India is home to the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. The number of  DPIIT– recognized startups stands at a colossal 1,17,254 as on 31st December 2023 – an impressive 40 percentage growth from the previous year! While these numbers speak of a flourishing ecosystem, there is a contrasting reality. As much as 9 out of 10 startups fail globally, according to various reports. In India, 80-90 percent of the startups do not make it past the first five years! 

Yet, India has some of the glorious success stories from the startup community. So, what really makes a startup tick? It’s a ‘billion-dollar’ question, considering that startups in India collectively raise a few billion dollars in funding every year. 

To understand the nuances of building a successful startup, CIO Dimension caught up with this young entrepreneur in Bengaluru – the startup capital of India. Yuvaraj Thanikachalam, Founder & CEO of Kreatorverse – a startup venture studio, is anything but a typical Bengaluru startup founder. His company is on a mission to guide promising startups through the often-treacherous path to success and profitability. 

Building on Web3 for the future

Yuvaraj emphasizes that startups need more than just a good product and funding to thrive in the market.

“New venture building exercise requires experimental infrastructure (lab), scientific methodology, entrepreneurial (tech & business savvy) talent, and seed capital. It is super rare to find all of them in one place. Building such an organization for a new venture founder or investor takes years of investment. It is a real big problem for Indian startup founders and investors,” says Yuvaraj. 

A good product is often just the beginning; enduring in a dynamic market is the real test for startups, he observes. 

The venture studio works with early stage startups and serial entrepreneurs to help them build products that stay relevant for a sustained period. With a strong foundation in finance and blockchain, Yuvaraj believes Web3 is the future. So far, Kreatorverse has worked with over 20 startups to build Web3 software products by applying proven methodologies and technologies. The company’s clientele include fintech startups, neobanks, digital banks, private wealth management firms, alternate investment companies, and social media startups. 

All of these startups in the financial services sector stand to benefit hugely with Web3. The primary socio-economic impact pursued by fintech is financial inclusion. Inclusive, neutral, democratic internet infrastructure is a must for global financial inclusion, which is a sustainable development goal. Decentralized finance (DeFi) and real-world assets-backed tokenized economies are the best ways to do it, Yuvaraj says. 

The right blend of technology and business 

So, is Kreatorverse providing just the “staffing” for these startups? Yuvaraj maintains that the company goes much beyond that. Building a product requires more than just the software development understanding. It’s not just about the programming tools and skills. It’s about empathy for the customer and business. Software is not a standalone entity in a tech-first venture, it’s the core of the business, he adds. 

“Just imagine, customers have no incentives for staying with a product for long. Their decisions are influenced strongly by the experience they have with a software or an app. Hence, building each customer touchpoints with experiential value is critical for startups. And that experience is the differentiation for a customer to choose a product. We help startups create this differentiation.” 

The company optimizes innovation outcomes by blending business acumen with technological expertise. They establish a solid foundation through design thinking, innovation frameworks, and diverse problem-solving approaches. This method drives innovation and enables the creation of distinctive products within their studio. Kreatorverse guides businesses from concept to proof of value within 4 to 6 months, says Yuvaraj. 

He observes that Web3 startup co-founders often navigate regulatory and compliance landscapes blindly due to their limited understanding of traditional finance and capital markets. Kreatorverse also offers an added advantage by combining expertise in both Web3 and traditional markets.

“Our goal is to minimize the risk of failure and significantly increasing the rate of business success for startups,” sums up Yuvaraj. 

The post From Idea to Impact: Kreatorverse’s Formula for Startup Success appeared first on CIO Dimension.

Authored by: Leela Krishna

Data has never been as important for companies as it is today. The potential impacts of loss of data privacy have led many countries to pass data regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU or the recent Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act) in India. These regulations require companies to take specific measures to protect customer data and facilitate requests from individuals, making compliance a key concern. 

The protection of customer data is a major business imperative for any organization, especially ones working with sensitive information like financial or health data. Data has long been the backbone of operations and business models of companies and is only becoming more crucial with the increasing deployment of machine learning models. Creating data protection protocols in compliance with these regulations will help assuage customer concerns and enable fintech companies to build a strong data foundation upon which they can create solutions. For the sake of simplicity, the measures that companies can take can broadly be grouped into two categories: security and general compliance.

