SPOTLIGHT: Nitin Kapoor on how OXYMONEY solves for Bharat and India

Nitin Kapoor is a dynamic founder with a penchant for finding the right challenges to solve. As they say ‘pinpointing the right problem to solve is half the problem solved’. And most often it is from this point, in a founder’s journey, that the strength, resilience and sheer grit of character outweigh the challenges. As we went deeper into understanding his resolve to solve for impact and work for financial inclusion, we realized that his is a vision of sustainability and expansion.

In this interview Nitin throws light on his journey as he built one of the most sought after startups in fintech space, leveraged on his strengths, learned from his mistakes and what makes him bullish about his future.

Hello Nitin, pleasure to have you here with us today. Please give us a glimpse into your story.

As a Computer Engineer with experience of more than 10 years, I have been onboard with companies like PAYTM from (2008-10) followed by Buongiorno, (Italian MNC now wholly-owned subsidiary of NTT DOCOMO). Post this experience, i decided to step into entrepreneurship with an interest in the field of GPS and Tracking systems, launched APPNIT.

Back in 2016, we pivoted to Payments, the industry was taking shape and I had earlier worked in this domain and products. Same year we applied with RBI for wallet licensing and by 2017 the license got approved.

While our product focus was mobile wallets, among various competing  market players of OXYMONEY, we started working on a BOP model i.e. Bottom of Pyramid Model along with the B2C segment. Understanding the demography of India we see a considerable proportion of population is daily earners and many have to relocate for employment. OXYMONEY has created an agent network; around 10000+ retailers with a million plus customer-base for CASH-OUT services. The company offers a buffet of services across verticals.

The core business looks both at B2B and B2C segments (retailers and through them consumers as well as direct to consumers). We do recharges, bill payments, fund transfers and all.  The key is financial inclusion, as we look at India, majority of the people, they didn’t have a bank account at some point of time, however, now thanks to PMJD Yojana, most of them has a bank account, so there is a digitalization at the end level and we would like to monetize and look where we can fit in and probably help those customers transact online.

What inspired you to build OXYMONEY as a product? How did you start it initially?

When you look at India, in 2010 net banking was there, but there was very little to less penetration of people who were using it, in 2015-16 this improved but not that much until demonetisation, that forced customers to use online banking. People in metros are tech-savvy, mostly. But if we move to non-metros they still face a challenge (in operating their mobile phones). In 2016 if you see the split, all the wallet apps or smart banking apps ran on smartphones while 45% India was still on feature phones. Here we confer, these phones can’t access those rich smartphone apps; mobile banking, wallets, financial apps. There was always a need to serve these customers.

Hence, they could be helped through an assisted model. So we developed an Agent and Distribution Network. These networks are made of physical shops/stores. They may be near your home. Probably, might have noticed in your neighbourhood markets that do fund transfers, recharges, payments , everything. These are real establishments, accessible to those who are not able to transact through their phones. That’s the market need as a product.

How would you describe your position in the market in comparison to your competitors?

Market size/ domain is huge with many players. The First level of consolidation has already happened for us. Our edge is our wallet license. And in that space, you only find 2-3 peers who have wallet licenses and thus probably fewer players operating in this space. What makes us special or our USP is our wide range of products which can now be offered via WALLET and our strength that we can execute payments through ourselves directly. So, we are integrated directly with NPCI, the umbrella organisation in India for transaction processing. We don’t need to rely on any 3^rd party to process such transactions. That’s why we have a better success ratio also in terms of transaction processing.

Technology barriers that you experienced with the development of  OXYMONEY as a product?

Technological barriers were mainly the domain-knowledge and foresight. When you have a product, it’s easier to build another product understanding the former one. But if you don’t have that and you are serving people who are not tech-savvy , then you have to think it to be a simple product yet with a very complex backend.

Feature phone owners are not tech-savvy guys, so when they come to your platform they should not feel messed up, how to operate or how to transact, it should be simple for a layman. So, something simply takes a lot at the backend needing deep study in product and domain. And we took a stand to build that! Making our product our core strength.

Automation has been adopted, looking at API, automated ledgers. We are into transaction processing that means a lot of traffic comes to our platform, it would be difficult to process all of it manually. So, we need to automate our processes, technology stack/stats. which help us streamlining the data. Processing half a million transactions around the month , system needs to be well equipped and automated to process and reconcile that data.

