Mr. Ravi Gupta is the Founder & CEO of SafexPay having more than 10years of experience in Payment Gateway, Digital wallet, Acquiring & E-commerce industry. SafexPay is an industry leader in payment gateway solutions, white-label payment gateways, white-label Neo-banking Platform, white-label QR Code management tool, Payout API, and Customized payment Solutions.
Here’s what Mr. Ravi has got to say on How to Choose the Right Payment Gateway Provider –
If you’re fixing a web store, one of the foremost important belongings you are going to be trying to find maybe a payment partner. With the proper payment gateway, your customers are going to be ready to pay with no hesitation on your website. But how do you identify the right payment gateway partner?
With the market crammed with many partners, it’ll be difficult to settle on the proper one. In order to choose the correct one, you should do some R&D and consider the below-given points.
9 Factors to Consider While Choosing Payment Gateway Provider
1.Look into location and incorporation details
Most of the time, your payment gateway should be from the same country or location. The significance is also true.
2. What’s the pricing and fees?
Another important step is to understand the fee structure of the corporate. Many of the businesses fall into an equivalent fee structure with a touch variation. Never get lost in the offers of lower fees or discounts, as these could be a catch to attract clients. Ensure that your payment gateway offers a transparent fee structure without any hike.
3. What’s the technology?
Choose a payment partner that’s supported by robust technology. Keep in mind that it shouldn’t only give simple, user-friendly solutions but also protect all transactions from fraud. Payment gateway should also be secure enough to protect your customer data and must have a low processing fee.
4. How good is the support?
Working in an international market involves a lot of risks and issues that can be not good for your business. Hence support is an important factor to be considered and the partner should fix the problems instantly when you face them. The support should be easy, simple, and with no delay and waiting.
Ensure that your payment partner accepts worldwide payments. If you want to grow your business on an international level and get global customers in the future, then you should go with a payment partner which accepts international payments.
6. What are the safety and security features?
A very critical need is to make sure the security and security of your consumers, once they do a web transaction. The majority of the fraud happens when payments are made online. There are many ways and layers of protection and you should ensure that your partner follows the highest level of safety features in order to avoid fraud. Here’s a list of Top 10 Cybersecurity Companies in India.
7. Regular payments
Many payment gateway providers have different policies of payments and settlements. You should make sure that your partner provides a short-term payment and settlement process and you shouldn’t wait too long. Ensure that the value of the transfer and costs charged isn’t high. Check on the wire transfer fee by your partners as some charge a low fee while some ask for a higher fee. Keep the rolling reserves to a minimum.
8. Does it allow invoicing
Go for a payment partner which offers a built-in invoice service. It will make it easier to create instant invoices for the customers and also helps you rely only on one platform.
Ensure your payment partner offers you an in-depth report. Once the business begins, you’d want to review the transaction details and other charges applied while using the gateway. Try to accompany a gateway that gives a far better user experience.
There won’t be a “perfect payment gateway” that fulfills every business. But ensure you go that extra mile in order to get the right partner as a bad choice will cost you lose your money as well as your customers.
In this new Insight series we connect with industry professionals to gain idea on starting and scaling a D2C Brand. It features startup experience, growth hacks, D2C industry highlights and learnings directly from expert!
A little background, D2C brands are companies that built its offering around direct digital marketing channels as opposed to selling through an online marketplace, retailer, or auction site. In D2C (Direct to Customer) business model, any seller/manufacturer willing to sell their products directly to end-customers can set up an online website cum store, or promote the products on various social media platforms eliminating the middleman.
StartupTalky exclusively interviewed Sujata Pawar, Co-founder & CEO of Avni to know her perspectives on D2C Brand & how she and Apurv scaled Avni to over 27 retail stores & served 5,000 women in just 1 year! Founded by wife-husband duo Sujata Pawar and Apurv Agrawal in 2020, Avni provides innovative and eco-friendly menstrual care products.
1.From where did it all begin? It’d be great to walk through the initial journey of Avni.
Sujata Pawar comes with a background in pharmacy. She was already working on a venture when she had an uncomfortable personal experience using commercially available sanitary pads which led to rashes. She started researching the issue and figured that the only reason for the skin troubles she was facing was the chemical-based pads. She got to know that not only were these sanitary napkins causing skin troubles but also affecting the environment and sanitation workers.
When she wanted to opt for a more sustainable alternative, she learned that there were no products that were viable on all these three grounds. Then she decided to address this gap by launching Avni, a menstrual healthcare startup, which is also environment friendly. Over the period, the co-founders realized that sanitary napkins cannot alone replace all the products that cater to menstrual needs as a lot of women use different products that are causing harm. The brand then launched the Avni Ezeepad and Avni cups.
Avni Logo
As an entrepreneur moves ahead, one by one he notices other obstacles too. Along the journey, the co-founders realized that there is less awareness, and more fear due to the lack of reliable support for women when it comes to the choice of products. Thus, the brand launched India’s First 24X7 period helpline accessible via whatsapp/call/sms which will make the transition smooth and help women develop a sustainable period routine. Putting the efforts in the right direction did prove fruitful for the brand. The brand raised INR 65 Lacs in seed funding in April 2021 from WeFounderCircle. All in all, the brand has already reached over 5000 customers.
2. How do you differentiate yourself from other D2C brands in the ecosystem? Highlight the USP, Features & the problems that Avni tends to solve.
Avni has been putting all its efforts towards creating menstrual care products that are skin-friendly, chemical-free, and do not cause any harm to the environment too. While pursuing this ambition, co-founders came across the fact that the traditional methods that women used to follow during periods were way more effective than the current commercially popularized options. For example, cloth-based pads were never harmful, only the use of dirty cotton cloth can cause infection. Digging deeper unfolded the better alternatives and formed the foundation of Avni product line.
Products – Avni Ezeepad, Avni Cloth pad, Avni Menstrual Cup
3. The pandemic has posed its own challenges & opportunities. We are intrigued to know how it impacted the D2C industry in general and Avni in particular?
The pandemic did impact all the industries and activities. However, we maintain availability on most of the eCommerce platforms including – Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, 1mg, Qtrove, Shycart, Vayas Sakhi, Upciclo, ThePinkBox etc. However, what intrigued us more during the pandemic was that even the lesser privileged face this monthly cycle and the challenge of unavailability of the products. In order to address the same, we tied up with local NGOs in different regions across the country and ran a drive to educate them and provide the young girls, and underprivileged women with the Avni product kits. Each of the product kits could easily cover their periods for over 4 years.
4. What are the offline & online marketing strategies adopted by Avni? How do you ensure that your D2C brand is known across the nook & corner of the target market?
As we are in a space which is sensitive and has taboos associated with it, we are working on increasing the awareness regarding best menstrual health practices. We conduct live interview sessions with experts from this field who share their views, their experience which could be useful women & girls across ages. As we started during Covid times, we only had online channel at our exposure. One thing that worked in our favor was that ours is an essential commodity. To have reached to various customers, we listed our products in the most common and trusted online platforms in India. We are now present on Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal,1 mg, Qtrove, Shycart, Vayas Sakhi, Upciclo, ThePinkBox with presence in few more platforms expected to be completed in the next month.
5. Amongst 1000s of companies in the D2C domain, how did you evolve Avni’s brand identity & create brand loyalty amongst customers?
With information overload these days due to accessibility of internet, everyone is confused on the correctness or authenticity of source. Since our founders are from healthcare background, we wanted to ensure that information passed on by us if authentic and from a verified source. Once we are able to help customers with right set of information, trusts start building which results in long lasting customer loyalty.
6. How does Avni’s supply chain model add value to the company? What does the process look like?
All our products are developed in-house and Made in India, in line with our honorable Prime Minister’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat. All our products are manufactured as per our raw material and final product specifications. Once a customer places order, the order is dispatched from our central warehouse after quality checks and customized packaging. With a robust supply chain, we are able to cater to almost 29000 pin codes. Our customers receive emails messages at each and every stage of orders processing, right from order receipt, completion of packaging, pick up of order by courier partners from warehouse till delivery. Our customers also receive phone call if their delivery is missed to reschedule the delivery. This gives our customer visibility of their order status in a transparent manner.
7. How do you ensure a higher degree of personalization/uniqueness in your product range? Are prospective customers surveyed? Is your R&D strong? How do you stay on top of new technologies & changing customer habits?
We introduced our products with the option of customization for customers. Any customer who visits our website, can order Avni Ezeepad pack of 12 based on their preference from available 3 most commonly used sizes. This ensures customer to buy as per their needs. We are constantly in communication with our customers with our helpline number. We communicate with almost 1500 customers every month via our helpline taking their feedback and views on the products and sharing information available with us. These inputs along with our panel of experts are continuously working on developing new products, bringing in changes in the existing product to improve customer experience and interactions with Avni
8. What metrics do you analyze to compare your performance from that of your competitors & previous periods?
For us, the simplest way to analyze our performance in the track to growth is new customers every month and the number of repeat customers. More than 5000 customers and a repeat percentage of almost 30%, gives us motivation to keep on creating much better product and experience.
