CXO of the Week: Monish Anand, CEO & Founder, MyShubhLife

MyShubhLife is a full-stack financial platform for the Next Half Billion. With Real-time analytics and credit reports based on alternative data, MyShubhLife reaches unserved and underserved market segments to provide meaningful financial inclusion. MyShubhLife app is available in 6 regional languages. It has further strengthened its financial inclusion goal through its financial wellness program for corporates and individuals by expanding its portfolio to include Mini and Microloans, Earned Wage Access, Insurance, Mutual Fund SIPS, E-Gold, Bill Payments, Tax filing service, and more.

Monish’s effort to bring the underserved and unserved segment of consumers into the formal lending infrastructure was recognized in 2017. Today Monish has his sights set on bringing millions of people into the formal banking system, he has made this his company’s mission.

In a recent chat with Monish Anand, CEO & Founder of MyShubhLife, he talks about his startup journey and what MyShubhLife has been up to. Here is everything you need to know.

Introduction to MyShubhLife

MyShubhLife is a Tech & AI-based Fintech Platform offering loans and other financial services to the next half billion through a differentiated distribution model of Embedded finance & corporate partnerships across various industrial sectors. Our latest technology leverages a deep data sciences approach for underwriting based on the consumption, savings, and borrowings patterns of the customers and uses a proprietary algorithm to provide easy access to credit for customers who aren’t part of the traditional banking system.

With what mission and objectives, the company was set up?

MyShubhLife was set up in 2016 with the simple dream of getting everyone a chance to attain financial freedom. With a consistent growth journey, we served thousands of underbanked customers with formal credit and made this a reality - until 2020 when Covid-19 made its foray into the world. In spite of the pandemic, MyShubhLife was already working toward building its product pipeline to evolve from a lending-only company to a full-fledged financial services company. The aim was to serve its customers with contextual products for all their financial needs. Today, MyShubhLife is well on its path to fulfilling its vision of removing credit and process frictions to the underserved segments by providing easy, affordable, and transparent financial services, digitally.

Kindly brief us about the company, its specialization, and the services that your company offers?

MyShubhLife specializes in building financial solutions for its customer segment, the Next Half Billion. With technology as a leveler, it has expanded its financial inclusion footprint across India with varied partnerships with large platforms and corporate tie-ups.

Our offerings include products such as Small and Big ticket Loans, Earned Salary Access, Insurance, SIPs, E-Gold, Bill Payments, E filing taxes, etc., customized to the needs of the Next Half Billion.

Under our flagship gold membership program “Shubh Saathi”- designed by keeping in mind the needs of our corporate members - we offer holistic financial services to their employees belonging to an income group of Rs.1.5 to.4.5 Lakhs per annum.

We offer embedded finance for the self-employed segment (small businesses). For example, We have partnered with India's leading payment platforms to provide short-term working capital limits and term loans to their customers and merchants.

What, as per you, are the five important things that MyShubhLife should be looking at today?

The key areas we are looking at today are - Investing in tech infrastructure, increasing our Financial Inclusion footprint across local and international markets, growing our Data Sciences Centre of Excellence, building key partnerships for growth, and building a world-class team.

What is the edge that MyShubhLife has over others in the industry?

Looking into the financial industry, there are hundreds of fintech with their own versions of an ideal ecosystem they want to achieve. Our company focused on developing our unique segment instead of just skimming the top. The approach that we chose were - our easy to integrate Modular and scalable technology, an app that is intuitive with multilingual options, an evolved Data Sciences drove risk model, a Low-cost distribution model with corporate partnerships and embedded finance, and access to proprietary data points (which helps in better risk underwriting), a world-class team and an in-house NBFC.

From the time we set up the business, MyShubhLife has invested in its Data Sciences capabilities and developed it into a Center of Excellence (CoE). The team at our Data Sciences CoE works closely with our core risk team to build a robust but agile credit model in order to provide a tailored experience to our customers. By evaluating & understanding the financial behavior of a vast type of customer segment that is unserved or underserved by the formal banking ecosystem, we are now future-ready to expand our footprint in geographies outside India.

How is IoT/Big Data/AI/Robotics evolving today in the industry as a whole?

Since the financial effects of the pandemic have, in certain ways, altered our daily lives, financial institutions have made unprecedented changes in the way they operate in response to economic uncertainty. It reiterated the importance of agility and speed in the modern lending market. This requires constant monitoring and validation of the models and when required refurbishing these models with fresh data or simply refining and re-tuning the models. To make certain that businesses remain innovative and compliant with the regulatory framework, customization and automation will work as a key to spot upcoming market trends, recognise potential risks and identify future actions.

AI and Robotics play an important role in the development of every digital lending platform to provide the best user experience to their customers.

What are the most important trends that you see emerging across the globe?

Cross-border regulatory coordination can become a game changer in making the digital financial services industry consolidate in specific global markets. Where there is a geographic concentration of identical user segments, FinTechs can make an impact with the expertise acquired in their home markets. A deep understanding of regulatory, compliance, and technology requirements is key to successful ventures.

The concept of credit has evolved significantly over time. Borrowers now have a wealth of options to choose from. From regular loans to salary advances, customers have easy access to funds, thanks to digital players in the financial industry and the high penetration of internet-based smartphones. With the help of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, credit models are constantly evolving to provide more customized products to better financial inclusion outcomes across regions.

User engagement and experience become critical for technology platforms to assess the credit worthiness of loan applicants and build relevant models. Using local languages and building constant connectivity with customers via voice bots, chats, and other user-friendly channels will help in building a strong user engagement. Secure platforms that are compliant with local regulations and offer the most simplified UX will emerge a clear winner.

How do you see the company and the industry in the future ahead?

Our roadmap has a number of key focus areas across every function.

MyShubhLife is building its portfolio with a diverse set of customer segments through various partnerships and corporate tie-ups. Our plug-and-play tech help in scaling our business in a very short time by building contextual products offered through a mobile app, web app, and embedded finance to our users. We are also constantly leveraging the latest technology in marketing automation to communicate with our customers.

With AI-driven voice bots that speak in local languages, our users will get a more customized experience in dealing with MyShubhLife. Not only this, with the use of AI & machine learning algorithms our Data Sciences and Credit teams are focused on building bleeding edge models that predict user behaviors in a more refined manner. We are also taking a deep learning-based approach to establishing customer risk patterns and will have a more localized early warning model for bounce and default isolation. This localized approach allows for more efficient & optimal collections prioritization & resource allocation.

We believe that our strong data science team and the adoption of evolving technology qualify us for various other markets similar to the Indian ecosystem. We envision foraying into other geographical areas such as Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and other South East Asian countries to establish an omnipresent outlook.