Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You’re reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Launching a technology startup may seem like an appealing prospect, but the reality is that it is a challenging and arduous journey. While having an innovative idea, laying a strong technology foundation, being compliant with regulations and relentless execution are important factors for success. Building a company requires making difficult decisions, dealing with limited resources, and facing a steep learning curve. However, despite the challenges, building a successful company can also be one of the most rewarding experiences. With these most inspiring notes, the founders of KredX Manish Kumar and Anurag Jain started talking about the journey of KredX, one of the largest supply chain finance platforms with a new-age plug-and-play ecosystem of finance and cash management products, conceptualized in 2015.
According to them, the company has been aggressively working towards addressing the credit gap and paving a route to efficient and hassle-free credit access. The widening gap between accounts receivable and accounts payable creates a cash flow mismatch which starts an adverse domino effect in the corporate-supplier ecosystem. KredX is committed to addressing this gap and ensuring smooth cash flow for the unserved and underserved segments.
“So far, the company has engaged with more than 40000 MSMEs and its tailor-made solution helped brands and enterprises get instant payment against products sold, while the buyers get immediate financing to purchase products on credit with a flexible repayment window. Directly and indirectly, we have enabled more than 100,000 jobs in India,” said the founders in a joint statement.
KredX began its journey to democratize the global trade finance space which is plagued by tedious documentation, opaque operational workflows, and high financing charges through its ITFS platform -KredX GTX. It aims to help Indian exporters, MSMEs, and even small businesses gain access to working capital at competitive rates by bringing together financial institutions from across the globe on its platform.
“We have built a tech platform that caters to businesses of all sizes and nature- traditional and new age with users with different levels of tech savvyness. Kredx offers a platform where physical invoices can be read and assessed better with the help of advanced digitization and technology,” they said.
Speaking about the replacement of manual interventions related to fraud checks with digital processes, Manish and Anurag said that, “Legacy systems can also be easily integrated into our systems. Bots and voice assistants constitute the robotic process automation (RPA) that helps reduce and eliminate repetitive tasks for businesses and investors. Using the latest trends available from India Stack to neo banks to machine learning we provide hassle-free experiences to our clients.”
While unwinding their successful tech code, the founders also added that, “We are the pioneers in enabling invoice discounting through a technology platform on a pan- India basis across more than 300 cities in India. Today, a business located in Tirupur can avail working capital funding from an investor based in Guwahati against invoices raised on a buyer in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh within 24hrs and completely online increasing the capital velocity and bolstering its top line as well as bottom-line.”
KredX is a technology platform that connects investors, enterprises, and businesses seeking services such as invoice discounting, working capital, accounts payable management, accounts receivable management, and treasury income. To ensure the legitimacy and intent of businesses, the company claimed to have a rigorous multi -pronged evaluation process that vets and validates them. It is said to be using complete digital processes and methodologies, allowing clients to access the dashboard from anywhere and at any time.
To survive in today’s ever-changing business landscape, it is critical for companies to identify the pain points of the consumers and build a product that caters to these needs. Amid such a competitive ecosystem, KredX stands as a premium player with its innovation and constant thrive of analysing market needs that lead the company to a profitable one.
“As a Series B-funded startup, KredX currently boasts a healthy cash flow. While we have a flourishing invoice discounting business, our focus is now directed towards the growth of new products like the KredX GTX (ITFS platform licensed by IFSCA), KredX CMS (SaaS solution to manage AP & AR), KredX Pay (B2B Payment Solution) and Distributor side embedded tech solution. We believe that these new products and geographies will begin to contribute substantially to our overall revenues within the next 12-18 months, ultimately culminating in our goal of achieving profitability,” said the founders.
Mentioning about the government’s regulation in the fintech ecosystem, the founders opined that regulation is good for fintech as it provides “guard-rails” for the companies and makes them accountable for their actions. Most of the fintech streams – payments, lending, etc., involve handling huge sums of money and require regulatory intervention to filter out any money laundering, fraud, and other illegal activities.
As per their view point, the regulation also reflects the criticality of the sector and the role it can play in shaping the economy in the future. It underlines the importance of these sectors and the visibility it garners at the top government as well as regulatory levels.
It is said that the right steps make every business successful. Marking a prodigious business journey, KredX founders are also of the same opinion. As per their words, to achieve success in launching a business, it is crucial to spot opportunities in the market and develop solutions to meet the needs of untapped segments. Great entrepreneurs are adept at identifying problems and finding ways to address them. It’s important to accept that making mistakes is inevitable along the way.
With a fire to grow and keep the success rate high, the founders revealed their future plans and preparations. According to them, the company has expanded its product suite to facilitate global trade financing being one of the four entities to be granted the ‘in-principle’ license by IFSCA to operate ITFS (International Trade Financing Services) platforms. Recently, KredX completed its first successful funding on KredX GTX of the annualized value of $15.6 million and became the first licensed global trade ITFS platform in India to complete a deal successfully. It has also partnered with some leading financial institutions and many more partnerships are in progress.
Furthermore, the founders added that, “With several projects in the pipeline, we aim to further capture companies across various industry domains. We have also launched our services in the Middle East through our strategic partners. The plan is to launch our services in entire GCC countries in partnership with our partners. We have also set up an office in Singapore that provides innovative supply chain financing offerings, and as we continue to grow. We are growing at a pace faster than we had envisaged and with multiple product offerings and in multiple locations. We are headed towards being a truly global company.”
The founders also left a note to the fellow-travellers in the fintech industry; ‘A startup is no less than a child – you raise it, nurture it, build it, love it, and above all, believe in it, and customer satisfaction is the key to any successful business.’
Factsheet :
1. Amount of funding received: $33 million
2. Year of inception: 2015
3. Number of employees: 250+
We are now available over telegram, Click here to subscribe to our telegram channel to receive regular updates straight to your phone.