9. It’d be great if you could share any Advice/expert’s opinion/findings on the D2C ecosystem in India. And what do you think is the future of this industry? What should the budding entrepreneurs have a look out for?
D2C space in India is evolving at a fast pace. Internet has been a boon for this industry and consumers are now well aware and well read about products, the options they have and pros & cons. India has witnessed huge growth in customers shopping online. This has given all start-ups like us to showcase products across wider set of audiences without much hassle. There is a huge scope to introduce new concepts and products in the Indian market. In our opinion, all budding entrepreneurs should just grab the opportunity as any time is right time to start.
In this new Startup Insight series we connect with industry professionals to know ‘How did they do it’ – features startup experience and learning from professionals who have done a particular thing in a startup!
Let’s see what Mr. Nityanand Sharma, Founder & CEO of Simpl has got to say on ‘How BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) is Transforming Customer Purchasing Behavior‘
Simpl provides the convenience of an online khata connected to 5000+ merchants. Simpl works on BNPL mechanism – ‘Buy anything on the internet with 1 tap. Pay later.’
BNPL, with its convenient credit purchases and interest-free credit period, is playing a pivotal role in transforming consumer buying patterns. This stands reflected in the surging popularity of BNPL as a payment mode. According to a 2021 Global Payments Report by FIS, BNPL outpaced other payment modes in the high-growth e-commerce and online shopping space in India and is expected to command a 9% market share by 2024, with a 53% CAGR, up from the 3% share in 2020. India’s consumerism-oriented middle class, driven by purchasing power and aspirational purchases are fueling the growth of BNPL, which aims to deliver a digital credit experience to 400 Mn Indians who fall outside the net of the organized credit card financial system.
How BNPL is Revamping India’s traditional Khata system?
BNPL has brought to the fore an age-old tradition often practiced informally by retail shops in India i.e. taking nagad payment from relatively new customers and allowing udhaar purchases for creditworthy customers. All of the transactions were rooted in trust with the shopkeeper sharing strong relationships with a close-knit circle of customers, often residing in nearby locations.
BNPL has resulted in the reimagining of an existing concept that Indians are already familiar with. Further, with merchants less inclined to offer cash on delivery given the thrust on the cashless digital economy, there is a perceptible mindset shift in the buyers. Seeing the growing buyer interest, BNPL is now available across merchant categories- essentials, staples, groceries, medicines, apparel and clothing, electronics, and beyond. The diversification has further encouraged higher usage levels and reinforced BNPL as a viable alternative to other mainstream payment modes.
Nityanand Sharma – Founder & CEO, Simpl
How BNPL is driving a data to value transformation?
As a product, owing to its ease of use and easy to integrate functionality, BNPL is inherently customer-centric and merchant-friendly. By leveraging cutting-edge tools like AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML-based credit decisioning, BNPL is enabling faster transactions with almost instantaneous credit-line approval for purchases at the time of checkout. Through better information about customer credit history and purchase patterns based on predictive models, the BNPL model has accelerated the trust-building process between merchants and buyers. With the pandemic throwing a spanner in the budget of many households, the option to split the purchases bill across time in a convenient manner has eased the financial burden for many. Buyers are able to avail improved liquidity towards purchases without the need to worry about upfront funds outlay.
A key factor that works to the advantage of BNPL is the relatively small ticket size of the credit limit available. Thus, the repayment amount is affordable and does not feel like an ‘EMI’ with an attached high-value tag. While EMIs are based on the principle of breaking up a large-sized payment into smaller monthly payments with interest, BNPL is a convenience offered to loyal and trusted buyers of merchants with an interest-free credit period. The low amount size relatively reduces the credit risk and default uncertainty compared to a credit card with a higher credit limit. It has been observed that the buyer propensity to spend is enhanced with BNPL owing to the mere 2 clicks transaction completion process. A study reveals that with BNPL, the basket size has grown in most transactions:
What is the need of BNPL?
India’s young demographic profile, comprising millennials, prefer a prompt and seamless purchase experience. Further, most of these buyers are inclined towards buying on online platforms and making payments through digital modes that are completed within a few seconds. Another notable trend is the moving away from traditional credit facilities that involve a long-drawn and cumbersome approval process. A credit card is often positioned as an alternative to BNPL. However, out of 900 Mn banking customers, it is estimated that only about 3% use credit cards attributable to the high charges and exorbitant interest rates associated with plastic money. It is expected that a high percent of the bank customer pool would be open to using BNPL, given its almost instantaneous credit approval and zero-friction payment experience.
The payment happens via a 1-click checkout option – No OTP, no CVV, No net banking. The final Bill can be cleared via any mode of payment, but BNPL purchases don’t require OTPs. This is one of Simpl’s USPs
Concluding thoughts of Mr. Nityanand Sharma
The universal goals of every digital payment mode are to ensure prompt transaction completion for merchants and deliver superior payment experiences for customers. BNPL achieves all of this and much more. Armed with a comprehensive database of customer purchases, buying patterns and payment records, BNPL can aid merchants with actionable customer insights for business strategies, give a fillip to digital-led purchase volumes and reduce overall payments fraud risk in the digital payments ecosystem.
In this new Insight series we connect with industry professionals to gain idea on starting and scaling a D2C Brand. It features startup experience, growth hacks, D2C industry highlights and learnings directly from expert!
A little background, D2C brands are companies that built its offering around direct digital marketing channels as opposed to selling through an online marketplace, retailer, or auction site. D2C business model in India eliminates middlemen to reach the end consumers and thus saves costs spent on distribution.
StartupTalky exclusively interviewed Dr. Himanshu Gandhi, Co-Founder and CEO of Mother Sparshto know his perspectives on D2C Brand & how he scaled Mother Sparsh from INR 10 lakhs investment to achieving an annual turnover of approximately INR 22 crore in FY20. Mother Sparsh is an innovative eco-friendly baby & mother care brand focused on delivering a holistic experience to the mothers and babies with their natural, eco-friendly, biodegradable, paraben-free and chemical-free product offerings.
Let’s see what Dr. Himanshu Gandhi, Co-Founder and CEO of Mother Sparsh has got to say –
1.From where did it all begin? It’d be great to walk through the initial journey of the company from ideation, team building to launch, funding, revenue & growth.
The inception of Mother Sparsh happened after my marriage with Rishu Gandhi, who happens to be the co-founder of the company. Prior to our entrepreneurial journey, I was a government officer while Rishu was a Java Developer at Infosys. After our marriage, we discovered our shared zeal to identify and fill the gaps in the baby and mother care segment.
We got into rigorous Research & Development (R&D), which was inclined towards recognizing the specific personal care needs of babies as well as mothers, and evaluating it in lieu of the gaps in the market. Therefore, our relentless endeavor to fill the gaps in the segment by working on a need-based proposition led to the birth of Mother Sparsh in 2016. We started with a seed funding of nearly INR 10 lakh, which was used in R&D and development of our first few products. We were able to break even in FY ’20 and went on to close the previous financial year with revenue of nearly INR 22 crore.
2. How do you differentiate yourself from other D2C brands in the ecosystem? Highlight the USP, Features & the problems that your brand tends to solve.
There are several D2C brands in the personal care segment, but the same does not stand true in the case of baby and mom care brands in India. Even if there are a few, they are mostly the ones with product portfolios laden with harmful chemicals and toxins. We are probably the only Indian nature-based baby and mom care brand that caters directly to the end consumers with its wide range of innovative products. For instance, we were the first D2C brand in India to introduce 99% Pure Water unscented biodegradable baby wipes that are good not just for the sensitive skin of the little ones but for the environment as well.
As mentioned earlier, our USP is that we bring the power of nature-based ingredients and Ayurvedic herbs in the most unadulterated manner, in a form that suits the modern lifestyle of millennial moms as well as their babies. While working on a need-based proposition, we have introduced products like Dashmoola Hair Lep, which new moms can use to deal with all kinds of post-pregnancy hair and scalp related troubles. Over past few years, we have fulfilled our commitment to solve or personal care woes of moms and babies with solutions that originate from mother nature.
3. The pandemic has posed its own challenges and opportunities. We are intrigued to know how it impacted the D2C industry in general and your company in particular? What strategies, plans etc., did you adopt and where do you stand at present?
