance flow. The transaction value of global remittances and cross-border payments is expected to rise from $37.15 trillion in 2020 to $39.9 trillion by 2026.

    Also, the Indian fintech market was valued at $50 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow to $150 billion by 2025.

    As moneyHOP commenced operations only a few months ago, it is still at an early stage and the current market share is not significant. Mr. Mayank expects the industry to grow 15 to 20 percent YoY and by 2024, engage about 45 million global travellers, 2 to 3 million Indian outbound students and a $45-50 billion outbound remittance market.

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    moneyHOP – Founder

    Mayank Goyal is the sole founder of moneyHOP. He spearheads all moneyHOP operations.

    Mayank Goyal - Founder and CEO, moneyHOP
    Mayank Goyal – Founder and CEO, moneyHOP

    Mayank Goyal has completed his Bachelor of Engineering, Telecommunications from PES University and his Master of Science, Financial Engineering from Imperial College Business School. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst. He currently serves as the founder and CEO of moneyHOP.

    moneyHOP has three mentors at present including a banking veteran, foreign exchange payments expert, and senior executives from a Big Tech company.

    moneyHOP – Startup Story

    Mr. Mayank reminisces about the inspiration & background story behind moneyHOP. This is what he says – “The inspiration was a lot personal. My parents used to come and visit me in London. They used to get their money exchanged via a local money changer who would charge them a 5%-6% markup over the Inter-bank rate. Once visiting Dehradun, I wanted to remit money from India to the UK and experienced the ordeal myself. It involved heavy paperwork and I had to wait for 5 days to get the transaction done. The customer experience was absolutely terrible. I realized that thousands of people had to go through such ordeals for the lack of a better service. It was then that the idea dawned upon me to address the need gap”

    He spoke with 100 people having diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. His findings were that this market was dominated by PSBs and the process involved heavy paperwork, was branch based and lacked customer experience. Mayank then obtained an FFMC license from the RBI and initiated our discussions with banks and payment processors. After the association with VISA and an AD-I license holder bank, many prototypes were built, tested, and enhanced. It paved the way for HOPRemit, which was launched in January 2021.

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    moneyHOP – Product and USP

    moneyHOP provides a cross-border banking experience to Indians via two products, i.e. HOPRemit and HOP app’s multi-currency bank account with international debit+Forex card.

    Any person can directly log on to www.moneyhop.co or download the HOP app and register in less than 3 minutes! They can then either send cash via HOPRemit or engage in globalized digital banking with the HOP app plus card solution.

    The solution serves the needs of oversea travellers as well as Indian students who wish to send money abroad. It has minimized the turnaround time for this entire process, making it more cost-effective and eliminating the paperwork while adhering to all regulatory norms.

    “This digital remittance experience, near 0% markup on-demand currency exchange along with ‘One Global Account’ & ‘One-Global Card’ as some of our USPs. We think about the product as a cross-border neo-banking platform which enables Indians to ‘Send’ & ‘Spend’, economically and conveniently across the globe.” Mayank added.

    Tools Used by moneyHOP to Run the Startup

    The tools used by moneyHOP to run the startup are Slack, Atlassian, Google Suite, AWS, and HubSpot.

    moneyHOP
    moneyHOP 

    The idea of Mayank was to provide a platform which enables customers to ‘hop’ the money from one place to another and hence the name ‘moneyHOP’. Its tagline is ‘Smarter, Faster, Better.’

    moneyHOP – Business Model and Revenue Model

    moneyHOP has active partnerships with VISA and AD-I license-holder banks. It acquires customers directly via digital marketing channels (B2C) and also through partnerships with universities, education consultants, international schools etc. (B2B2C). The company didn’t directly reveal its revenue model.

    moneyHOP – Startup Launch and Customer Retention

    As recalled by Mayank, the initial days revolved around brainstorming about how to effectively solve the challenge while using minimal resources. The team at moneyHOP also applied for relevant licenses and worked on the back-end technology infrastructure in the meantime. It had a referral program and the first 100 users were achieved through a mix of referrals and digital marketing.

    “Our cost-effectiveness, time-efficiency, paperless nature of transactions, and transparency on top of a good user experience have all proven pivotal in attracting and retaining customers” says Mayank, Founder & CEO, moneyHOP.

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    moneyHOP – Funding and Investor

    moneyHOP has raised a total funding worth $2.5 million.

