Startup Circle: How is BANKIT providing financial "atma-nirbharta" to undeserving community in India?

Noida-based fintech company, BANKIT is helping hyperlocal businesses in simplifying order, payment and additional services at the store amid this lockdown. BANKIT is equipped with more than 50,000 Kirana stores with additional services like cash transfer, online order, cash withdrawal, travel booking etc to empower their business. The organization also creates entrepreneurial opportunities by appointing banking agents (business correspondents).

BANKIT vision is to make "Millionaire Agents Network" (MAN) i.e. to maximize the number of agents who can make Rs. 5-10 Lakh revenue in a year by delivering various BANKIT services. There are over 1 Lakh+ Self-employed Agents already working with BANKIT and over the last few months have been onboarding 5000+ agents, who are at the forefront of being rural entrepreneurs. Talking about the startup

What is BANKIT about?

BANKIT is a fintech company that works to solve the financial purpose of underserved people with banking facilities. BANKIT offers financial services such as domestic money transfer, cash withdrawal {(AePS) and micro ATM}, prepaid cards and other value-added services like- prepaid recharges, travel bookings, insurances etc through mobile app and web portal. The company reaches out to people through their outlets, Digi-Mitras and Kirana stores. They have kept a target to add 1 lakh outlets in the urban and rural parts of the nation by the end this year under its channel expansion and development plan.

How did you come up with this idea?

The idea behind starting BANKIT was to empower the unbanked segment by safe, secure and convenient payment solutions; to create entrepreneurs in rural and semi-urban areas. The company was founded in 2010 with an aim to push India for financial inclusion and promote digital transactions in rural and semi-urban areas since there are many region that are unable to access banking facilities. Therefore, later in 2017, BANKIT started its first operation in the market after understanding the market scenario and requirements.

How safe is BANKIT for cyber security in payments?

The pandemic has given a rise to the fintech industry to develop and enable a gamut of innovative solutions that are radically impacting the lives by increasing the reach and flexibility of conducting financial transactions. At the same moment, it gives the opportunity to cybercriminals to take advantage of the data. Therefore, we make sure to use the best software of the world in developing cyber security frameworks and ensuring safer and more secure digital payments experience for our customers.

Tell us about your journey

Our journey started in 2017 when we understood the gap between the system and unavailable banking facilities in remote area. We decided to solve the problem with easy, quick and simple services. Our business started really well as we took time to understand the market behaviour, requirement and need. Since then, we have been expanding and trying to reach out to the maximum or underserved people who don’t have banking facilities in the area.

What is your business and market growth?

BANKIT business has been in high time growth during the lockdown and also seen growth in October which will continue in November’20. We have surged in remittance, prepaid cards & cash withdrawal in previous months.

How are you different from other market players?

The USP of BANKIT is the web portal and mobile app which is easy to use and customer friendly. Our portal and app are much secured, authentic, and easy to use; if a customer has previously used BANKIT services, he is a registered user and his money can be sent within 2-3 clicks only in seconds. We keep updating our app and portal as per the Agent’s needs and convenience. We also keep adding new products and services for our customers. BANKIT is a single platform for multiple services available 24x7 and we believe that this makes us different from industrial players.

How are you helping the underserved with your technology and services?

BANKIT is a single platform for many services that are available 24x7 through a vast Agent network and it is easy to use and user friendly for Agents and for the end customers, especially those who are not tech-savvy. Our portal and application are secured, authentic, and easy to use. If a customer has registered money, it can be sent in 2-3 clicks in just a few seconds.

What are your post-COVID plans?

The COVID period has been difficult for everyone across the globe. There are a few segments that are affected by fintech like remittance, travel booking etc. During the COVID pandemic, the company has on boarded 20,000+ agents as per the demand of the services. Earlier, we used to onboard just 500 agents a month for our business, which has now increased to 3,000 – 5,000 per month.

Our outlets are all spread in rural and semi-urban areas and we are thrilled to see the tremendous growth in our business in the COVID lockdown and even after that. We have utilized this time to make our business model resilient and future-ready. Reinventing strategies as per external situations is the key and that has been our philosophy throughout We are working to reform our few strategies in business by adding many new services and products in our platform which are easy to get and hassle-free in the coming days to enable our widely spread agents in the country to serve their customers. Our focus is to strengthen our presence where people were struggling with banking facilities because that is our target audience and areas.