The pandemic has brought about a significant change in the buying pattern of the consumers, with the trend now being more inclined towards online buying. This stands true for the consumers based in metro cities and those based in tier-2 cities. Further, for D2C brands, the consumers are much more willing to adapt and evolve to purchase products directly from the official brand website. This has been enabled by the increased assurances that the consumers have gained with regard to buying products and merchandise from the brand website.
For D2C brand, the marketing strategies were focused to increase the website sales and the marketing orientation has changed towards website. Moreover, the brand has worked and developed a loyalty & good customer retention programs. For example, we have curated a specific set of offers for our website to help retain our customers.
We observed a significant increase in the traffic during the pandemic which also helped us to make a change in our marketing orientation and eventually we had invested a decent amount on our website to get the traffic along with the specific set of offers for customers.
4. Target-based marketing is the craze these days! What are the offline & online marketing strategies adopted by your brand? How do you ensure that your brand is known across the nook & corner of your target market?
Mother Sparsh has always tried to work towards baby-mom specific set of products and bring innovation through its merchandise. In terms of reaching to our target audience, Mother Sparsh worked for better penetration via hospital sampling amongst premium hospitals across PAN India, catering specifically to expecting mothers during the early phase of pregnancy. We have effectively worked in this manner to achieve success and the brand continues to working on the sampling mechanism this year as well.
Besides, the brand campaign designed is ensured to serve with the right set of communication for reaching out to the influencers. As per the feedback fromvarious mothers, we have witnessed a big concern over hair fall in the post-pregnancy stages. So while making the effort of understanding the consumer need and bringing innovation as a factor, we launched Ayurvedic Dashmool Hair Lep.
Also, we ensured a wider outreach via various campaigns on Instagram and Facebook groups & mom communities so as to reach every nook & corner of our target market.
5. Amongst thousands of companies in the D2C domain, how did you evolve your brand identity and create brand loyalty amongst your customers? How do you control the 4P’s (Price, Place, Promotion, Product) of your brand.
In India, the culture of buying products via D2C companies is evolving at a very nice pace and is currently in a dynamic phase in our country. For Mother Sparsh, the key for creating a brand identity has always been its offering. In terms of our efforts, we have managed to provide India’s first water based wipes which is eco-friendly. The brand has maintained its ethos and launched products on Need-based Proposition and throughout worked to evolve the market.
The journey of Mother Sparsh has evolved with bringing innovation from its products, whether it be India’s first water-based wipes or After-bite solution for babies, which is very unique and one of its own kind of curative action.
As mentioned earlier, the brand recently launched Ayurvedic Dashmool Hair Lep, specifically curated product for hair-fall for post-pregnancy. The concept of this product was introduced from home remedy which is positioned against chemically made gel/crème based products available in the market.
With regard to controlling the 4 Ps of Marketing Mix –
For products we strive towards innovation and need-based positioning
For pricing we work on a valued pricing mechanism.
For place, we cater to aspirational consumers hailing from middle to higher income group, and
As far as promotion is concerned, we have relied majorly on brand website offers, hospital sampling and top e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Firstcry etc.
6. How does your supply chain model add value to the company’s process? From product development, making the prospective customer aware of the product to order placement, distribution & post sale services, what does the process look like?
The brand inherits a culture of R&D and quality driven products, therefore, the value of pursuing or products starts from deep dive market research. Also, we incorporate the feedback of consumers (mothers) about the need and requirement for their wellbeing.With this extensive study, comes the quality work of our R&D team to understand and recommend the most suitable offerings in sync with the ethos of innovation of the organization.
While different types of media vehicles are leveraged, we enable effective communication by inking associations with various influencers on social media as well as tools like Facebook ads, google ads and print ads.
With every effort of launch, we are always willing to provide the feedback to our team members so as to continuously work on our offerings which eventually helps us to evaluate and create future path for new development and process enhancement.
7. Product Differentiation is the key! How do you ensure a higher degree of personalization/uniqueness in your product range? Are prospective customers surveyed? Is feedback mechanism reliable? Or any other strategy? Is your R&D strong?How do you stay on top of new technologies and changing customer habits?
The uniqueness of our product range comes from the fact that we provide expertly crafted nature-oriented solutions in the form of ready baby products. The brand inherits a culture of R&D and quality driven products. The journey of Mother Sparsh has evolved with bringing innovation from its products and inheriting the values of innovation. We stay on the top of the things majorly by motivating our R&D team to attend webinars and encourage them to widen their area of study.
8. What metrics do you analyze to compare your performance from that of your competitors & previous periods? (E.g. conversion rate, unique customer, visitors rate etc., ) Real-life case studies/metrics information would be much appreciated.
Mother Sparsh’s offerings for the niche nature-based baby and mom care market have no competition as such with any other brand. This is primarily because most baby and mom care brands thrive on chemicals and toxins rather than nature-oriented ingredients. More or less, the way we serve our consumers is different where we indulge in consolidating our understandings about home remedies & natural remedies to develop new products.
9. It’s be great if you could share any Advice/expert’s opinion/findings on the D2C ecosystem in India. And what do you think is the future of this industry? What should the budding entrepreneurs have a look out for?
D2C undoubtedly is the future in the market. But as a founder, we are concerned about the quality parameters which we feel should be enhanced so as to give value to the end consumer. It is also imperative that any entrepreneur who introduces new products in the market must ensure that while they are conducive to the needs of the consumers, they should not leave any harmful after effect on the environment.
The idea behind the endeavors of any budding entrepreneur should be to thrive on eco-friendly and organic product range that leads to holistic wellbeing of both individuals and environment.
RHA Technologies is India’s unique IT consulting and technology partner to SMEs, and startups. RHA Technologies provides empathetic and synergistic technology solutions and services to help organizations to realize and strengthen their innovation, differentiation, valuation, and market offering by designing, developing, and implementing successful digital transformation and adoption journey.
RHA Technologies built deep tech SaaS products and platforms by combining technical and vertical domain expertise to help businesses accelerate and leverage both core and disruptive technologies like analytics and cloud (SMAC), blockchain, AI/ML, IoT, to deliver end to end smart solutions and services to businesses across industries.
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Arun Meena (Founder & CEO of RHA Technologies), a stalwart from the field of deep expertise in the tech services industry.
1. Do give us an insight into the backdrop of a startup – like its operations, business model, revenue model & growth hacks. Also, highlight these metrics about RHA Technologies
An HBR study showed that companies that are equipped with both business and technical skills are disproportionately more likely to introduce new-to-the market innovations than firms that have only one of these skills. Thus, Tech Co-founder is one of the most critical and difficult elements to integrate in the founding structure of Start-ups. They provide a unique set of commitment, experience, vision, relationship, and skills inputs that cannot be trusted or expected from a CTO. Many of the technology competitive issues that non-tech founders struggle with, become springboards with the presence of a trusted and qualified tech co-founder. The result is better valuation, easier funding, and faster business success. RHA Technologies brings this advantage to all start-ups and SMEs.
RHA Technologies thus for the first time in India enables the unique trust dependent outsourced tech co-founder offering for Start-ups and SMEs. In addition, the organisation also offers the traditional model of outsourced product development to MNCs and start-ups.
Our technology consulting, digital transformation, and technology services and solutions for the founders of start-ups and SMEs are rooted in empathy and synergy. This enables the client organisations to realize and strengthen their innovation, differentiation, valuation, and market offering and is the unique edge provided by RHA Technologies.
Our customer centricity and domain expertise enabled us to secure an MNC client along with two start-ups as outsourced tech cofounder / CTO in the first 3 months itself. The organisation has since created rapid momentum despite the pandemic. The initial small team of passionate technologists, has within a year, transformed itself in to seventy strong professionals with expertise across wide spectrum of technologies. The organizational value system has enabled a larger client base and more importantly further strengthened our customer centricity in our phase of rapid expansion.
RHA Technologies Logo
2. We would love to know about the financial numbers of RHA Technologies including revenue, YoY growth, profit, valuation, funding, net worth etc.,
Let’s Build Together! Defines how we at RHA Technologies approach business, clients, employees, and partners.
Our financial numbers is something, which we can’t disclose, but our overall numbers are very healthy. Our goal is to remain sustainable without any dependency on any external funding. For the coming year, we see a good overall YoY growth without hampering our profits.
3. How does RHA Technologies help organizations in implementing a successful digital transformation and adoption journey?
Innovate, Transform, Accelerate, process of RHA Technologies helps create a holistic agile IT strategy that optimizes the client’s business through technology and digital transformation. Digital transformation is more than implementing technology in the organisation. We use solutions around AI/ML, Cloud, IoT, Mobile, Automation, Data, and Blockchain to transform organizations across processes, business models, customer experience, and products and services. RHA Technologies team’s experience with multiple organisations including MNC clients in Education, Real Estate, BFSI, Media & Entertainment, Social Media and new age businesses, brings an unparalleled expertise to client founders.
