Transforming the face of banking through technology, an interview with Niyo CEO Vinay Bagri

Established in 2015, Niyo is India’s leading neo-banking fintech startup. The GoNiyo platform is known for offering simple and efficient solutions to its employees by claiming reimbursements digitally through tracking and managing tools. Aiming at serving a hassle-free service, it saves its users from the struggle of collecting and keeping records of all bills, paper vouchers, etc. Niyo Solutions was founded in 2015 by Vinay Bagri & Virender Bisht.

 

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Currently, Niyo operates in 4 major business lines: Niyo Money being a power-packed suite of wealth products, Niyo Global Card providing the best banking experience and value for international travelers, Niyo Bharat Payroll solutions that offer modern salary accounts for India’s large blue-collar workforce and NiyoX, a recently launched product next-gen savings account for millennials. 

 

 

Launch of NiyoX

In partnership with Equitas Small Finance Bank, Niyo has recently launched NiyoX. This product will aid millennials in managing their savings and wealth by offering a 2-in-1 account in the form of a digital savings account and a wealth management suite. 

 

 

Interview with Niyo Solutions CEO - Vinay Bagri

 

In this blog we have featured an exclusive interview with Vinay Bagri, the Co-founder & CEO of NiYo Solutions, discussing the platform’s latest product NiyoX, its funding, technologies, offered services, target audience, future plans, and more. 

 

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1. Having established itself as one of the largest fintech platforms in the world of neo-banking in just a handful of years, can you tell us in brief about Niyo’s journey from its inception (in-brief), and what fields Niyo is specializing in (as of now).

Can you familiarize us with your platform’s operations and the applications and products you offer?

“We founded Niyo back in 2015 with the vision of simplifying the often complex banking experience. When we got started, we released a tax benefits savings solution to help users take home as much of their salaries as possible, and today we’ve expanded to serving so many other customers across the market.
 

Currently, we operate in 4 business lines: Niyo Bharat, a prepaid salary card for blue collar workers, Niyo Global Card, a forex card that works anywhere in the world with zero forex markup, NiyoX, a co-branded savings account with industry-best interest rates, perks and offerings, and Niyo Money, a feature-packed wealth management platform. All of our products are supported by carefully and holistically crafted mobile applications, and internally we have teams dedicated to each product to ensure that we are best serving our customers.”

 

2. Where does Niyo’s present funding stand and who are the leading investors of the platform?
   
   “To date, we have raised through Series B and racked up a total of US$49.3 Million. Our main investors are Prime Ventures Partners, Tencent, JSCapita and Horizons Ventures.”

 

3. As we have learned, Niyo works on incorporating tech solutions to develop an end-to-end digital, paperless, branchless banking experience for its customers. From building a customer-friendly interface, handling user data to offering banking solutions, what are the areas where your platform applies technologies like AI, and Big Data and how does it do it?

“Data is at the center of everything we do - whether that is through what we collect in conversations with our customers or what we observe from the real-time usage of our products. We use data to drive our decisions, and ensure that we are developing both what our customers need and what they want.

Today, we are using AI in our customer support solutions including intelligent bots, customer sentiment analysis, prioritization of customers’ tickets. We are also using AI to enhance the security of our online mobile applications.

We are just getting started on the big data journey. Our data informatic system today supports our business dashboards, anomaly detection–to identify the potential causes of issues to our support engineers–and prediction of the critical business metrics.”

 

4. With the Neo banking space not having any shortage of competition, what perks does Niyo offer that would intrigue users into trying out its platform, and what sets your platform apart from other players in the field?
   
   “From what we’ve observed, our biggest hook is the stellar interest rate that our customers can avail through our NiyoX product, and that is just one of the many avenues that we have set up to help our customers prosper. We have a distinct focus on helping customers make the most out of their savings, whether that is by removing forex markup, charging 0% commission on mutual funds or by helping them keep track of where and on what they’re spending. Now with the 2-in-1 NiyoX account, users can save and invest at the same time as well, all in one app!

Furthermore, through our products, customers have a lot more control over both their accounts and their cards. Our in-app security features allow customers a level of autonomy in deciding when they want their card to be locked or unlocked. Everything from spending limits and card PINs to the card design and usability can be customized by the user. The more power we bring to them, the better.“

 

 

5. It's been making the rounds that Niyo has recently launched a new leading mobile-first digital banking solution NiyoX, in partnership with Equitas Small Finance Bank and VISA.

Can you walk us through what NiyoX is all about and what perks does this 2 in 1 account offer?

“NiyoX is a co-branded savings account that we’ve launched in partnership with Equitas Small Finance Bank. Not only does this come with a competitive interest rate, 0 maintenance fees and a choice of card design, but also, as you rightly pointed out, this is a 2-in-1 account. We’ve integrated Niyo Money’s wealth management suite right into the NiyoX app, so that users can both save and invest in one place. This unique offering is intended to inspire those saving to grow their wealth, and make saving earnings even easier for those already investing.

On top of this, we’ve set up a referral and rewards program to say a special thank you to everyone coming aboard, and have a line of amazing offers ready for our users to avail. We hope our users take advantage of all the features that have gone live, and we’re excited to launch even more in the near future.”

 

 

6. With most of the popular banking platforms offering their own full-fledged net banking apps, who is the niche target audience that your platform is focusing on?
    

“Within the scope of NiyoX, we are focused on millennials. Our research has shown that this is a group that shows a high demand for new-age banking products that can keep up with their busy lifestyles. Through conversations with both our customers and the many millennials that make up Team Niyo, we’ve been able to use key insights to build a powerful product.”

 

7. As opposed to sectors like say, travel, education, or retail, banking hadn’t exactly borne the brunt of tech revolutionization, with startups holding the reigns till recently.
   So how did your platform promote and publicize your products and what marketing and promotional strategies did you incorporate to do so?

 

“A good product and a great customer experience should be at the heart of a product or service that is desirous of capturing the attention of its prospective customers. After that, an understanding of the customer segment is key to an effective marketing strategy. In the case of Niyo, our customers are often young millenials who crave instant gratification, empowerment (in the sense of do-it-yourself solutions) and transparency in customer dealing. Niyo’s marketing communication often echoes these customers’ expectations.”

 

 

8. In light of the present digital banking scenario, from launching additional products and applications to the expansion of the present platform, can you tell us about the future plans Niyo is building upon?

 

“Right now, Niyo’s focus is on growing NiyoX both in terms of its features and its user-base. As more users come onboard, we’ll have more voices to guide us towards the future path of the product, and for now we are listening closely to those already onboard.”