Finin and SBM Bank India launches India’s first hyper-personalized Neobanking platform
- 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, launches pan India in December 2020
- Finin uses bank-level security, anti-fraud, and encryption systems to protect sensitive information & prevent unauthorized usage
- Finin in partnership with SBM Bank India will issue an instant Personalised Savings Account with a VISA Debit Card
- The platform aims to convert Spenders and Borrowers into Savers and eventually into the Investors category
- The neobank is designed to empower working professionals, millennials, and students alike
Finin has partnered with SBM India as their banking partner to issue a savings account that can be opened in under 2 minutes and a VISA powered debit card equipped with smart card management features.
The banking landscape lacks hyper-personalisation and underutilises customer data. The idea of savings and investments is a hard-to-understand concept for most banking users. Finin solves this issue using AI and nudges theorem to enable a user to understand their save-spend cycles much better and empower them to make informed decisions every day.
The app comes with budgeting and goal management features that assist each and every user to develop financial discipline and in turn financial independence. The startup promises to make every user’s journey through the app an insightful and intuitive one via bill payment reminders, refund reminders, trial subscription cancellation notifications ahead of time. The notifications system is designed to break down every spend categorically and to reflect under a recognisable merchant label. Finin uses the 50-30-20 rule to educate every user about their expenditure and how to manage or control them to meet the holy trifecta of financial bliss.
The app also allows linking of other bank accounts to get a holistic view of all of a user’s money in one place. The card management features allow users to block and unblock cards through the tap of a button. Furthermore, a user has full control of enabling and disabling contactless payments, international payments, online transactions, and ATM withdrawals as and when they like, thus giving all the management power to a user.
Speaking on the launch, Suman Gandham, ex Fintech VC and Founder & CEO, Finin, said, “India is not exactly underbanked, it is in fact overbanked but the infrastructure lacks hyper-personalisation. A hyper-personalised neobanking platform like ours is made with the purpose to bridge gaps using technology and help people develop a better relationship with money by simplifying antiquated banking services.”
He further adds, “Finin is a one-stop banking solution that allows users to link all their bank accounts in one place and help them track their transactions simultaneously making it a seamless banking experience. The startup uses AI to analyse the spending of customers thereby generating reports that give insights on their spending and saving behaviour.”
In July 2020, Finin closed an undisclosed amount in pre-series A funding round from Unicorn India Ventures, PointOneCapital, and Astir Ventures and are in the process of going in for a Series A funding round.
Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, said, “Neobanking vertical within Fintech is growing the fastest. We believe technology is needed over the banking layer for end-users and SMEs to access core-banking services and manage their money, in general, better. Finin’s business vision is in line with this macro trend that we saw unfolding in India in the last 3 years. This is what prompted us to back Finin as we believe that neobanking is the future of banking.”
Commenting on the event, Neeraj Sinha, Head-Retail and Consumer Banking, SBM Bank (India), said, “In sync with our mission of taking Banking to those who need it, and in a manner that they prefer, we are proud to partner with Finin to launch smart banking. With this, we are further enabling the banking ecosystem in the country and more importantly, play a collaborative role in transforming the lives of Indians using easy to access, customised banking solutions.”
Finin breaks its user base into 3 broad umbrellas as Spenders, Saves, and Borrowers. The aim is to convert Spenders and Borrowers into Savers and funnel them into the Invest category.