We are publishing an interview of Mr. Anvesh Pandey, CEO and Founder, Investocafe.
Please tell us about the founders
In this fast-growing world of digitization,I realized unavailability of a platform which caters to End to End financial needs of a customer electronically. That is how the bootstrap Investocafe came into existence in 2015, along with Rahul Gehlot and Neha Joshi.
Investocafe is my brain child. I firmly believe in the idea of simplifying investments and committed to make the investment process simple and delightful.I have a stint of more than 8 years in banking and investment industry at key leadership positions and am associated with other start-ups too.
Rahul is a professional graduate and possess wide experience in the field of investment. He has worked with HDFC Bank and Citi Bank and handled array of investment products.
Neha holds Master’s degree in Computer Science and has a 10 year of experience in the technical field. Neha is also an author of book named PC-Software, which is part of course curriculum for BCA in DAVV (Devi Ahilya University), Indore.
What is the problem you are trying to solve? Can you share with us any insights that led you to believe that this is a big enough problem?
We have our focus to cater Wealth management services to the Middle/Lower middle strata of the society. There are lots of Banks /Investment firms which aim to capture the influential segment ie HNI’s and Rich class,ignoring the needs of Middle/Lower class to manage their finances for fulfilling their dreams and aspirations.We believe that even the smallest investments can lead to huge wealth creation for our customers in long term.
What is the uniqueness about your Startup?
We offer seamless,paperless & transparent financial services to our clients.What sets this start-up apart from others is the fact that Investocafe is ridiculously simple to use, with no technical jargons and simplicity in investing by making stronger tie-ups. Investing is methodical and scientific in nature wherein customers identify their own risk-taking ability, invest in right proportion and in right schemes and get periodic course corrective measures on automated basis till they achieve their financial goals.
What is the revenue model? What is the logic behind it? What is the model you are following – Free / Freemium / Premium etc. ? Explain your thought process.
AMC pay through commissions.
Who are the consumers that you are targeting? How is this going to affect them?
We basically focus on customers who are remotely located and have less access to professional financial services.We also aim to cater to clients who frequently get transferred due to their work profiles and hence cannot have permanent financial advisors. In all we have our eyes on the middle and the lower segment of our society who have dreams unlimited but limited resources to achieve them.
What is the big picture of your startup? Will it lead to something bigger? If so, how?
We aim at creating next league of crorepatis by providing right set of wealth management platform to our customers in a cost effective way which benefits to the last mile customer.
We also plan to make the Growth story of India work for the benefit the Common Indian common man which till now it has been done by institutions or limited people of India.
What is the success story of your startup in your own words?
Please write about the challenges that you or your startup faced and how you overcome them to achieve success. Make sure it should inspire others.
It was a tough journey to reach at this level as no one was ready to join initially and had to face rejection at almost every stage .Not only this,we had to deal with scarcity of money to carry out operations for a almost an year. Many more challenges like making people understand about IT delivery of services,to create a robo-advisory model came our way.But fortunately now,with the awareness of online services on a rise, people have started accepting to the online model of investing money and it has started working out for us.
Any other information about your startup that you would like to share with us.
Investocafe claims to have clocked an annual turnover of Rs 6 crore last year and has an ambitious target of taking revenues to Rs 350 crore by 2020.
The brand’s launch of promising products like Investo-Super Saver account which beats the returns of a traditional savings account and Investo-Insure which offers free life cover along with investments yielding returns to the investor is for sure an indication of a bright future ahead.
The bootstrapped platform also revealed that is in advanced talks with strategic investors to raise funding for technology enhancement, branding, and marketing, apart from expansion into newer geographies and product diversification.
Thanks Anvesh. Best of luck!