We help our clients realize the potential of digital transformation as both a business growth enabler and a means to save costs. Our digital transformation process thus helps clients in a) access to a broader market b) improve customer services c) improve supply chain efficiencies and d) reduce time or cost intensive manual work.
Clients are able to work with SMAC (Social, mobile, analytics, and cloud) and IoT to ensure constant innovation for market edge. Digital transformation provides them insights about every area of their business be it cost, best customers, seasonality, bundling, discounts, wasted discounts, supplier efficiency, supplier quality/cost, logistics costs, etc. which accelerates innovations in services / products and thus revenues and profitability.
4. What changes you witnessed in the industry in the pre & post Covid era. What trends did you observe? What does the future like? In addition, advice to the start-ups in the field of analytics/blockchain/AI/ML/IoT will be much appreciated.
I launched RHA Technologies during the pandemic in May 2020; and the client response and organisation growth has kept pace with my expectations for the first year of operations. For us it was about fulfilling an acute market need, and the pandemic despite its widespread impact on the human morale and economy, did no deter us from our mission.
Many clients observed a slowdown in their business. However, what is noteworthy is their focus on the future. They have seen the acceleration of digital forces globally and the success of digitally nimble in quickly recovering business growth at the expense of others. Thus, clients are committing strongly to digital transformation albeit with focus on practicality, value for money along with return on investment, and tangible business benefits in the short and medium term.
The key areas of digital transformation that are firmly in the radar of clients are:
Big Data, Advanced Analytics, and Decision Intelligence – According to Gartner by 2023, more than 33% of large organizations will have analysts practicing decision intelligence, including decision modelling.
Block chain beyond crypto – we have started seeing real use cases for block chain technology beyond payments in supply chain, contract management, medical records, claim processing, property records, etc. Block chain has a lot of potential to redefine business processes across industries.
Robotic Process Automation – Robotic Process Automation is the process creating software ‘robots’ that can execute the repetitive day-to-day tasks and help organisations decrease costs and free employees’ valuable time.
IoT – Internet of Things has been growing in relevance and usage in the past decade and continues to be one of the hottest digital transformation trends.
Conversational AI – one of the most visible forms of AI and ML experience is in the form of Conversational AI. Conversational artificial intelligence is designed to understand, process, and respond to human voice while delivering an increasingly natural experience-managing context and sentiment.
5. What marketing strategies did you employ? How does it target the right segment of customers? Does RHA Technologies have any partnerships in place?
For us at RHA Technologies marketing has been about creating the positive word of mouth where new clients feel confident in collaborating us. Therefore, our people and their value system of “Let’s Build Together” has been the biggest element of marketing. In addition, we have leveraged market communication to communicate our offerings and domain expertise. Contrary to conventional practice, we have not been aggressive on social media in this phase
This strategy has given us the market respect and clients that has enabled us to rapidly expand our business and the talent base.
6. With the growing technological advancement, how do you keep up with the pace? A piece of advice on this matter will be much appreciated.
Keeping pace with technological advancement around us is a major element of our competency where we help clients compete with the best. Our mantra for this has been to hire talent that has an innate curiosity, desire to continually learn and upgrade, along with the work ethic to act on the learnings.
7. Who do you see as the major competitor of RHA Technologies? How do you look to stand out from them with the relative market share you own? Do highlight the USP of the company.
We are in a Blue Ocean with our Tech Co-founder offering and therefore we ourselves are our biggest competitors. For our traditional model of outsourced product development business, the competition is widespread. It is our value system and the attitude of “Let’s Build Together” that gives us the edge. We work alongside our clients as trusted advisors to deliver value at every stage.
We provide seamless technology solutions and services to help organizations innovate and realize their business goals. Clients become more innovative, competitive, and differentiated by leveraging our digital transformation and adoption journey.
8. Right People. Right Place’ – What are the career perspectives at RHA Technologies for freshers? What is the company’s hiring process and culture?
Talent is the core of our value proposition, and we hire people who have innate curiosity, desire to continually learn and upgrade along with the work ethic to act on the learnings.
We have a lot opening for both freshers and people with experiences. Now a days technology are getting redundant in a shorter timeframe therefore when we hire people our focus is hire people with good analytical skills and willingness to learn.
9. Where do you see RHA Technologies in the next 5 years? Any business expansion plans.
Five years is a long time in this digital age. In line with our Let’s Build Together! approach we will strive to develop into a family of clients, employees, and partners that have grown together. This is the approach that has helped us to grow to a team of 70 from the founding set in a year’s time with corresponding number of clients. We will continue to build on this momentum for the future towards being an industry benchmark for collaborative, innovative, value driven organisation.
In this hour of need, startups have again risen to the occasion to help India cope with the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. From providing free vaccinations to imparting mental health sessions, Indian startups hasn’t left any stone unturned to help the country fight the Covid 19 pandemic. StartupTalky reached out to various startups to know how they are fighting the second wave of Covid 19 pandemic. Have a look!
Look at How these startups are helping the country to fight Covid-19:
Alserv – a tech start-up focused on non-real-estate-based assisted living services for the elderly has now launched “Alserv Care” for COVID-19 positive elderly individuals. This entails delivery of meals, grocery and medicine, facilitating services of nurses and caretakers, providing oxygen support and other medical equipment to the elderly (upon request).
Enabling quality care at home, Alserv provides these services starting at ₹300/month. The elderly can choose home cooked meals to be delivered at their residences from the variety of choices available. Alserv is delivering home-cooked meals through verified service providers who maintain the highest quality and hygiene standards.
For elderly who are living alone, Alserv is facilitating the services of nurses and caretakers who can stay at home with the elderly and take care of their needs. Speaking about the launch of Alserv Care, Jagadish Ramamoorthy, Co-founder & Director, Alserv, said – “Currently in our country, the hospitals do not have the sufficient number of beds to take care of COVID positive individuals. Also, we believe for the elderly, home care is critical in ensuring complete recovery from COVID. We are already receiving positive feedback regarding Alserv Care from our customers.”
To avail this new service from Alserv, users can download the Alserv app from PlayStore/AppStore or reach out to the helpline: +91-044-4666 4888.
The pandemic has increased the emphasis on the ‘human connect’ aspect of the HR function. Startups always run in a super dynamic and fast paced environment, and this element is even more prominent now for those operating in the healthcare sector. At StanPlus, we handhold our employees if they or anyone in their families are affected by Covid. Quarantine facilities and emergency services are provided at no cost. We ensure that our people on ground have sufficient supply of PPE kits and sanitizers always. Considering the industry StanPlus operates in, we realize the pressure and secondary trauma our people go through. Therefore we have taken away the concept of sick leaves. The employees have the liberty to take leaves whenever they feel overwhelmed. We are tackling these uncertain times as a family.
Spokesperson: Sudipta Sengupta, Founder & CEO, THIP Media
While there are a lot of efforts going into managing the pandemic, we are fighting the infodemic (fake news around COVID 19). Infodemic is a major problem even recognized by WHO. From falsifying treatments to creating Vaccine hesitancy – health misinformation and disinformation has major effects at multiple levels. We, as an IFCN certified Fact Checking organization, we weed out such messages from social media, fact check them along with doctors and medical professionals and publish in 7 different languages.
Rite KnowledgeLabs – Startups support during Covid 19
Mumbai-based startup Rite KnowledgeLabs has sanctioned an additional two days as vaccination leaves to all their employees, helping them to cope with the side effects of vaccinations, if any. The startup has provided a ‘no questions’ asked vaccination allowance to its employees, including their family members. The prolonging of the pandemic with a severe second wave has brought with it unique challenges.
At Rite KnowledgeLabs, we have always been proactive in our approach in enforcing the government regulatory directives from the onset of the pandemic and empowering employees to adapt to the ‘New normal’ way of working with a complete #wfh model. It has led to a series of infrastructural changes/support and social adjustments in the way we function.
Zaggle learnt about the challenges faced by Founders to access credit and especially in this pandemic where starts ups are shutting down or in a financial need, to meet their business expenses. This led the Foundation to ZikZuk a Financial Technology company that solves financial pain points of SMEs and Startups. It is a SME Neo Open Banking Platform with FoundersCard as its 1st Product. We want to create a platform for businesses to easily access financial services from different financial service providers. To avoid the hassle of different accounts, having cheque signed by authorities, going through RTGS, we thought this process should be automated through a platform to quickly flake in and move the funds to ensure that the cheque gets cleared without having to go through the process manually.