    Date Round Amount Lead Investors
    Sep 1, 2021 Seed Round ₹91.2M —
    Oct 21, 2020 Non-Equity Assistance — Mass Challenge
    Oct 1, 2019 Pre Seed Round — —

    Please note here that Mass challenge is a non equity investor at moneyHOP.

    moneyHOP – Achievement and Recognition

    • moneyHOP was incubated at IIM Bangalore.
    • It was also the only Indian startup to be a part of the Mass Challenge Boston program.

    moneyHOP – Challenges Faced

    Banking partnership was the biggest teething issue for moneyHOP. Mayank had to constantly visit Mumbai and meet all of the banks. However, they somehow saw him as an outsider. It took him a lot of effort to convince them that “I (Mayank) believe in the India story”. moneyHOP shared its vision with them and explained how powerful it can end up being. The team made the relevance of the product clear with constant efforts, grit, and persistence.

    “Another challenge was more in terms of my own perception. I had never worked in India before. I assumed that the working culture would be similar to the U.K. It was not! It was a different ballgame altogether and I had to constantly tweak the way I interacted with the partners. I also analyzed what were the motivating factors for each individual to get better at it” Mayank added.

    Lastly, Mayank felt that an entirely digital model will work the best. Perhaps, he overemphasized the trust deficit. He now believes that a Phygital model works the best as people need assistance and want to interact with the company, especially in its earlier days.

    moneyHOP – Competitors

    moneyHOP doesn’t have any major competition in the Indian market. However, on a global scale, its top competitors include Airwallex, NiYo, Nium, Fi, Transferwise, and Revolut.

    moneyHOP – Future Plans

    moneyHOP just commenced its commercial operations and is already registering a 30% MoM growth in terms of customers.

    Founder of moneyHOP – Mayank says “The future is bright as the need-gap that we are bridging is enormous and multilayered”

    moneyHOP is working on multiple projects and aims to unveil more offerings for its customers in 1 to 2 years. It is also aggressively expanding its business footprint in India and abroad. moneyHOP plans to launch inward remittances as well as foreign-currency bank accounts.

    FAQs

    Who is the founder of moneyHOP?

    Mayank Goyal is the founder and CEO of moneyHOP.

    What is moneyHOP?

    moneyHOP is a neobank that provides cross-border banking experience to Indians via two products, i.e. HOP Remit and HOP app’s multi-currency bank account with international debit + FX card.

    Who are the competitors of moneyHOP?

    Some of the competitors of moneyHOP include Airwallex, NiYo, Nium, Fi, Transferwise, and more.

    How much funding has been raised by moneyHOP?

    moneyHOP has raised a total of $1.2 million in funding. The last round was raised in September 2021.

  • What is Neobank and How it is Simplifying Banking? The 5 Best Neobanks of India

    The world we live in is called digital for a reason, from Artificial Intelligence to social media; everything is possible because of Technological Advancement. These technologies have created such a way that there is hardly anyone who is not connected to them.

    With new technologies getting invented every day, digital means of payment have become the new normal in this decade. Now, banking is a very significant part of our life. Thanks to banking we are enabled to have our money saved in a bank account and it provides safety to that amount. Plus we get our salary credited there. Not only that, banks also lent money to individuals and businesses.

    A couple of years ago, using a virtual bank seemed like a scene from a sci-fi movie but now, it’s a reality. The definition of payment has changed; with the help of technology transferring money from one account to another is possible through the internet itself. Thus, the way of banking has also changed; we can get the facility of a bank without a requirement of one. In India, Fintech platforms are now setting their eyes on a certain industry and that is called the Neobanks.

    “Banking is Necessary, Banks are Not.”

    ― Bill Gates

    In this article we will find out about the Neobank industry in India and its future, So let’s dive in.

    What Is Neobank?
    Advantages Of Neobanking
    Top 5 Neobanks In India
    Future Of Neobank Industry In India
    FAQ

    What Is Neobank?

    Neobank is a bank that is digital and doesn’t have any branches physically. It is completely online and they entirely focus on providing every facility of a bank like money transfers, financial solutions, and money lending through mobile phones.

    In India, Neobanks doesn’t own bank licenses and hence rely on bank partners for providing banking services to its customers.  

    With the increase in the process of online banking and the acceptance of digital payments, Neobank is becoming a new trend in the country. These new-age banks provide good customer service and are very much customer-centric. Neobanks strive to offer a personalized banking experience to their customers based on analysis of customer data and behavior.

