How is FloBiz accelerating the growth of SMBs in India?

FloBiz is one of India’s fastest-growing tech platform for Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs). It aims to empower traditional business practices with the help of digitisation. In 2019, the company launched its flagship product, myBillBook, to accelerate the growth of SMBs. The myBillBook is a simple-to-use & robust billing and accounting app that aids SMB business owners to run their operations from anywhere and any time. It is available on both mobile and desktop and provides a secure platform for business owners to record transactions and track business performance on the go.

In a span of just 1.5 years, myBillBook has empowered over 50 lakhs SMBs in India. With CIOL, Co-Founder & CEO of Flobiz, Rahul Raj outlines how FloBiz’s flagship product is accelerating the growth of SMBs in India.

The Customer

There are over 60 million SMBs in India, which contribute to nearly 30% of the country’s GDP. However, we learnt that 80% of these businesses still rely on traditional or offline ways of operating business. So, we decided to build a product that will cater to the needs of this unorganised sector; through technological advancements. The myBillBook focuses on serving SMBs across the supply chain, with personas ranging from small manufacturers and distributors to retailers from large industry verticals such as FMCG, electronics, hardware, pharmaceuticals, etc.

It is an ideal software for GST registered businesses where invoicing is one of the core business activities. Also, businesses looking to digitise their operations to get a better understanding of their financial position can use this product. SMB owners with no prior accounting knowledge can operate this software and track all progress directly on their mobile phones. They don’t have to juggle between files, transaction books, or business records to find information about their business.

The Challenge

After an extensive market study, Flobiz found no dedicated software was available for business owners in this sector. All the software alternatives available are designed for accountants or finance professionals, but none cater to business owners directly. With the introduction of GST, the need for digitisation has increased. The manual methods of conducting business consume time, increase reconciliation errors, affect strategic decisions and blur performance visibility for the owners, which can be solved through the infusion of technology in large part.

Furthermore, there is a huge credit gap in the market. Businesses are deprived of access to formal capital due to the lack of accurate data, collateral requirements, financial plans, etc. So, we decided to build a solution that would bridge the gap and help SMBs grow through digitisation.

The Solution

Our flagship product, myBillBook, is a simple-to-use, powerful and intuitive billing & accounting application for both mobile & desktop. Our app helps business owners keep track of all business transactions from anywhere and anytime. It helps them create bills (GST & non-GST), record purchases & expenses, maintain stock and manage payables/ receivables directly from their mobile phones or computers. Also, the app generates critical business reports that help owners make effective business decisions.

Currently, the app is available in 4 languages - English, Hindi, Gujarati & Tamil and we will roll out other languages soon. The app offers multi-user functionality to easily give usage permission to business partners, accountants and organisation staff. Also, we have recently upgraded the app with multi-company and cash & bank management features. Our customer-first approach has helped us build a robust & highly scalable product using the latest encryption & privacy technology for ensuring advanced data security.

The Team

Flobiz has a passionate team with a product-driven approach and a fintech mindset. The team is fully capable of utilising technology to solve the pain points faced by the SMBs in India. Our core mission is to revolutionise traditional business practices by streamlining their day-to-day business processes to accelerate their growth.

Our team comprises entrepreneurs, specialists and hustlers who have successfully built & scaled several startups such as Koinex, Bizongo, LimeTray, MoveInSync, and many more in the past. We are a group of first principle thinkers. We believe in innovating to deliver the most value to our SMB customers and the ecosystem altogether. Because of the strengths of our team, we have the backing of global investors, such as Elevation Capital (previously SAIF Partners), Greenoaks Capital, and BEENEXT.

The Implementation

Our approach to the implementation of solutions has been - Know your audience, their pain points, build the features that will impact the largest user subset and have an iterative & experimentative approach.

Results

The appetite for digitisation among SMB owners has tremendously increased over the last few years. The reasons tantamount to the introduction of GST; the penetration of digital payments; and the launch of e-invoicing. Now, the Covid-19 pandemic has further fuelled it. Unfortunately, no software has been able to effectively solve the pain points that business owners face while managing their business operations. We believe that there will be a 3X to 5X increase in the number of GST registered businesses within the next 5-7 years. We are excited to grab this massive opportunity with our existing product offerings & future roadmap of products & services to contribute to the vision of making India a self-reliant nation.