Protection is the priority

Adopting robust security measures is now a non-negotiable that has been ratified into law. There are many ways in which data can be protected in the digital age, but a good first place to start is actually non-digital – adopting best practices on data governance, hygiene, disposing of the data and physical security. Organizations need to ensure that their data assets, and other critical infrastructure are safeguarded against unauthorized access, natural disasters, and other potential threats. By implementing strict access control systems, businesses can deter malicious actors from physically accessing sensitive data. And then the governance, supported by a strong and regular audit of the effectiveness of the controls is vital to ensure that vulnerabilities do not exist and or are remediated promptly.

Physical measures will only be the starting point for data protection. Businesses are becoming more and more interconnected with rising rates of cloud adoption across sectors, all while remote working becomes a common business practice. All these factors compound, exponentially increasing network vulnerabilities and making network security a priority for organizations. Creating and regularly updating the perimeter defenses such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and intrusion prevention systems to monitor and block any unauthorized or malicious traffic will be crucial to thwarting evolving cyber threats.

The conventional network/security controls can be taken one step further with the creation of Zero Trust architectures that have stringent verification protocols, regardless of whether the user or device is inside or outside the organization’s network. Zero Trust is becoming the norm for many organizations as it protects organizations from external and insider threats alike. 

While network security focuses on safeguarding the pathways by which data can be illegally accessed there are security measures that target the data itself. Such data security measures first require companies to map out all the data they own and process, whether it is customer data or proprietary data. This provides the foundation for additional measures like encryption at rest and in transit to limit the damage when access is compromised by malicious actors, and regular backups. Backups are an essential component of contingency plans in the event that data gets lost, corrupted or compromised.

Having robust internal data protocols and accesses also can create a rich layer for advanced machine learning based analytics and automated response mechanisms. Using security information and event management (SIEM) tools with a layer of analytics can allow the organization to monitor, detect and respond to threats in real time. Finally, to reiterate, no security measures will be effective if they are not complimented by commiserating audit process. And lastly, the most important aspect is the human intervention in the middle. Continuous training and awareness campaigns are what can avoid or minimize any and every possible impact of an incident.

Beyond network boundaries

While security measures are an essential part of data protection laws, most regulations cover a variety of other provisions concerning the implications of data processing activities. For example, organizations will have to think of compliance when setting up their data processing and storage infrastructures. Many data protection regulations, including the DPDP Act, create obligations on companies to respond to requests from data principals regarding the status of any personal data the company may be holding. Similarly, there are obligations to notify data principals if their data has been compromised via a data breach. All these measures require the setting up of necessary mechanisms to ensure that organizations are well placed to adhere to these provisions. This can be especially complicated for large companies that have third party vendors who store or process data on behalf of these companies. 

Organizations will also need to conduct privacy impact assessments to identify, assess, and mitigate privacy risks. Previously just an ideal practice for organizations to follow, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) are now a requirement under the DPDP Act. These assessments allow companies to scrutinize the nature, scope, context, and purpose of their data processing activities to ensure compliance and protect the rights of data principals under the DPDP Act.

Keeping up to date

Data protection regulations are going to be the norm moving forward so ensuring compliance will be a crucial aspect of operations for all organizations. As the importance of data continues to grow, so does the responsibility of protecting it. 

A multi-faceted approach encompassing both robust security measures and stringent privacy compliance processes is the way forward. This includes clearly defining policies on classification, ensuring access on need basis, employing right set of standards and technology controls, aptly defining processes for customer data, vendor/third party assurance programs, proactively integrating the privacy in design, and getting executive support for the initiative while ensuring continuous improvement. In a world rife with cyber threats and regulatory complexities, this dual focus ensures not only business continuity and legal compliance but also the trust of customers and stakeholders.

The author is the IT Head of Broadridge India, a global fintech company. Broadridge provides the critical infrastructure that powers investing, corporate governance, and communications to enable better financial lives.

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Healthcare fintech firm AyushPay has appointed Vivek Kapoor as its new Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer. Vivek is one of the co-founders of DineOut, the dining out and restaurant tech platform, which was acquired by Swiggy in last year May.  Vivek had joined Swiggy along with other co-founders post the acquisition. 

Kapoor’s accomplishments during his tenure at Dineout were remarkable, he played a pivotal role in building the restaurant tech platform from scratch to Swiggy’s acquisition. Recognizing the potential of AyushPay, Vivek became an angel investor and has now assumed a key role in shaping the company’s future.