    Being fully digital, Neobanks saves the costs of maintaining physical branches which lets them invest more in enhancing customer experience, and helps them maintain better margins.

    Not just retail customers, Neobanks also has a lot on offer for small and medium businesses. From payment gateways to billing software, Neo Banks helps businesses manage their finances better.

    Advantages Of Neobanking

    People prefer Neobanking for various reasons. Some significant advantages of neo bank are –

    • Creating an account in neobank is much easier than creating a physical bank account. Just following some simple steps one can create their account from anywhere and anytime through their mobile.
    • International payments are possible through neobank card, while a traditional bank debit card doesn’t provide that service initially, we have to request an international debit card for global transactions.
    • Neobanks are user-friendly and are designed to fulfill the demands of the customers. Neobank apps are very easy to use for customers
    • Every transaction made through Neobanks is updated immediately on the app.

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    Top 5 Neobanks In India

    Covid-19 played a huge role in intensifying the digital banking methods amongst the customers. As per Statista, the number of users in the Indian Neobanking segment is expected to grow to 17.11 million by 2026. The increasing popularity has caused an increased number of neobanks in the country.  Currently, there are around 27 neobanks in India. We have listed below the top 5 Neobanks of India.

    InstantPay
    FamPay
    Jupiter
    Open
    Razorpay

    InstantPay

    Instantpay website
    Instantpay website

    It is considered one of the largest neo banking platforms. From small to big businesses and individuals enjoy Instantpay’s neobank service.  Founded by Shailendra Agarwal, this neobank process millions of transaction per day. It is easy to use and can be operated from mobile and the web. Instantpay’s partners are ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, and Yes Bank.

    FamPay

    FamPay Website
    FamPay Website

    This neo banking app is specially made for teenagers. Of course, supervision from their guardians is to be done. Their main aim is to make teenagers empowered and independent by encouraging them to make decisions regarding their spending. Fampay offers a numberless prepaid card that lets teenagers and minors make payments both online and offline.

    This app is founded by Kush Taneja and Sambhav Jain in the year 2019 and is used for basic payment for Zomato, Netflix, Swiggy Amazon, and many more. Its banking partner is IDFC Bank.

    Jupiter

    Jupiter Website
    Jupiter Website

    This neobank service was founded in the year 2019 by Jitendra Gupta and Vishnu Jerome. This neobank provides the customer with an option to monitor their money spending pattern and doesn’t have any hidden fees. It does have a calculator that lets the customers watch on their financial health. Plus it gives out lots of rewards as well. Jupiter’s banking partner is Federal Bank.

    Open

    Open Website
    Open Website

    This neobank helps businesses say goodbye to all those hassles while opening a bank account. This was founded by Ajeesh Axhuthan, Anish Achuthan, Deena Jacon, and Mabel Chacko in the year 2017. Open helps startups and businesses with banking, payments, and accounting. It also gives out a business credit card.

    Razorpay

    Razorpay Website
    Razorpay Website

    Razorpay is the first neobank to enter the club of Unicorn. Razorpay is designed for businesses. It was founded in 2014 by Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar and has served over 10 thousand businesses.  

    Razorpay’s product suite makes accepting, processing, and disbursing payments easy for businesses. Razorpay offers RazorpayX, a service through which registered businesses can not only easily open current accounts, but can also automate bank transfers, get quick access to capital, do payroll automation, share invoices with customers, and pay taxes and also view financial reports from a single dashboard.  Razorpay’s current account gives out features like chequebooks, debit cards, and account statements. Razorpay’s banking partner is RBL Bank.

    However, one can take the Razorpay advantage even if his business is unregistered. Razorpay lets its users access all the payment modes like credit and debit cards, net banking, UPI, and Mobile Wallet. Freelancers, small businesses, and individual service providers can easily collect payment via Razorpay by integrating Razorpay into their website or app. They can also create payment pages, payment links, payment buttons, QR codes, collect recurring payments, make vendor payments, generate invoices and do much more with Razorpay.






    Simplify Business Banking with Razorpay


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    Future Of Neobank Industry In India

    In 2019 Neobanks raised $90 million in India. People are getting more familiar with digital financial services and with all those facilities prefer them over others as well. Although RBI doesn’t provide licenses to virtual banks, they collaborate with physical banks and let the customers use their services. In the last three years, India witnessed a steep rise of neobanks and with the trend, it is only going to rise in the coming years.

