Fintech has generated growing interest for its potential to revolutionize how businesses are carried out in banking and other industries. However, very little is said about how these may be used for another goal, which is to increase the accessibility of financial services by cutting costs and access barriers.
Neokred is here just to do that. After conducting an in-depth market analysis to determine the scope of the problem and the additional hurdles of both banks and companies, the co-founders, Tarun Nazare and Rohith Reji, decided to turn these potential pitfalls into prospects and finally founded Neokred in 2019.
About Neokred
Neokred is a fintech institution that enables financial institutions and third-party distributors to manage their financial worries seamlessly while also building a super cool neo-bank to help level up their fintech branding style.
Founded by Rohith Reji and Tarun Nazare, they are a modern banking-as-a-service company. With the aid of robust and secure technology stack, it has developed a “NeoBox” that enables corporations, fintech, and startups to introduce their own banking services or financial products, such as the issuance of prepaid cards, enabling “Buy Now Pay Later” (BNPL), and opening virtual bank accounts, embeding workflows and access to exclusive rewards and coupons for your customers. The goal was to substantially shorten the time required to develop a financial product to 30 days or less and greatly increased User Experience with Banking.
The trailblazer
The duo, Tarun Nazare and Rohith Reji, had the idea to found Neokred during a project they were working together for Bank Partnerships and it’s challenges while together at their previous venture.
More than anything, it was Rohith Reji’s passion to solve an important problem of traditional bank infrastructure stack to Consumer focused infrastructure stack that resulted in the founding of Neokred. Rohith, a growth hacker and community builder, as he likes to identify himself, is the co-founder of Neokred. Before founding his venture, he also worked in a range of roles and assisted in the creation of start-up companies.
Neokred, however, is not his first venture. He says,
“I always had a passion for being one to start an idea and help till execution. Hence, we started working on a technology-driven app (Expedyte) which aims to integrate technology and solve the problem of time by grouping every app needed into a single platform. We started this during our early school days and experienced the starts of entrepreneurship”.
How does Neokred work?
“India is credited as one of the largest regulated countries in the world in the banking space comes with a lot of rigidity and complexity for customers to have a seamless experience. We wished to make this to the last mile, to break down the legacy of traditional banking which is still followed as how it is followed in the earlier days.”
By serving as the infrastructure to democratize open banking, Neokred enables fintech, aggregators, and brands to easily have a fully functional fintech feature that would fulfil the goal of a digital India and banking.
Neokred functions as a “TSP” between a bank by providing it’s platform and a brand to launch embed any financial product targeted at end consumers. It manages the entire process from beginning to end, taking care of the technology, compliance, use-case, and customization.
Users can connect the NeoBox to their current enterprise resource planning (ERP) and choose the service (launch a card, open a bank account, BNPL facility, etc.) that they want to launch. Additional features can be added, such as investment, credit, and insurance. The client’s specifications are taken into account when creating the Software Development Kit (SDK), which is then plugged into the appropriate mobile app for a quicker Go-To-Market (GTM).
Collaborations and their unique services
The company has strategic partnership with large banks, small finance banks, regulated entities, D2C brands, and Credit Information Companies to work closely to embed Consumer Tech into Financial infrastructure for brands to launch soon, curate and scale.
Moreover, they worked along with an impact focused entity to create the Kisan Card, which contributed to the development of a comprehensive solution to offer an exclusive payment card for Indian farmers and promote financial inclusion.
Another launch was towards teenagers and students between the ages of 12 and 18.
The payment instrument comes with a number less card for security incase of theft, lost etc. and get access to exclusive rewards for teens.
Achievements till now
Neokred is one of the very few businesses to be officially recognized by regulators and banks. To underline the contribution that Neokred has made to building an infrastructure for Open Banking, the company has received a standing ovation in the form of press releases from NPCI, Large Banks, Small Finance Banks along with recognition for Top 30 Startups by YourStory, Entrepreneur.com magazines, and HR consulting surveys for Top Startup to watch 2023 for employee experience.
On a much more personal note, he joined TEDx as a Social Entrepreneur to make a difference in the community and raise awareness of the fintech industry. This led to the founding of their fintech institution, which is now helping businesses and third-party distributors to power their financial resources.
Rohith was also recognized as an “Influential Marketer – 2019” by Deccan Herald and has been featured by The Trivandrum Connect, Times of India, Dailyhunt, Startup India Magazine, and The Statesman. He was also the UN SDG Ambassador and “Sir Richard DiPilla” Awardee for Social Entrepreneurship and got featured along with his co-founder as a young entrepreneur encouraging open banking.
Despite the accomplishments till now, Rohith reveals that the journey has been challenging since the entire premise took approximately 7-8 months to materialize. He further explains that for any program you try to partner with a bank or regulated entities commonly (the issuing of cards, bank accounts, wallets, embed financial technology, payments etc.), banks undergo a series of diligence with the customer to asses it’s market capturability and technology readiness.
What are their future plans?
Neokred strives to converge ConsumerTech into FinTech within the next three years. By this all finance will be easily embedded into consumer focused brands as well.
Neokred is on its way to dismantling the lineage of traditional banking, and the longstanding practices associated with it.