What impact of COVID- 19 have you observed in your business?

We have a bouquet of services and we have few products that have taken a hit but there are a few products that have gone up (in terms of usage). Like fund transfers are low but at the same time people are withdrawing money. Blue collar workers and people in tier 3 and 4 cities are withdrawing. The Government is transferring funds amidst the outbreak to help and they are withdrawing for household expenses, so yes some have seen a decline while complementary products have seen a rise in demand. But we won’t say the business is at zero level operation, instead it is at a good place as it was doing pre-COVID scenario. As a whole it has dipped a bit as shops and establishments have not opened but product-wise data is different. You need to get recharges, groceries, etc so many of the products make sense in any of the scenarios be it pre, post, or during a pandemic situation.

Are you looking forward to integrating with any other businesses?

We are in the field of FINTECH. Wallet and PG is our core product. Through the wallet we do multiple products like Aadhar Enabled Payment System, Money transfer, recharges, bill payments, POS, BBPS and so on. So, we look forward to coming up with NCMC (National Common Mobility Card). A single card that serves the purpose for both online or offline shopping, your travel card: metro, buses and trains. Acting as a ticket.

How did you build your initial team?

Person should be willing to go an extra mile and be a risk taker, without that you cannot really survive a startup. He/She should align with the Vision. A firm believer of the vision, that this is right and we should do it. These are core things I would look out for.

My initial team being techy myself, I spent the majority of my time in product development, along with the team members I hired first. I was the core involved in it. Then we raised money from friends and family and gradually furthered to formal investors.

In the market with Impact projects and Financial Inclusion initiatives on the rise, what all solutions do you look forward to providing?

The key service we have is CASH OUT SERVICE. If we say there are around 2 lakh ATMs in India, 50% of these ATMs are in bank premises so people can’t access them post 4 or 5 pm. So, we have a micro-ATM kind of product or an Aadhar-linked kind of a product where you withdraw from an account without going to a bank or ATM. Probably, we also might step into the lending and insurance domain.

If in the present you have to pivot in terms of business/organizational structure in the given economic conditions, what will it be?

Our current structure is suitable for all scenarios. So, at present we have a regional presence, we have central affairs, we have investors, mentors. We are well placed to face the current situation.

Any personal Lessons you would like to share?

When you start running on a path, have faith on yourself. If you have doubts in that piece or execution, it will never happen. “When one says that something is 99% done but many times in that case the 1% is bigger than the 99%. That implies, it will not reach 100%. Which is as good as “zero”.

What does your business look like 6 months from now, given the current scenario?

I see some exciting times. We are already in the middle of some pivot. Now people would transact digitally. Conventionally, now if you go out you probably go for digital payments through wallets. This situation that we are in probably has evolved us, earlier it was demonetisation that moved us from ‘cash-rich economy’ to ‘cashless economy’ and this has again accelerated this effort. And probably we will be moving more towards a digital economy. In that case we fit perfectly and don’t look at any downside for products we are in.

In the present COVID outbreak many companies are laying off employees especially in the vertical of payment gateways, what is your take on this aspect?

We are not laying off any. We are a (lean) team of 50+ employees. Rather we are hiring for some positions. We have hired 5 new individuals during this time and 2 of them are joining in from May 2020.

In what other potential verticals would you like to take OXYMONEY as expansion or diversification?

We are looking forward to merging the two (wallet and PG) and wanting to move into a new banking space, 100% Digital Banking, more than what banks are offering and our gearing up our platform for the same. A platform where people can open accounts, probably they can book FDs, send money, do recharges, look at their account statements, all at one place and not go to the bank’s website to do so. We have already tied up various banks.

If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?

Many things are coming up and the world is changing, I have learnt a lot during this journey. There are few changes in my working style rather than, probably, starting afresh.

Share any one habit which, you think, makes you resilient.

COMMITMENT: Firm belief that things will happen.

It was a pleasure talking to you Mr. Nitin. Thanks for giving us the time and sharing meaningful insights from your story and the payments infrastructure macro you operate in.

As an impact-driven startup, OXYMONEY is moving in a positive direction in terms of its scalability observing a sustainable yet exponential growth. The team is lean, ambitious yet humble. We wish them the best, and all the success in the future.