    Conclusion

    The world is witnessing a change that is revolutionary, everything is turning digitalized. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the entire world is being ruled by the devices that we carry in our pockets.

    With almost every service available digitally, the tech-savvy generation is indulging themselves in it enthusiastically plus the older generation is being a part of this change.

    Banking, which is one of the most important parts of our lives, is now available without physical branches, thus this boon of technological advancement is making life a lot easier.

    FAQ

    What is neobank?

    A neobank is a virtual bank that operates entirely online from customer onboarding, to availing the simplest banking services.

    Which is the best neobank in India?

    RazorpayX, Fampay, Jupiter and Instantpay are some of the top neobanks in India.

    How many neobanks are available in India?

    There are a total of 27 Neobanks in India.

  • Are Neobanks Really The Future of Banking?

    In this fast-pacing era where really nobody has the time or the interest to walk over to a bank branch to do banking or business, “Neobanks” are a change and, in a good way, but are they really a promising future? Let’s find out.

    What is Neobank?
    Difference Between Neobanks and Traditional Banks
    What Do The Neobanks Offer That Traditional Banks Don’t?
    How Does Neobanks Work?
    Are Neobanks The Future of Banking?
    Pros and Cons of Neobanks
    FAQs

    What is Neobank?

    Neobank
    Neobank

    Neobanks are financial institutions or digital banks that exclusively operate online and do not have any physical branches. Neobanks provide services and products that are not found in traditional banking systems and are also, very efficient. They work either directly with service providers or with already established banks as they don’t have regulatory licenses, in the Indian context. Neobanks are a wide umbrella of financial services such as faster deposits, transfer of payments, credit cards, etc.

    Neobanks had a customer base of around 7.7 million in 2018 and nearly tripled it to 20 million in 2020. In 2019, in India alone, Neobanks raised a big amount of 90 million dollars. And are expected to raise an amount of 394 billion dollars globally by 2026, according to reports of lead squared. Globally there are more than 200 Neobanks and more than 10 in India and the numbers are rapidly increasing.

    In India, the growth of Neobanks are not that fast compared to the growth around the globe, but looking at how vast the Indian Market it can take over by a storm.

    Difference Between Neobanks and Traditional Banks

    • Neobanks mostly press on solving banking issues faced by customers but lack in better overall customer experience.
    • The onboarding process of Neobanks is very simple, paperless, and less time consuming compared to traditional banks.
    • Neobanks are beneficial for small businesses whereas traditional banks prove to be very useful to millennials.

    What Do The Neobanks Offer That Traditional Banks Don’t?

    In the past few years, there’s a lot of change in the finance industry and with the introduction of UPI in India, which recorded over 4 billion transactions in October 2021, and the mobile wallets in the US and Europe we have seen tremendous amounts of transactions digitally.

    Neobanks use innovative new technologies such as AI, Cloud analytics and for their audiences, they are merely an app, unlike the traditional banks which rely on financial products and expand their large network of branches for the customer base.

    Neobanks mostly come in handy to the people who do not have much time to handle the hassles of visiting physical branches and have a busy living. They are way different than other financial institutions in certain ways such as,

    • Reduced timeline of acquiring customers and provide seamless customer services and paperless operations
    • Removing the challenges that are faced in the traditional banking system and thus, providing a brilliant user experience.
    • They have fewer regulations and are easy for customers to set up their accounts and also ensure advanced security and privacy.
    • They provide accounts and money transfers, seamless international payments. They also provide better interest rates than traditional banks because of their fewer costs and easy processes.

    How Does Neobanks Work?

    Neobanks work on the “Banking as a service” module and fix the gap between traditional banks and customer expectations. Banking as a service is an end-to-end process of operation of financial services on the internet and allows digital banks or third parties to connect with banks for better financial and banking services.

    They are completely digital and online as there are no physical branches. Neobanks have modernized platforms that help them collect data of their target audience and based on the data collected they customize their marketing strategies accordingly as a result successfully creating a cohort of customers.

    Are Neobanks The Future of Banking?

    They are changing the face of the Fintech community and one day maybe replace traditional banks but it’s not easy and one can never be sure. Neobanks are mostly like digital banks but remember “mostly”. They are much recognized as companies than banks.

