BankSathi Technologies, a Delhi-based fintech startup, has raised $200,000 in a seed funding round from a group of angel investors that included Dinesh Godara, founder of TREAD; Rajendra Lora, founder of Freshokartz; and Anuj Ahuja and Aditya Talwar, founders of Studybase.
Founded in January 2020, BankSathi Technologies is the brainchild of Jitendra Dhaka, Sandeep Choudhary and former banker Himanshu Pujari. The startup has announced to use the proceeds from this fundraising in product development, team building and executing marketing and growth plans.
“The seed funds raised will be utilized on product development, team building, and executing marketing and growth plan. We currently have more than 5,000 advisers across 700 PIN codes of India; with a total adviser income of [ ₹]75 lakh earned till now, we have 45 products of 15 financial institutions (FIs) in our bucket to sell, we are targeting 1 million advisers, and 150 products of more than 50 FIs ready to distribute through BankSathi App by the end of this financial year. And in the next three years, the plan is to create 5 million advisers and 500 products of 100 FIs available on our platform. We would be raising another round of investment by the middle of this year to achieve our set goals,” says BankSathi.
“In the next three years, the plan is to create five million advisors; and 500 products of 100 FIs available on our platform. We would be raising another round of investment by the middle of this year to achieve our set goals,” he added.
BankSathi has a major client base in tier-II and beyond cities as customers in these cities are more likely to seek advice.
“Most of the Indians believe in taking advice from experts around them, this is the reason 75 per cent of retail financial products are sold in India through authorised advisors/agents. India has two million active advisors in the insurance industry and 50 per cent of retail assets in India are sold through DSA and connectors, which are again in millions,” Jitendra said.
“COVID-19 and the lockdown have brought the technology at least five years ahead, and buying behaviour of customers has also changed a lot. This secular shift is going to help BankSathi a lot.” believes Co-founder Sandeep Choudhary.
The startup aims to bring in the role, highlight the importance of financial advisers in the right direction of decision-making through the BankSathi Advisor app that facilitates buying retail loans, credit cards and insurance products.
The app has features that are user-friendly and multilingual interfaces available in Hindi and English, wherein advisers are provided with the training for financial advice and products to the customers by accessing short videos.
BankSathi co-founder Himanshu Pujari says, “This brings an urgent requirement of a technology-based solution, which can help financial advisers earn more via a trustable and easy to use platform.”