FoundersCard is a Corporate Credit Card targeted at Business Owners and Founders. It solves the credit problems, and provides an excellent customer experience by leveraging technology and providing easy access to capital. FoundersCard is a Single payment instrument which can be used to Optimize Working capital and Digitally manage all the expenses of a SME/Startup. The card will be available in different form factors such as virtual card, physical card, e-card, on mobile etc. that will be issued to Founders. The credit card will be available in the form of domestic pre-paid, forex pre-paid and corporate credit and various other benefits that really matter to the Founders of start-up companies. Other than that we have helped in distributing ample of Mask, PPE kits to Indian Police, Daily necessities in village around Hyderabad.
Founded in 2017 by Aneesh Nair, Divya Laroyia and Shyatto Rana, MyHealthcare is a digital healthcare platform launched to improve access to healthcare services by connecting hospitals, doctors, and patients online. It works in partnership with hospitals such as Fortis, BLK, and Nanavati for online doctor consultations.
Shyatto, CEO & Co-founder of MyHealthcare, said, “Our partner hospital and clinic doctors have used our digital EMR and virtual consult platform to connect with patients. This convenience has seen a great acceptance from patients, especially during the last few months.
To support patients and hospitals amid the second wave of covid which resulted in the acute shortage of hospital beds and other resources, we launched our speciality healthcare service called MyHealthcare@Home. It is for patients who are under home isolation. Connected with a hospital team that keeps track of the patient’s health and wellness, the command center of the platform allows the medical staff to track vitals, read patient notes, view medical history, prescribe medicines, alert hospitals among other services, all in real time.
The system offers the already overloaded medical professionals a convenience that saves time and equips them with data to provide quick assistance. Moreover, in an effort to further offer primary specialty care, MyHealthcare is providing air and ground medevac for emergencies. This service entails safely transporting a patient from their location to another city hospital, post the confirmation of admission.”
Integration Wizard Solutions extend its health, safety and security solutions to hospitals, retail stores, warehouses, ATMs, etc. Their client relations are built across continents with AWS, Microsoft, Xerox, Godrej, Heineken, Johnson Controls, Tata, etc. They encourage less human contact, better social distancing, and accurate monitoring of patients/ workers/ people/ businesses.
In the last few weeks, we have witnessed the entire country come together, pool in resources and fight the battle against COVID-19. At Cashfree, we wanted to use our technical know-how and existing infrastructure to create a product that will help those who are helping others. Through the release of ‘Payment Links for Donation’, we intend to make the process of collecting donations easier for those who do not have the technical infrastructure.
The pandemic is impacting everyone around the world and every aspect of our daily lives: our social interactions, our family lives, our communities, and, of course, how all of us work. It’s times like these that remind us that each of us has something to contribute and the importance of coming together as a community. We want our employees to know that we are prioritizing the health and safety of them as well as their families first and foremost. To help them weather the second wave of the coronavirus safely, we have announced initiatives to help the, cope with this struggle. This is why we have directed our efforts to not only help our employees, but also their family members so that they can recover well.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been emotionally challenging for many people, changing the day-to-day life of everyone involved in unprecedented ways. As the second wave of the pandemic continues throughout the country, companies are tasked with balancing the health and safety of their employees while continuing to keep them motivated. During this second wave, Furlenco has taken many steps to help its employees in managing through these tough times.
In continuous efforts to tackle pandemic challenges, Ajith Karimpana, Founder & CEO, Furlenco says, “As India struggles with the latest, brutal wave of COVID-19, we at Furlenco are committed to supporting employees, partners, customers, and friends in their efforts to stay safe. We recognize the importance of our delivery staff as Front Liners and are doing everything to ensure their safety, and that of the customers interacting with them.”
Acknowledging their role as front liners during the pandemic, Furlenco has further enhanced Product Sanitization and Packaging Processes to ensure the complete safety of their delivery executives, while caring more for the safety of both our customers and our delivery champs alike. From effective sanitization of furniture and appliances to thorough clean-up after every installation, Furlenco makes sure that safety measures including ensuring social distancing in warehouses, distribution of masks and sanitation of all warehouses are being thoroughly followed to ensure the safety of all.
During this second wave and lockdown, the Furlenco delivery champions are the heroes making sure that products are reaching customers directly in the safety of their homes. Furlenco’s primary focus has been on Vaccinating their Delivery Executives serving as the front line of the business, with the vaccination costs of all employees being 100% borne by the company. This is a major step for the organization in supporting the needs of their delivery partners, benefitting both these providers of essential services and society as a whole with a safer delivery network.
For those employees who have tested positive for the virus, Furlenco has established a Covid Task Force dedicated to closely helping them and their families with any assistance required be it need of medical assistance, medicines, plasma, oxygen cylinders, oximeters and tele-consultation. In the same spirit, their Buddy Programme ensures that each and every employee has a fellow Furlenco team member identified for support and assistance. From its front line delivery staff to company CEO and founder, Ajith Karimpana, every Furlenco employee is equally involved in the programme and has a part to play in supporting the team.
Additionally, advancements in technology and social media present many opportunities to keep people safe, informed, and connected during the second wave of Covid-19. Furlenco has leveraged its Social Media platforms and Internal Communications channels to create awareness for those in need and to broadcast messages regarding Covid-19 help and support.
The safety of everyone around us and their family is of utmost importance. At challenging times such as these it helps to remember that we all want the same thing: for the people we care about to stay healthy, the virus’ impact to diminish, for treatments to be developed and for life to return to normal. That shared sense of hope and purpose can encourage each of us during this difficult time and help us rally to meet the challenges we face. We thank every person at Furlenco for all they are doing to help not just Furlenco, but also the partners and customers who count on us and the communities that we call home. Together, we know we can meet these challenges.
We are trying to encourage startup founders and innovators in the community to contribute towards Covid relief-related initiatives. Our mentor network has stepped up to provide one-on-one strategic mentoring sessions to startup founders in the ecosystem who are contributing to Covid-relief causes. Donations pooled for covid-relief efforts will go a long way toward mobilizing funds and resources for obtaining necessary supplies and coordinating logistics. Any growth stage startup founder or early stage entrepreneur who provides valid proof of such donation is eligible for a venture development mentoring call with an industry expert on their startup company!
Vantage Fit
Startup
Vantage Fit
Founders
Anjan Pathak, Partha Neog
Founded
2011
Headquarters
New Delhi
Industry
Software
Spokesperson: Anjan Pathak, Co-founder & CTO, Vantage Fit
Vantage Fit – Startup helps during covid pandemic
Vantage Fit, an AI-Powered Corporate wellness solution, is devoted to creating awareness about employee health, but at the same time is also dedicated to helping employers, encouraging a healthy lifestyle amongst their employees, which is an integral part of tackling the Covid-19 related health and mental well-being. Vantage Fit, a flagship corporate wellness product of Vantage Circle, was created with the vision of bringing work and wellness together for a sustainable future.
Spokesperson: Amit Nigam, COO & Executive Director of BANKIT
Bankit – Startups support during Covid
Amidst the catastrophic second wave of the pandemic ravaging the country, India’s ongoing vaccination drive is now open for the 18-44 age group, albeit with the government mandating that there will be no walk-in vaccinations for this age group, and everyone must register on the CoWin app to book a slot. However, a large chunk of India’s population resides in the hinterlands, in remote areas with little to no access to technology. Besides, many may not be tech-savvy either, thereby needing a certain degree of handholding to complete the self-registration process and book a slot.
Against this backdrop, BANKIT, a Noida-based FinTech startup, through its DigiMitra outlets, is assisting India’s rural population in registering for getting inoculated faster through its portal. With the link of the CoWin self-registration portal in the BANKIT agent app and portal, BANKIT is committed to doing their bit to ensure that every citizen in the country get the vaccine at the earliest. People who are not digitally equipped or informed can go to the nearest BANKIT outlet and have them registered through the BANKIT app and portal. BANKIT has 60,000+ agent outlets spread across 8800 pin codes PAN India. Through this initiative, BANKIT aims to handhold over 2.2 million citizens across the country for COVID-19 vaccine registration from their outlets.
There is a huge digital divide between rural and urban India. Despite significant growth overall in terms of technology adoption, rural India is still not well equipped or skilled to use available digital sources. BANKIT has always been committed to bringing digital services to rural areas and helping the people utilize the same. Through this initiative, BANKIT will be including the vaccination link in its app and portal where our correspondents can help those in India’s hinterlands register them for booking appointments for getting inoculated. We hope the country soon recovers from the pandemic and bounces back to normalcy.
BANKIT agent outlets witness over 2 crore customers walking in each month to avail its wide range of banking and financial services.
Spokesperson: Nithya J Rao, Co-founder, Heart It Out
Heart It Out helps during covid 19
Heart It out is a mental health organisation. The pandemic has deeply affected the mental health of people. Heart It Out launched ‘Brief Relief’- a 24×7 Free chat service which provides an individual with immediate emotional support in a safe and non-judgemental environment. The helpline aims at de-stigmatising mental health and providing accessibility in eleven Indian languages.