    In India, the RBI still doesn’t allow banks to be 100% digital and have some physical presence. The defining and most important reason for this is and the difference between Neobanks and traditional banks is funding and not forgetting customers’ trust. Traditional banks may find it hard to compete in this tech-savvy world still the legacy can’t be weighed down so easily.

    Pros and Cons of Neobanks

    Pros of Neobanks

    • Adapting technology and no presence of credit base makes them low cost and convenient for the low-salaried customer base.
    • Neobanks are convenient as allow operations through an app from basic banking to investing and other finances.
    • Better services and benefits. Quick processing for loans and speeding other requests by ditching paperwork.

    Cons of Neobanks

    • Limited services compared to traditional banks and less regulated. No physical presence may hinder customers’ trust.
    • Keeping up with technology and advancements in trends.
    • No physical bank branches and In-person assistance access.

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    Conclusion

    Neobanks have emerged as a buzz wave in the fintech community and have been doing great in maintaining their spotlight on a global level and every day more and more businesses and banks are signing up with them. We see a new player everybody whose intention is to simplify financial services and provide additional benefits with them.

    Though it’s going to be hard to revolutionize the whole industry of banking and finance it’s gonna take time and real hard work for tech geeks. As the saying goes, “it’s the little changes that make the most important changes”.

    FAQs

    Are Neobanks banks?

    Neobanks are not banks and do not have a bank charter. Instead, these institutions generally partner with a bank to ensure their products. Before signing up with a neobank, make sure it’s FDIC insured by a partner bank.

    What is Neobank?

    Neobanks are digital banks that do not have any physical branches and provide all financial services to their consumers through apps that can be accessed through a smartphone.

    Is Neobanks secure?

    Money deposited in a neo-banking account is as secure as it would be in a regular bank account in India.

    When did Neobanks start?

    The term neobank has been in use since at least 2016 to describe fintech-based financial providers that were challenging traditional banks.

    Talking about the neobanks in the Indian context, neobanks are not directly regulated by the banking regulator. This is mainly due to the fact that RBI does not grant licenses for operating virtual banks in India.

  • Finin – India’s 1st Full-Fledged Neobank

    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 Finin.

    Suman Gandham was fascinated by the Neobanking wave in Europe. A neobank is a type of digital bank without any branches. Neobanking is completely online, rather than having physical presence at a location.

    Founded in February 2019, Finin is India’s first, full-fledged consumer neobank to go live in the country. Since the launch in December 2020, Finin has seen about 4000 account opens and is looking forward to many in the coming days. One can open Finin Savings account in under 2 minutes with minimum KYC. Finin is a hyper-personalized neobanking platform, made with the purpose to bridge gaps using technology and help people develop a better relationship with money by simplifying antiquated banking services.

    StartupTalky interviewed Suman Gandham (Founder of Finin) to get an idea on the Startup Story of Finin and to have a closer look on Finin Success Story, Funding, Business Model, Startup Idea, Founders, Growth & more…

    Finin – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Finin
    Founders Suman Gandham, Sudheer Maram
    Founded February 2019
    Headquarter Bangalore
    Sector Fintech/Neobank
    Tools used to run the Startup Slack, Notion, Freshdesk, Zoho, Gmail for Business etc
    Website finin.in

    Lets go through the Journey of Finin:

    Finin – About
    Finin – Industry and Target Market
    Finin – Founders and Team
    How Finin Started?
    Finin – Product, Features and How it Works
    Finin – Name, Tagline and Logo
    Finin – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Finin – Startup Launch and Customer Retention
    Finin – Startup Challenges
    Finin – Marketing Campaign
    Finin – Growth
    Finin – Funding and Investors
    Finin – Advisors and Mentors
    Finin – Recognition and Achievements
    Finin – Future Plans
    Finin – FAQs

    Finin – About

    Founded in 2019, Bengaluru based startup Finin is India’s first, full-fledged consumer neobank to go live in the country.

    Finin provides users with a savings account powered by SBM and issues a VISA debit card. Finin helps empower users with Goal driven solutions via converting them into highly savings-driven financial disciplinarians through smart & relevant notifications, hyper-personalized solutions and nudge theorem to guide them into the 50-30-20 rule seamlessly.

    Finin – Industry and Target Market

    Finin is relevant across industries and market sizes and essentially a relevant product for anybody who has a smartphone and uses PFM (Personal Financial Management) or banking apps.

    There is market size of 0.76 Billion, Finin can tap into. Finin started by targeting Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. Its main focus is white collar job holders with a salary range of 30k to 90k per month, freelancers, students and millennials.