Under Kapoor’s leadership, AyushPay has expanded its portfolio by introducing innovative solutions that address critical healthcare challenges. The company’s primary mission is to ensure that every Indian has access to healthcare without facing financial barriers. 

Nimith Agrawal, Founder & CEO at AyushPay, stated, “We are thrilled to have Vivek Kapoor join AyushPay as our Co-Founder. His entrepreneurial expertise and unwavering commitment to our vision have been evident from the beginning when he became an angel investor. Together, we are poised to revolutionize the healthcare industry.”

Reflecting on his new role, Kapoor shared his excitement, saying, “Joining AyushPay is an exciting new chapter in my entrepreneurial journey. My decision to be a part of AyushPay stems from my passion to solve the healthcare affordability problem in India. Every lower and middle-class family in our country has faced this challenge at least once in their lifetime. I aim to alleviate the stress that families already endure due to ongoing health concerns or prevent them from experiencing such hardships through affordable preventive healthcare plans.”

The company also announced its portfolio expansion and launched Ayush Kavach, a comprehensive subscription model providing highly affordable health benefits. 

AyushPay was started by Nimith Aggarwal and Col Hemraj in 2021.

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Cashfree Payments, the payments and API banking solutions company, has expanded its senior leadership team to drive the company’s next phase of growth. Parveen Kumar has been appointed as Vice President – Operations, while Vijay Ravisekar has been appointed as Vice President – Product Management.

The company has recently announced the elevation of Arun Tikoo as Chief Business Officer (CBO) and Ramkumar Venkatesan as Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

Praveen Kumar brings over 15 years of industry experience in enhancing customer experience, managing finances, and building operations across various sectors. He holds a B.Tech in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and a PGDM in strategy and operations from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. In his new role, Parveen will oversee the operations and customer service vertical at Cashfree Payments. Parveen’s responsibilities include expanding capabilities, driving research and innovation, and ensuring excellent customer service.

Vijay has over 20 years of experience in Product Management, having successfully managed products for the driver ecosystem and Customer Care. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the University of Mumbai and an MS in Telecommunications Engineering from The University of Texas, Dallas. Vijay will assume the crucial role of formulating product strategies and offering valuable guidance to enhance products and solutions, specifically focusing on ‘Collections’. His responsibilities include fostering greater agility and driving improved business outcomes.

Founded by IIIT Hyderabad alumnus Akash Sinha and IIT Kharagpur graduate Reeju Datta, Cashfree processes transactions worth USD 40 Billion annually and boasts more than 50% market share among payment processors. It enables more than 3,00,000 businesses with payment collections, vendor payouts, wage payouts, bulk refunds, expense reimbursements, loyalty and rewards. Cashfree Payments is backed by Silicon Valley investor Y Combinator, Apis Partners, State Bank of India (SBI), and was incubated by PayPal.

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A survey conducted by Alloy revealed that 27% of respondents lost over $1M to fraud in the last 12 months. 70% of respondents reported losing over $500K to fraud, with fintech companies and regional banks being the most likely to report higher losses. 37% of fintech companies and 31% of regional banks estimated losing between $1-10M to fraud.

The Annual State of Fraud Benchmark Report surveyed over 250 decision-makers working at financial institutions including community banks, fintech, crypto, national banks, regional banks, and online lending institutions). The survey ran from September 8-20, 2022, and respondents came from roles across fraud, compliance, risk technology procurement, digital banking strategy, and account opening.

Fraud continues to plague financial institutions of all sizes and across all segments. One-third of respondents said they experienced between 1,000 and 10,000 fraud attacks in the last twelve months. 91% of respondents said fraud has increased year-over-year since 2021.

“Fraud is the highest it’s ever been,” said Tommy Nicholas, CEO and co-founder of Alloy. “Rapid digitization and an influx of cash from pandemic relief scams have created the perfect conditions for fraudsters to thrive. Regardless of sector or size, financial institutions must do more to keep their customers’ assets safe from fraud, but without compromising on the customer experience.”

The report also found that fraud prevention is a costly and time-consuming enterprise for financial institutions: two-thirds of respondents reported that over half of their workforce is working on fraud-related activities. 71% of respondents have increased their spending on fraud prevention YoY. Respondents were also concerned about additional ‘hidden’ costs of fraud such as legal repercussions, regulatory fines, reputational damage, and loss of clients.

Respondents reported that the main barrier to defending against fraud is automation. 46% of respondents cited a greater need for automation as the most common barrier to being prepared to combat fraud, followed by an absence of dedicated teams for fraud (41%) and the inability to adapt to new threats (39%).