Enduring these unprecedented times gets a lot easier when we connect, share and seek support from those walking the same path. Heart It Out has thus been conducting ‘Pandemic Peer Support Sessions’ to enable listening authentically to peers sharing their everyday experiences so we extend and receive support from one another. These sessions are open to all front line workers in various sectors like medicine, security and food delivery. Aside from these we also offer regular one-on-one psychotherapy, workshops and light hearted, fun events. We have served over 8000 people over the last year in various capacities.
With the second coronavirus wave disrupting the startup environment, AAIENA has been trying to help the retail vendors by harnessing technology. AAIENA, an Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality based body measurement sizing software, came up with virtual shops to provide retailers with a platform to carry on their business online. This helped them earn by creating their visibility amongst the target audience. Here, AAIENA also devised an alternative feature, trial and earn initiative, to help vendors earn even when they are unable to sell the product. The vendors are entitled to get 70% of revenue for getting the per trials which is safe & secure.
Lifelong India
Startup
Lifelong India
Headquarters
Gurgaon, Haryana
Industry
Consumer Durables, Home Appliances
Spokesperson: Bharat Kalia, Co-founder & CEO, Lifelong India.
Lifelong India fights Covid 19
In these unprecedented times, we have witnessed how the nation hascome together to bravely battle the pandemic. As a brand, we knew our efforts had to be two-fold, so we could help and ease the worries of both, our customers and our employees. We understood the importance of certain kitchen appliances, like gas stoves and mixer grinders, and how crucial they are for everyday use. When our customers requested support or service for these products, and we were unable to provide it due to strict lockdown restrictions within their district, we replaced the product for them through no-contact delivery. We ensured that our customers’ grievances were adequately and timely addressed. For our employees and their families, we opened up our call centre lines to verify any leads and availability of beds, injections, medicine and oxygen. When someone tested positive, they could focus on getting better without worrying about tracking leads. We supported our team further, by providing health insurance that included covid coverage.
Spokesperson: Bharti Singh, Sr Manager – People, Leverage Edu
Leverage Edu – Startups Fighting Covid 19
As things started to get bad last week, Akshay asked us to set up a small team to help internally. That very quickly scaled into we helping patients and their families across the country, bulking up the team, and being able to help more than 300 people already. Alongside, Akshay also recently announced free vaccines for all of our 200 employees & their families, & at the moment we are also working towards setting the logistics of it. It’s empowering to work in a missionary company, where the focus is on always doing the good, all else later.
Conclusion
These startups have proved that nothing is impossible! Even in this pandemic situation, individuals and groups are coming forward to help the humanity survive. It is this dedication, commitment and positivity that will help the country to fight the Covid. If you’re a startup that has joined the fight towards Covid 19, do contact us to get featured in the list.
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Milan Ganatra, a prominent face in the wealth management community to get his professional opinions and views on the Fintech Industry in India. He brings with him more than two decades of experience in financial services. This serial entrepreneur and investor founded Miles Software, a path-breaking company in the fintech space.
As an individual, Milan Ganatra believes that life is a beautiful journey where it is essential that one constantly grows, gains experiences, and learns new subjects. Milan continues to believe, despite increasing competition, that fintech has enormous potential. With a solution-oriented mind, he is interested in finding like-minded partners with whom he can invest in ventures within the sphere of fintech. A prime example of this is his investment in Financepeer and Finalyca after his exit from Miles Software.
His eagerness to explore urged him to invest and form a disruptive fintech platform – 1Silver Bullet, which provides gateway infrastructure for a range of tech-based avenues such as Edtech, Agritech, Insurance, Traveltech among others. Milan is a member of the Advocacy & Knowledge Management Committee for the Indian Institute of Alternative Investments funds, as well. He also consults several banks and financial institutions. Known for his dedication to his profession, he is always excited to hear new ideas, invest in new projects, and offer innovative solutions.
Let’s see what Mr, Milan Ganatra has got to say on the Indian Fintech Ecosystem in the post ahead!
1. What is the main motto of 1Silver Bullet? How does it work?
With 1Silver Bullet we are trying to democratize the digitization of the financial space. Despite the recent emphasis on digitization, there are still glaring gaps that neither incumbents nor fintech have managed to cross over. With 1Silver Bullet our effort is to lay down the infrastructure and provide a well-thought digitization framework that can help these organisations to transform their legacy systems in a smooth, efficient, and time-bound manner. We lay down the framework and provide them with the tools so that they can focus on their core business.
2. According to your expertise & knowledge, what are the top trends you’ve witnessed in the Indian FinTech ecosystem?
The most striking trends in the fintech ecosystem are centered around how these new-age companies have disrupted the status quo. They quickly seized the ground from incumbent players by introducing technology to improve and simplify processes. The three topmost fields where we saw fintech companies make their mark are:
Payments: Apps like GPay and Paytm are some of the most popular payment apps. They completely revolutionized how people in India make payments today
Banking: The success of fintech shows how banks have no choice but to keep up with the pace set by these neo banks. While most of the neo banks have an anchor point, like investment or SME, what they offer is a holistic experience.
Investment or brokerage:Groww, Zerodha or Upstox offer a completely different experience to investors, making it more democratic, accessible, and easy-to-use than any other traditional means. They have opened access to users who are tech-savvy willing to explore investment options that otherwise would sound complex. Consequently, they have grown very quickly in a very short period.
3. What change did you witness in the Fintech Industry of India in the pre & post-covid era?
The COVID crisis is a watershed moment in our history and it has left an undeniable impact on every aspect of our life. The fintech industry is no exception. In general, we have seen that digital platforms found a wider acceptance with the spread of digitization and there is good reason to stay bullish about the future.
A recent report by Matrix Partners and McKinsey & Company shows that fintech across different segments have experienced mild to major disruptions with the lending sector being the most affected. In wealth management and insurance, we have seen some positive moves. The pandemic has also forced some segments to put a hold on their new products with 50% of the neobank delaying product launches. But these disruptions notwithstanding, the outlook is quite optimistic on future growth. This comes from an increasing acceptance of fintech and the wide adoption of technology across sectors. For instance, incumbent institutions like banks are now tying up with fintech to improve their digital presence, boost reach, and create a more efficient delivery of products.
Fintech Industry
4. How can one keep up with the growing usage & advancement of technology in the Fintech space?
What is considered cutting-edge tech today will get obsolete very soon. The only way to keep up is through investing in continuous Research & Development (R&D) and keep upgrading the tech stack. The other equally important aspect is the service. User expectations change with time and with increasing competition. We have to keep improving and innovating. The agility to disrupt yourself is the key mantra for any fintech to survive. It must have the agility to adapt, the will to improve, and the tenacity to keep looking for a way forward.
5. Highlight the role of AI / ML- driven performance analytics in the fintech space
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have transformed the fintech space and will continue to be the drivers in its growth. The evolution of Robo-advisors and its growing impact on wealth management is a perfect example of how these technologies can create a revolution. But there are many other myriad ways in which we use AI/ML to create more efficient and secure services while improving the accuracy of our processes. Something as simple, but critical, like automated customer support, rely on AI/Ml to reduce human intervention, gather data, create a more efficient, and quicker turnaround for the customer. But it’s not just performance analytics, AI/Ml is a game-changer when it comes to predictive analytics.
6. What do you think is the future of the Fintech space?
Given that India has the highest fintech adoption rate in the world, we can safely predict a bright future for the industry. In Asia, the Indian fintech industry has already pipped China to lead investments with close to $286 mn from 29 deals, against China’s $192.1 mn from 29 deals in Q1 2019.
Despite the COVID-19 slowdown we can expect an annual growth rate of 20.2% till 2023. We may need some course correction in the short term to counter the impact of the pandemic, but in the long term, I see fintech gaining more and more ground as digitization becomes the norm.
7. How effective is the role of Robo Advisory in Investment management? What does the future behold? How will it impact the employment of potential prospects?
Robo-advisors are the most efficient online investment management services that employ mathematical algorithms to offer financial advice with nominal human intervention. The AI helps manage clients’ assets in a structured and strategic manner. It also understands and predicts investor behavior. This helps build a comprehensive investor profile giving in-depth and accurate information on the investor liabilities, spending patterns, and likely behavior. While it does everything in an automated fashion, the human interface is crucial to monitor the performance from time to time. We cannot say that it will eliminate human advice.
“Humans and machines will work in harmony in the space of investment advisory”
In terms of its impact on skills in the wealth management industry, we are already seeing a greater demand for technical training to work with Robo advisors. We will need coders, analytic experts, and wealth managers who can work with data, AI, and machine learning.
8. From ideation to evolution & ultimate revolution – how can one be successful in this journey with growing technological advancement in the fintech space?