    Finin breaks its user base into 3 broad umbrellas –  Spenders, Savers and Borrowers. The aim here is to convert Spenders and Borrowers into Savers and funnel them into the Invest category.

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    Finin – Founders and Team

    Suman Gandham and Sudheer Maram are the Co-founders of Finin

    Finin Founders
    Suman Gandham and Sudheer Maram

    When Suman Gandham, Founder of Finin, came back from Europe with the idea to start a neobank in India, he was already bouncing ideas off of Sudheer Maram, co-founder of Finin who is also from a Financial background.

    They both share an entrepreneurial mindset and are childhood friends. They soon joined hands to start working on Finin in February 2019. Sudheer did a BE in Computer Science from Madras University. He has been heavily involved in the Financial space and worked as a senior analyst with Infosys. He heads Marketing & Operations in Finin while Suman handles the tech, product and business side of the company.

    Finin Team
    Finin founders and team

    The company has 15 employees currently. The work culture is highly motivated, driven and at most times fun.

    “We work and eat together like a family. We celebrate small victories and help each other across departments” – Says Suman Gandham (Founder, Finin)

    The early core team was a well picked list of recommendations from friends and family and the singular motive was to identify those candidates who had a passion for the idea and the appetite to work in a competitive environment.

    Luckily for Finin, the core team is aligned to the vision and mission of the company and are keen followers of the Fintech and product innovation space. Its core team members are from Fintech backgrounds. Most of them have worked in startups where they have helped products go from 0-1 and everybody has a shared affinity for the problem Finin is determined to solve.

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    How Finin Started?

    Suman was a Fintech VC in Barcelona and was fascinated by the neobanking wave that gripped the continent. Having observed some of the most successful neobanks and their inner workings, Suman was clear that a concept like this in india was absolutely essential.

    He was already in conversation with Sudheer Maram, his childhood friend, a fintech space enthusiast and a finance industry person to brainstorm and lay the foundation of the idea. Sudheer, jumped the bandwagon and soon in Feb 2019, the company was founded.

    “A lot of people claim that India is underbanked, however the reality is that it is indeed overbanked. The only loose end is that the solutions offered by most banks are strikingly similar in a manner to say that they lack personalization, apt utilization of data or technological inclusions to make the customer journey seamless and intuitive. The banking infrastructure is indeed a cumbersome and tedious journey. A hyper-personalized neobanking platform like ours is made with the purpose to bridge gaps using technology and help people develop a better relationship with money by simplifying antiquated banking services” Says Suman Gandham, Founder of Finin

    Finin is based out of Bangalore, India and was founded in February 2019. It went live on 2nd December 2019 as the first consumer neobank in India. Finin is an online-only consumer neobanking solution partnered with SBM Bank India. By creating an account, one essentially creates a Finin Savings account and is issued a Visa Signature powered debit card.

    Finin – Product, Features and How it Works

    Finin has created an easy-to-do onboarding sequence that lets a person create a Finin Savings account in under 2 minutes with minimum KYC. Once the SBM powered bank account is created, a VISA Finin debit card is automatically issued and delivered to the user. While the card arrives, the virtual card has a lot of functions which allows for online payments and transactions.

    Further to this, a user has the opportunity to link their other bank accounts to the app to get a rounded view of all transactions and balance in one-app view. This in fact is a very sought after feature as per Finin users.

    The Finin app also gives one the functionality to create monthly budgets, basis which nudge theorem, AI powered analytics and insights are used to send users the save-spend data, recommendations on the best practices, reminders on trial subscription cancellations, bill payments, tracking refunds and even highly personalized notifications such as whether a user must opt in for merchant embedded features like Zomato Gold or Swiggy Super.

    The nudge theorem employs the 50-30-20 rule to guide users effortlessly towards smart financial choices. One can create Goals on the app to practice discipline and allocate a weekly or monthly amount towards this goal. This goal comes with an added feature called Round off transactions feature which when opted for, an extra amount of the users preference is deducted and saved aside for the Goal. This is akin to finding money in your old jeans pocket.

    The main idea of Finin is to convert spenders and borrowers into savers and eventually investors so that they move down the road to financial discipline and further still financial independence.