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CleverTap released its Industry Benchmark Report for Fintech Apps 2022. As fintech apps continue to grow more popular, the number of players vying for market share has increased. This has subsequently reduced customer retention and “stickiness” for any one brand. Therefore, today more than ever, it is crucial that fintech companies find ways to drive customer “stickiness” by engaging users in effective ways that eventually drive transactions and fuel growth. 

The report reflects data collected from Asia-Pacific, Europe, India, Latin America, Middle-East, and North America. The report gives marketers a truly holistic view of key metrics within the fintech app landscape. It also spans a wide variety of fintech apps, including, but not limited to, mobile payment apps, cryptocurrency, and block chain services, along with banking and insurance among others. 

These insights will not only serve as a helpful starting point for developing successful engagement strategies, but also assist in understanding how an app fares in comparison to global averages. Some of the key metrics in the report include: 

• Install to sign-up rate: Only 1 in 5 users that install fintech apps (21%) end up signing up within the first week.
• Average time to sign-up: 70% of the users that sign-up, do so within 75 seconds of launching the app for the first time.
• Sign-up to conversion rate: 95% of newly signed-up users make at least one financial transaction in the first month. 
• Average time to to convert: 76% of newly signed-up users move from onboarding to deeper-in-the-funnel engagement within an average of 7 days.
• Session frequency: On average, fintech app users launch their app around 11 times a month.
• Average repeat transaction rate for new users: 15% of newly signed-up users complete more than one transaction in the first week.
• Average click through rate for push notifications: On average, 9% of Android users and 6% of iOS users will click on and interact with push notifications.
• Average click through rate for in-app notifications: The click through rate for in-app notifications is 24%, that’s about 3 times more than that of push notifications.
• Average email open rate: 34% users open emails sent by fintech companies
• Average Stickiness Quotient: Fintech apps enjoy a stickiness quotient of 22%, that indicates nearly one-quarter of MAUs consistently return to their fintech apps

“The fintech industry has seen exponential growth in the last few years. Given the relentless competition within the space, fintech platforms need to step up their Omnichannel engagement efforts to better retain customers”, said Jacob Joseph, VP-Data Science, CleverTap. “The benchmark metrics laid out in our report provide a great starting point for growth marketers looking to develop effective marketing strategies. They will be able to compare numbers against global averages and pinpoint which aspects they are excelling at and which areas could use some attention or innovation.” 

95% of new fintech users complete a monetary transaction in the first month. This shows that while users see value in fintech apps, it’s important to adopt customized user engagement strategies to boost retention on the platform. Today there is a real need for fintech brands to bake-in effective marketing strategies within their apps. Users will remain responsive as long as the experience is engaging and seamless. The benchmark report helps fintech apps understand how to build successful mobile communication campaigns, and also allows growth marketers to discover areas that require greater focus.

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Merchant commerce omnichannel company, Pine Labs announced that it has acquired a proprietary enterprise platform from Bengaluru-based Saluto Wellness. This acquisition will boost the capabilities of Pine Labs’ Issuing Business under the Qwikcilver brand, enabling it to strengthen its offerings across employee rewards and recognition, customer loyalty programs, and channel partner programs for medium and large enterprises.

Pine Labs has a leading presence in India in prepaid, stored value, and gift card solutions through its 2019 acquisition of Qwikcilver, an entity that merged with Pine Labs in September 2022. Saluto Wellness was co-founded by Siva Kumar and Anoop Nambiar in 2017.

Kumar Sudarsan, President, Issuing Business, Pine Labs, said “With Saluto’s platform, we expect to further enhance our leadership across Enterprise Rewards, Recognition, Incentive & Engagement programs. Saluto’s multi-tenant, enterprise grade offering will give us additional capabilities complementing our strengths…”

“Our enterprise solutions are today being used across diverse industry verticals and we are excited to become part of a fast-growing, progressive fintech like Pine Labs and together scale our business further. We have already established a good working relationship with the Pine Labs team and look forward to being a driving force to further Pine Labs’ leadership in this space with innovative outcomes,”

K. Siva Kumar, Co-founder and CEO of Saluto Wellness.

The loyalty program market in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of ~15% over the next decade, and projected to reach US$ 10.8 billion by 2031, from nearly US$ 3Bn in 2022, as per Future Market Insights. ¹

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