This Noida Based Tech Startup Creates a Pivotal Point for Bank-Merchant-Customer Transactions and Developing a Sustainable Ecosystem

QwikDealz is a startup with an innovative business concept of catering the bank customers with a large array of products with unmatched discounts and offers. It is a white label product for Banks. They started their operations in Oct 2018, from a small office in Noida and within a short span; they have closed deals with DCB & DBS bank and will go live shortly. They are also in discussion with RBL, PNB, CSB, Bandhan Bank, IDFC bank, etc. We are publishing an interview with Mr. Sudip Bhattacharya – Founder of QwikDealz.

Q.: Please tell us about the founders
Ans: Germination of an idea started in some casual discussion of Sudip Bhattacharya and Rajesh Kumar, they are the main brain behind the concept of the product and driving deals and offer management ecosystem. Sudip a stalwart from the banking Industry and posse’s immense acquaintance of the banking sector in across financial service and Strategy. He spearheads the Business of qwikdealz.

Rajesh who also comes from the banking background with more than a decade of work experience in Financial services companies and Banks. He looks after the Banking alliances and operation of Qwikdealz.

Simultaneously the core team went on emergent and connected by associate with core competency in respective business segment.

Gaurav Verma, Takes care of the Merchant Development and product alliance. Prior to QwikDealz, he was associated with Flipkart and swarm good connect with the merchant.

Prashant, spearheads the Technology division of Qwikdealz, under his supervision qwikdealz Technology has evolved. Qwikdealz Technology enhancement and understanding the technology ecosystem is under his enlightenment.

Jaydip Roy, with over a decade of experience in Brand Marketing and has been into diverse industry vertical. Looks after the Branding & Marketing

Q.: What is the problem you are trying to solve?
Ans: Our concept is unique where we act as Banks shopping portal as one point of contact for maximizing the use of Bank prepaid instruments for all transaction. Use of bank instruments can be maximize by lucrative offers to the customers and helping them with their shopping needs:

• We address core issue of the bank like Acquirance of Merchant, which is a costly affair for Bank.
• Bank needs added advantage for RM and sales team, we provide that support.
• To purchase discounted offer is a major concern area for Banks.
• Technology development is a costly affair for Bank, moreover its not a core area for Bank.
• To maintain best offer from the best Brand is a big issue for Bank.
• Promoting an offer without proper understanding of the traction is a big issue.

Q.: Please tell us about the investors (if any)
Ans: We are Incubated by Amity Incubation, Noida and our funding process is in discussion, will close shortly.

Q.: Tell us about the Product / Solution. Explain how you went about the Product-Market Fit Process.
Ans: As our product innovation or transformation aimed at enriching end user customer experience and provides scope for Bank to enhanced the use of Bank Card, UPI, Debit, online transaction and wallet.

Our unique concept addresses bank customers and helps them with their shopping needs. We believe it would be a great experience for customers to get what they want on their bank site that they frequently visit without drifting to different destinations for their daily shopping requirements.

As per our core concept, we cater bank customers. We have already tied-up with 2 banks with more than 1.5 million customer bases. As we grow further and partner with top 10 banks of the country, we aim to do in a span of 6 months, we anticipate a target customer base of more than 10 million. Our model supports business growth for our merchant partners by directing them huge customer traffic. We promote only prepaid transactions by genuine bank customers resulting in better conversion and smooth fund flow leading to business growth.

We strive for leading the biz with cutting edge technology. Our site is built up on dotnet that provides extraordinarily expressive environment in a very clean and maintainable way. Our database is powered by MySQL a more secured, high performance, complete workflow controllability and scalable DMS. We also plan to induce AI and ML in a little later phase of development to turn our system in to a more advanced, smart and futuristic tech environment.

Q.: What is your USP?
Ans: Our product USP for banks are as mentioned below:

• No integration cost, No maintenance cost.
• Nil Customer acquisition cost – Bank doesn’t have to shell a penny to acquire any customer.
• Specialized and customized discount for bank customer’s basis various portfolios.
• Bank Instrument (Credit, Debit, Net banking, Api, wallet, etc).
• Payment gateway technology Partner.
• Best pricing for the Bank Consumer.
• QwikDealz is a white label banking product.

Q.: What were your assumptions when you entered the market, learnings that you have?
Ans: We intend to build an ecosystem where in we maximize the use of bank instruments as leading white label deals and offer management platform for Banks. So our platform is with bank and we intend to have a better traction with Banks and most of the banks are retaining our technology. Our technology is live with DBS Bank and we will be live with DCB bank, as our technology is under approval.