    Right from a high utility neobanking app offering improved features such as easy transactions, easy card management which includes blocking or unblocking a card at the click of a button or enabling/ disabling contactless payments, international payments, ATM withdrawals and online transaction through the app easily and limitlessly, Finin also offers a suite of wealth management features such as budgeting and goal management. These features come gratis with nudge theorem powered insights and analytics that will not only give one a fullscape view of finances but also guide one into financial planning, discipline and independence.

    Every new concept comes with its fair share of hurdles but nothing that has been difficult to overcome. We have fostered some very meaningful partnerships to align with our vision and offer the best version of the product we intended to create – Says Suman (Founder, Finin)

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    Finin is an acronym for Financial independence and that is how the team arrived at the name. The tagline, a new approach to banking was in fact exactly what the founders were sure to create. The logo is a tiered arrow pointing upwards indicating monetary stability, growth and independence.

    Finin Name meaning
    Finin Logo

    Finin – Business Model and Revenue Model

    Finin is an app-based platform available in iOS and android devices. The founders intently looking at the user behavior and based on the findings, they we will be hashing out a revenue model at a later stage.

    Finin – Startup Launch and Customer Retention

    Finin team have been running a waitlist for a less than a year and nearly 10,000 people were already on the waitlist. So Finin’s beta and first set of customers came from here.

    Finin noticed the largest influx from word of mouth marketing. The Finin team did things right by talking about Finin way before launch and onboarding a waitlist of exclusive early users. This also created noise among Fintech buffs and others in general. Customer retention is purely based on the features already implemented and the future roadmaps.

    “We strive to offer impeccable and quick customer service which also aids with Customer retention” Says Finin Founder

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    Finin – Startup Challenges

    The adoption of a new concept within the Indian population which is so hardwired to use tried and tested banking names, is probably the only challenge in paper. However, the Finin team have been able to navigate through this seamlessly by creating awareness, addressing the problem and solution together and even propagating financial literacy.

    There is a general unawareness of finances and money management across India. Growing up, everybody is told to save but not quite told how. FDs and RDs ruled the roost but the general populace is unaware of smart financial decisions, the right financial terms and jargons and cannot, due to lack of awareness, pick the right options for themselves when it comes to selecting the best financial manager suite.

    Banking institutions lack personalization due to their one-size-fits-all approach. It is also cumbersome to gain a 360 degree view of  financial management and investments through such institutions. Having identified this problem, Finin aims to work as a go-to app for everyone’s money management.

    Finin – Marketing Campaign

    sincThe team at Finin noticed that quirky and relevant campaigns do extremely well. It ran a series called #NoWayHosay on its social media platforms. It also ran a #CashAgainstHumanity contest which really boosted Finin’s traction.

    Finin marketing campaign #CashAgainstHumanity

    Finin – Growth

    Since Finin’s launch in December 2019, it has seen about 4000 account opens and many more are coming on a day on day basis. The product adoption has been excellent as per customer feedback.

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    Finin – Funding and Investors

    Finin raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Series A from Unicorn India Ventures, Point one capital and Astir Ventures and are in the process of going for Series A round.

    Finin’s funding details are as follows-

    Date Amount Series Investors
    July 2020 Undisclosed Pre Series A Unicorn India Ventures, Point one capital, Astir Ventures

    Finin – Advisors and Mentors

    Finin’s Investors are its mentors – Unicorn India Ventures, Point one capital and Astir Ventures

    Finin – Recognition and Achievements

    Finin has been featured across podcasts, media houses, publications and much more through the course of 2020. Some notable ones are Yourstory, Mint, Business Today, CNBC TV18, ET, etc

    Finin – Future Plans

    Finin has a lot of feature roll outs planned in the near future. Mutual funds, investments, lending and credit cards are a few of them.

    Finin – FAQs

    What is Finin?

    Finin is India’s first, full-fledged consumer neobank to go live in the country. Finin provides users with a savings account powered by SBM and issues a VISA debit card.

    Who are Finin Founders?

    Suman Gandham and Sudheer Maram are the Co-founders of Finin

    What is Neobanking?

    A neobank is a type of digital bank without any branches. Neobanking is completely online, rather than having physical presence at a location.

    How much is Finin Funding?

    In July 2020, Finin raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Series A from Unicorn India Ventures, Point one capital and Astir Ventures

    Who are Finin investors?

    Unicorn India Ventures, Point one capital and Astir Ventures

    What is the USP of Finin?

    Finin provides a high utility neobanking app offering improved and personalized features such as easy transactions, card management, wealth management features, budgeting and goal management and more.