Like any other revolution, success always begins with an idea. But it does not necessarily have to be unique. Some of our most successful businesses today are testament to the fact that it is rarely the first-mover advantage that works. What takes an idea from its germination to a decisive success, is the execution. When it comes to fintech, we first see if the concept simplifies a complex process, if it makes the life of a consumer easy.
Next, we see if it can be scaled up. Then comes the hard work of fine-tuning the initial concept. We have to continuously listen to the customers, understand their pain points. The revolution comes only when we provide the customer with a unique and amazing experience.
“There is no magic and no short-cuts here, just hard work”
9. How safe is the customer data in Fintech space? How do you suggest customers distinguish a legitimate fintech platform from a fraud/illegitimate/unregistered?
The safety of consumer data is the most serious issue facing the fintech industry and it must be addressed urgently if we want to keep our momentum and gain wider acceptance. To avoid falling for a fraudulent fintech, consumers are advised to stay vigilant. Beware of any platform that tries to impose a quick decision, does not carry out standard verification procedures, is unclear on its fee, or does not carry a physical address on the website. At the very least it should have a secure https:// web address.
But there is undoubtedly a larger and more fundamental problem of safety that we face today, which can make a serious dent in our trustworthiness in the industry as a whole. We need a singular tech-focused regulator that can enforce compliance, not the current fractured structure that stays divided between RBI, SEBI, and IRDA. We must hold fintech responsible in the way we hold banks liable. Until a regulator steps in (as it eventually will), responsible fintech should follow best practices, such as disclosing vulnerabilities, to reassure customers.
10. With your recent investment in 1Silver Bullet & Finalyca, Are you planning to invest in any more upcoming fintech startups or thinking about a whole new yet another innovative venture?
I am exploring completely new domains. I have recently invested in Halaplay, a part of Nazara Technologies which is a listed Indian gaming and sports media platform. Online gaming is an interesting space to grow and thrive in. A new venture is something I will talk about when I am ready to announce it.
11. How can one potentially connect with you to either present ideas, get innovative solutions/mentorship or investment and stand out from the crowd?
12. How do you scrutinize the list of startups before making an investment? What do you expect?
When we evaluate a startup for an investment, there are a few factors we are looking for. These centre around the founder, the concept, and the founding theme. The founder’s passion and commitment towards their idea is the first thing we check. Then comes the potential of the concept in terms of its scale. Does it address a generic or exemplary issue? Finally, we come to the founding theme and its clarity. Our focus is on the planning involved, whether it is detail-oriented and quality conscious.
13. From Miles Software to 1Silver Bullet – Your out-of-the-box ideas & innovations is commendable! What would you advise the budding fintech platforms?
“If you think you have an idea, come out of your comfort zone and pursue it. There is no better time than today to pursue your dream. You may have to go through some struggle but believe in yourself. Be passionate about your idea”
Conclusion
The Indian Fintech ecosystem has seen tremendous growth, even during the pandemic times. Given that India has the highest fintech adoption rate in the world, we can safely predict a bright future for the industry. In Asia, the Indian fintech industry has already pipped China to lead investments with close to $286 Mn from 29 deals, against China’s $192.1 Mn from 29 deals in Q1 2019. Despite the COVID-19 slowdown we can expect an annual growth rate of 20.2% till 2023.
Invest19.com is disrupting the stock market with its AI-powered stock tech platform. Invest19 Technologies is a fintech company serving in the technology sector and leverages the power of emerging technologies like machine learning, data science, Artificial Intelligence, to simplify, automate, and enhance the user experience – from customers to businesses.
Invest19.com is building an innovative platform capable of providing next-generation, scalable and low-latency tools and technology solutions to individuals and businesses in meeting the swiftly evolving needs of today’s fast-growing industry.
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Kaushlendra Singh Sengar, Founder & CEO of Invest19.com to know how the startup is planning to disrupt the stock market industry by leveraging emerging technologies. Read all about the USP, Features, Revenue Model of Invest19.com, its marketing strategies, future plans and more in this post ahead!
1.What USP Invest19.com provides over its competitors?
Invest19.com is an Investment ecosystem providing multi broker choices to scale capital market into small towns by build next generation stock market industry on cloud where in market participants like exchanges, depositories, stock brokers, market experts can come together and provide seamless investment experience to create new breed of smart investors.
invest19 founder – Kaushlendra Singh
2.Over 30% of market share in the discount brokerage industry is held by top players like Zerodha, Angel Broking, 5paisa, Upstox among many. How do you plan to set yourself apart and grab the investors trust?
Invest19.com is supporting stock brokers by providing next generation cloud infrastructure to scale their broking business by increasing their reach up to small town users, disrupting human centric technology is providing better user experience, which leads to high user retention ratio and better revenue. Invest19.com is building business beyond technology by referring new users to stock brokers.
3. How is Invest19.com ahead in its technology implementation? What emerging technologies are you disrupting to enhance the user experience from customers to businesses?
There is a lack of financial literacy in India and complexities of available trading platforms are the biggest entry barriers for novice investors. We at Invest19.com is trying to fix these challenges with the help of latest blend of technologies, which is highly scalable, can handle millions of orders per second, simplifying investment experience by using human centric user interface and experience, making system more intelligent by mixing human brain with Artificial intelligence and data science and proving one touch investment platform.
With this we are able to provide an investment platform where in a layman can also investment with confidence and grow their wealth.
4. Found this intriguing- “Become an Investor @ Cost of Burger” How do you plan on executing this? What revenue model mechanism are you adopting?
We believe that like 2 decades ago computer education became mandatory for everyone from schooling, in the same way we should also make investment education mandatory from schools this is the right time when one should learn the art of savings and power of investment. If we want to build a new breed of future smart investors we should start working from roots.
That’s why we have built this product name “become an Investor @ cost of burger” this signifies that students can become investors by compromising from a piece of a burger and their pocket money is sufficient enough to start the investment journey.
We, along with SEBI registered market experts have created a special poll of high potential listed companies with good fundamentals and future business projections with low stock prices. Our specially designed artificial intelligent system will help users to build a low risk and high growth portfolio.
We have all three business model, B2B, B2C and SaaS along with monetization Strategies like Financial Literacy, Gamification, Referral Reward, Sponsorship & Space Selling, Freemium Model, Transactional Fee, Membership Selling, Licensing Fee.
5. How are you planning to make yourself known in the investment world? What marketing and user acquisition strategies are you employing?
BuildingInvestment ecosystem for millennials, offering multiple BFSI service provider and investment assets class choices, simplified investment experience with affordable tailor made investment ideas by mixing human brains with artificial intelligence and cash back on brokerages.
As we are on beta stage, so we do understand that there is high chance of app performance issue. That’s why we have started a physital model a mix of digital and human touch to spread financial literacy and create trust among small town users and to trained users about platform features. Human touch approach is bridging the gap wherever there is a bug or app performance issue. This is cost effective for the early stage startup because here you pay only on business conversion.
6. What exactly is Execution Partner Opportunity for Stock Brokers? How does it work?
Invest19.com is an investment ecosystem where in any regulated stock brokers can get registered as an execution partner by doing some necessary paper work with the respective exchanges and can become a next generation tech broker, here broker will get everything which is required to run and expand the business, starting from user acquisition, investment ideas services, trading features, customer support, portfolio tracker and many more.
This way a regional broker can become national stock broker and can acquire user from pan India with no time and marketing budget. This is reducing market cost, sales cost, tech and server cost, operation cost, research team cost and many more.
7. Launching a company amidst the start of pandemic must’ve bought its own opportunities and challenges. How is Invest19.com coping with it?
Invest19.com was hardly 2 months old when lockdown started in March 2020. Initially it was quite challenging for us, as no one was prepared for that and business dynamics completely changed after lockdown.
As product was into development stage that time. So we missed the chance to grab the user growth opportunity. But we saw this pandemic as an opportunity and people have realized the importance of savings in this hard time.
It’s being more than a year we are working from home, seeing the changed business dynamics in covid-19. We focused on building the paperless 100% online investment ecosystem, which can convert the offline brokers into online as due to lockdown their sales people are not able to go out for business development or demat account opening.
To reduce risk due to Covid uncertainty we focused on:
Fund raising and investments: In parallel with Product development, I have started pitching investors to meet out working capital requirements of the company. As product was into development stage so we were completely dependent on the investors’ fund. I have followed a sustainable business, wherein all the resources, particularly monetary resources and funds, need to be used consciously. Managing cash flow and conserving resources for a few months post resumption of normal operations is a key to sustainability.
Incorporated short cycle planning: Instead of looking at long-term plans three months, six months, and one-year plans should be ready. In the current scenario, making up for the lag due to lockdown and preparing the organisation to cope up with the situation needs to be focused upon.