Q.: What has been your biggest failure as an entrepreneur and what did you learn from it??
Ans: We are just a early stage startup. We started 6 months down the line and we are yet to identify biggest failure. One of the major challenges that we faced was to find the right investors. Qwikdealz is the first business startup as bank white label deals and offers management platform so the investors are skeptical.

Q.: How are you pricing the Product?
Ans: We work on different concept with our merchant and the pricing that we offer is our USP. Nothing is free but exclusivity is our footie. Our revenue model is based on commission from merchant on sales , product display advertising, online product launches.

Q.: How did you get your first customer?
Ans: Our customer are Banks, we approach them on the basis of CASA base and through our links. We are live with DBS bank & shortly will be live with DCB Bank. .

Q.: Is there any interesting success story? If yes, please write about it. ?
Ans: In the ecosystem of Startup, there is lot of competition. Most of these competitions come from the three Big Players like Visa, Mastercard & Rupay, who are our immediate competitor. As we support Banks in a way we provide support to the master payment technolog, who are our straight competitor.

Q.: What is the big picture of your startup? Is this Product leading to something bigger? If so, how?
Ans: We want to create an eco system where we maximize the use of Bank pre paid Instrument through our portal and that can only be done through best deals and offer management platform. We provide our merchant specific bank traffic through our portal. We are just six month old and we have a bigger picture for us ahead but right now we are concentrating in getting the banks and engaging the traffic to our portal, we will share those details in near future as look ahead for bigger picture of the eco system.

Q.: What is the insight that you have about this market, which no one else has? Uniqueness about your Startup.
Ans: QwikDealz business proposition is one of a kind business project with it’s unique concept and vision. Practically QwikDealz does not face any competition as the value proposition and perks associated with our alliance program are unmatched

Q.: List all the names of the core Team Members, along with their Designated Roles – How you see them evolving over time. What would be each of their Skillsets? – Elaborate also if any of the team members has a specific domain expertise.
Ans: Sure.

• Sudip Bhattachrya has over 16 years of corporate experience in across financial service and Strategy. An alumnus of ICFAI Hyderabad in finance and marketing. He is also Loma- certified 360-390 program. Sudip was associated with banks like Citibank, TATA AIG LIC, ICICI Prudential, wherein he was responsible for investment growth strategies for the companies.
• Rajesh Kumar looks after banking relations at Qwikdealz. He is an MBA graduate from SRM University, Chennai with specialization in Finance & Marketing. Rajesh has more than nine years of experience working with financial services companies and Banks. Prior to Qwikdealz he was associated with Indus ind Bank.
• Gaurav Verma looks after business development and Merchant Alliances at Qwikdealz. He is a MBA graduate from Inmentec Business School, Ghaziabad.He is also a Hardware eng. form NIIT and DOEACC ‘O’ level. Gaurav has more than eight years of experience working with Merchant and product alliance. Prior to QwikDealz, he was associated with Flipkart.
• Jaydip looks after Brand and backend operation, he has over 15 years of experience in Marketing and Branding. He is an MBA Graduate form BCCM collage, Kolkata. He has worked closely for various media campaigns, planning, budgeting & implementations of marketing programs for various media campaigns. Previous association with brand like TATA infomedia, PCI Ltd, M2K, Digit Magazine etc.
• Prashant has over 8 years of experience in Visual studio and Database architecture. He heads the Technology division of Qwikdealz, under his supervision qwikdealz Technology was developed. He is an MCA Graduate from Integral University, lucknow . Prior association with brand like Denstu Network (Iso bar).

Q.: Who do You Perceive as Your Competition? How do you differentiate yourself with them?
Ans: We do not have any straight forward competitor as such but in similar platform Smartbuy is there with HDFC Bank but again they are only with HDFC and we are with multiple banks and offer variant of services. There business concept is different from ours.

Q.: What would be your goal to accomplish in the next six months?
Ans: As our technology is retained by most Banks as a disruptor, so we have eight to nine banks in pipeline for next six month and with our deep diffusion in banking corridor, we have an alliance from eminent Indian banks along with a foundation and means of tying up with overseas financial institutions in next phase of expansion.

Q.: What message do you want to convey to fellow entrepreneurs?
Ans: Many people have great ideas but only a few can decide to do something, so decide and take step and make it happen. There will be lot of hurdle but eventually your motivation to pursue or make something big will overcome them.