Finin is India’s first neobank, an online-only, hyper-personalised banking solution that helps users manage, save and invest their money in a smarter and simpler way. It uses bank-level security, anti-fraud and encryption systems to protect sensitive information & prevent unauthorised usage
As India’s first neobanking startup, what has been Finin’s progress?
We have created an easy-to-do on boarding sequence that lets you create a Finin Savings account in under two minutes with minimum KYC. Once the SBM powered bank account is created, a VISA Finin debit card is automatically issued and delivered to the user.
While the card arrives, the virtual card has a lot of functions which allow for online payments and transactions. Further to this, a user has the opportunity to link their other bank accounts to the app to get a rounded view of all transactions and balance in one-app view. This in fact is a very sought feature as per our users.
The app also give you the functionality to create monthly budgets basis which nudge theorem, AI powered analytics and insights are used to send users the save-spend data, recommendations on the best practices, reminders on trial subscription cancellations, bill payments, tracking refunds and even highly personalised notifications such as whether a user must opt in for merchant embedded features like Zomato Gold or Swiggy Super. The nudge theorem employs the 50-30-20 rule to guide users effortlessly towards smart financial choices.
One can create goals on the app to practice discipline and allocate a weekly or monthly amount towards this goal. This goal comes with an added feature called Round off transactions feature which when opted for, an extra amount of the users preference is deducted and saved aside for the Goal. This is akin to finding money in your old jeans pocket.
The main idea of Finin is to convert spenders and borrowers into savers and eventually investors so that they move down the road to financial discipline and further still financial independence.
We also engage with users via blogs and newsletters to enable financial literacy.
What have been Finin’s key achievements till date?
Founded in February 2019, and went live in 2020, Bengaluru based startup Finin is India’s first, full-fledged consumer neobank to go live in the country. We have 3000 live accounts created on Android, 15000 users waitlist, 400 users in iOS beta. Finin provides users with a savings account powered by SBM and issues a VISA debit card. Finin helps empower users with Goal driven solutions by converting them into highly savings-driven financial disciplinarians through smart & relevant notifications, hyper-personalised solutions and nudge theorem to guide them into the 50-30-20 rule seamlessly.
Compared to banks, what are the biggest advantages you have against your established competitors?
As the first consumer neobank in the country, dare we say, we do not have a live competitor as yet. What jarringly sets us apart is our core SAVINGS driven approach. Our main aim is to not just offer banking and wealth management features but also to be akin to a Fitbit for the Finance industry. We intend to make users understand their money better, analyse the spends and savings, plan budgets and goals and always stay on top of their transactions at all given time. In turn the idea is to convert borrowers and spenders to savers and eventually investors by inculcating financial discipline and eventually financial independence.
As a consumer facing neobank, our customers are our clients and by that we mean, every internet savvy, smartphone savvy individual in the country can find utility in the product. The application is free and Finin is a zero balance savings account. We are analysing user behaviour on the application and will take a decision on the revenue model only after some future deductions.
Traditional banks sit on large amounts of data but do not fully utilise it to assist users. Some processes are very redundant and unnecessarily long. With the pandemic wreaking havoc in 2020, more and more people wish that the online banking infrastructure was intuitive and self sufficient to avoid the need to visit banks.
How do you leverage emerging technologies such as AI and machine learning in your day to day operations? Please also give us some details on the impact of these technologies?
The app gives you the functionality to create monthly budgets basis which nudge theorem, AI powered analytics and insights are used to send users the save-spend data, recommendations on the best practices, reminders on trial subscription cancellations, bill payments, tracking refunds and even highly personalised notifications such as whether a user must opt in for merchant embedded features like Zomato Gold or Swiggy Super. The nudge theorem employs the 50-30-20 rule to guide users effortlessly towards smart financial choices. One can create goals on the app to practice discipline and allocate a weekly or monthly amount towards this goal. This goal comes with an added feature called Round off transactions feature which when opted for, an extra amount of the users preference is deducted and saved aside for the Goal. This is akin to finding money in your old jeans pocket. The main idea of Finin is to convert spenders and borrowers into savers and eventually investors so that they move down the road to financial discipline and further still financial independence. AI and ML helps us hyper-personalise solutions for our users and offer them intuitive reminders and notifications to guide them into goal driven savings and convenience.