We are also doing Effective and regular monitoring: The need for mentoring is going to be the highest in given times, as team is working from home and lots of coordination is required to deliver the project on time.
We have created Strong communication channel: During the Covid times, it is essential that the channel of communication is effectively and efficiently maintained. Being open and available to the concerns of all stakeholders, including customers and investors, becomes extremely important to maintain their association with the business.
8. It’d be great if you could highlight some of your achievements
We received our first success in July 2020, when we got the exchange approval of our platform to go live in one go without any observation. In the history of stock market, we are the first platform who got go live approval in one go.
Second success came by August end when we did beta launch of this platform.
9. Where do you see Invest19.com in the next 5 years in comparison to your competitors? Any business expansion/partnership/funding plans?
In next 5 years Invest19.com will become the world’s largest investment ecosystem, with more than 45 stock exchanges and all the possible investment asset class you can think of. We are doing partnerships with banks, stock brokers, NBFC’s, insurance companies, AMCs, Fintech platforms, financial platforms, etc. and also raising funds to speed up our product launches, soon will do the funding announcements.
Conclusion
Startups are always a step ahead in disrupting the emerging technologies, be it any field. Invest19.com being one among is aiming to be the world’s largest investment ecosystem by 2026 by leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science. Launching the company amidst the start of pandemic bought its own opportunities and challenges to the team, but Invest19.com paved its way over the beat launch in August 2020 and is looking for a main launch in 4 months i.e., July-August 2021.
This post is not something we publish on StartupTalky very often.
The purpose of this post is not to get it ranked on Google. Nor are we expecting anyone to give a backlink on this. This article is my random thought about the whole scenario that we can see happening right now.
But let me clarify just one thing, we, at StartupTalky, focus on delivering facts and stats based content instead of digging at controversies and giving our opinions.
But, at some level, we all like controversies. The fights between yours and mine! The fight between right and wrong.
Well, in this st0ry, neither any0ne is right n0r is wr0ng.
If y0u have c0me t0 this p0st, y0u already kn0w what this write up is ab0ut.
Yeah, this article is ab0ut this tweet:
My salary is ₹3L/annum.
I should have started a discount stock broking company to add more zeros to my salary.
Y0u might be l00king f0r the CREDibility 0f this Tweet.
If y0u are thinking if this is really the salary 0f Kunal Shah, then YES, Kunal Shah’s salary is 3LPA.
N0 f0under can lie ab0ut his 0r her salary publicly as they can easily be caught and l0se their CREDibility am0ng their f0ll0wers.
Alth0ugh, 0f c0urse, Kunal Shah is crying this meme 0ut l0ud:
but here is a better view 0n b0th the c0mpanies:
Nithin Kamath t0 Kunal Shah right n0w:
D0 marketing gimmicks and 0ver-the-t0p spending 0n publicity strategies guarantee a c0mpany’s success? Pr0bably n0t. 0n the 0ther hand, if y0u have the right pr0duct-market-fit and deliver tangible results t0 y0ur target audience, y0u are b0und t0 achieve success. Kunal Shah’s CRED is a case in p0int f0r the first claim and the Kamath br0thers’ Zerodha might be an apt example 0f the latter.
Well, its n0t me saying that, its the stats menti0ned ab0ve.
Zerodha: 0ne 0f the Pillars 0f CRED’s Valuati0n
Als0 Mr. Shah, I think y0u f0rg0t s0mething.
Zerodha is, if n0t the main reas0n, indeed 0ne 0f the reas0ns CRED is valued at $2.2 Billi0n.
But why did Kunal tweet such a thing?
I admire Kunal Shah’s marketing strategies t0 s0me extent.
And, 0f c0urse, Kunal Shah is very v0cal 0n s0cial media. He p0sts whatever he wants t0 p0st. But, at the c0re, he is an entrepreneur like us. And everything we d0, has a tinge 0f intenti0n t0 gr0w 0ur c0mpanies.
And I think, this tweet is actually m0re 0f a marketing step t0 leverage the fame Zerodha is bagging these days.
H0w did Nithin Kamath resp0nd t0 Kunal Shah?
Nithin Kamath has n0t resp0nded directly t0 Kunal Shah yet. H0wever, he tweeted this addressing the media:
TBH, I really have n0 0pin0n 0n wh0 is right and wh0 is wr0ng.
Y0u d0n’t need t0 always take sides.
Maybe, I am saying that because, as a media, it has bec0me 0ur habit n0t t0 f0rm 0pini0ns and analyse facts instead.
But, even if I want t0 f0rm an 0pini0n, I cann0t.
Because n0 0ne is wr0ng here.
And that tweet sh0uld n0t have bec0me such big news.
Yeah, I kn0w, I am being a hyp0crite here by writing ab0ut it. But, even if I w0uldn’t have written this piece, that tweet was still r0aming ar0und the c0untry.
S0, all I want t0 say is, take the best fr0m any0ne, but leave the rest.
There is a l0t 0f g00d stuff that Kunal Shah has tweeted. Read it. Like it. Share it.
But d0n’t make s0me things a c0ntr0versy.
M0re0ver, if y0u are at Shah’s place s0meday, d0n’t pick up 0n pe0ple with0ut any reas0n.
Additi0nally, my 0pini0n 0n if Nthin deserves this much salary is: He has a private c0mpany. His c0mpany is gr0wing. His team and b0ard members are n0t 0bjecting it directly. If he wants t0 take m0ney, he surely can. My 0pini0n 0r y0urs, d0es n0t really affect his decisi0n.
Featuring great replies t0 Kunal Shah’s tweet:
Kunal Shah when Zoho and Zerodha discussing how to make profitable business without raising VC money. pic.twitter.com/2xp2aTUL2H
The article is contributed by S Shriram, Former VP Marketing and Sales, Levista Coffee.
I stayed home for 150 days straight from March 23, 2020, onwards, when the first one-day lockdown began followed by multiple lockdowns. It was the first time perhaps I stayed at home, ever since I joined LKG four decades back. During the five months, I was on WFH mode, a first for me in my retail career spanning 23 years before when I first scooped Ice-Cream at India’s second and Chennai’s first Baskin Robbins outlet in 1997.
All these years, I had a strong belief that Sales and Marketing professionals can simply not work from home, especially for this long. I was made to revise my thought process all these months even as we sold one more cup of coffee (or more) every hour, every day from April 2020 onwards until now. While thousands of people worldwide have been displaced or retrenched from their jobs, many have chosen alternate professions and have fared well, perhaps better than their previous jobs or businesses.
Our friendly neighbourhood grocer is one such example. Many others too, but what’s striking is the resilience with which these entrepreneurs have risen to the occasion and have not only served customers but also made money, well.
During Unlock 1.0, the Union Government laid down restrictions on shop opening times and the Kirana Shopkeepers took the opportunity on their head, something that established Modern Trade Retailers, as well as the cash-rich Online Retailers, couldn’t live up to. The Kirana opened her / his shop by 6 am every day rain or shine, served customers with glee until 11 am (and later up to 2 pm, followed by 6 pm and eventually till 8 pm) and in the meanwhile, managed their staff and family, store inventory, daily cash flows, spread positive word of mouth in the local community and experimented with the digital media – from sending WhatsApp Posters to taking orders through the same medium as well as instant home-delivery, especially for the comfort of the Elderly, sick patients and the physically challenged.
Coffee and Tea Vendors, on the other hand, saw this as a great opportunity. Those who ran petty shops ventured early in the day and served those who were working on the roads and streets while the more smart ones offered to sell add-ons to their customers as well as cater to those who were in the line of duty such as Conservancy workers, the Police Force and others.
All this time, while a section of people was complaining of job losses, another set of people started their Entrepreneurial journeys and the most fancied product category this time was health and hygiene. From liquid soaps to sanitisers, floor cleaners to disinfectants, there was a sudden rush in this category, especially and there was no stopping for their efforts as this market is about to explode sooner than later.
While FMCG giants like ITC, HUL among others launched revolutionary products in this segment, what took me by surprise was that the secondary, unorganized and unbranded market grew and expanded beyond seams.
Those who have never tried the concept of washing hands before a meal were washing hands (and all exposed parts to sun and air) multiple times every day. Similarly, the “Mask Movement” has gained unparalleled popularity and opportunity. I have seen so many roadside vendors who were earlier selling various products now focusing on this segment.
Coming to Coffee, we at Levista have appointed dozens of new Distributors during H1 FY 20-21 and all this is because we have seen a huge surge of coffee consumption at home. With a high prevalence of WFH or rather SAH – “Stay At Home”, it is but natural to witness consumers drink more hot beverages. And in the process, we have seen many of our partners double or treble business during this period. I reckon that we have just begun. The making of “Corona Millionaires” has only started now and we shall see results over the years.
Ansh Mehrey
