Creditseva: India’s first Integrated Platform for Real-Time Bad Loan Closures and Score Improvement

BWDisrupt interacted with Satya Vishnubothla, Founder of Creditseva to know
more about India’s first integrated platform for real-time bad loan closures and score improvement.

Founded in late 2011 by Satya Vishnubothla and Kalyan Varma with a vision to simplify credit portfolio management for individuals, Crediteva is a complete credit lifecycle management app that helps users to improve their credit score and have a healthy credit report. The company which ran an over the counter advisory in its nascent stage, grew significantly in 2014 after introducing the services on an online platform for credit management for the first time in Asia. The platform runs with data analytical tools and an algorithm to instantly understand a credit report and score to deliver a goal based advisory, helping millions of customers to take the right credit decisions. A pioneer in the Indian bad loan industry, Creditseva has disrupted the fin-tech space by being India’s first platform that aids the customer and the banks to make bad loans closure on its platform instantly and effortlessly through its advanced tools without any charge. Currently headquartered in Singapore, the company has its operations and development center in Hyderabad managed by a team having 40+ years of collective experience.

Meet the Founder
Satya Vishnubhotla co-founded Creditseva in late 2011 and has been its Chief Executive Officer since then. He has been instrumental in the formation and growth of the consumer credit advisory industry in India, primarily leading product innovation to launch many firsts in the market solutions and technology applications like robo credit advisory, credit monitoring, rectification tool, integrated online loan closure system. In his role, Satya is responsible for the development and execution of Creditseva’s strategic plans in the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia. He is focused on fostering key partnerships within the ecosystem to accelerate the growth and adoption of Creditseva’s services.

Prior to Creditseva, he was associated with RSMi, world's 7thLargest accounting firm, where he headed the Hyderabad operations. Previously, Satya was also associated Pricewaterhouse coopers. Attaining a CA, CMA and CS degree at the age of 26, and becoming an all India rank holder in CMA, Satya went on to work for a Big4 consulting firm but was never satisfied with solving problems on paper! Satya ventured out to contribute to the Finance Industry by providing technology solutions to solve the real financial problems of the consumers.

With more than 10 years in the Finance industry, Satya brings extensive leadership and industry experience. An expert in the area of credit management, he played an active role in understanding and applying credit analytics and best practices in credit advisory for the consumers in India.

Investment Raised
The company raised INR 2.4 crore in a bridge round and received seed funding from external investors - Pix Vine Capital and Singapore government backed fund Infocomm Investments Pvt Ltd (IIPL). Additionally, Creditseva has 3 strategic investors from the likes of Citi Bank, HSBC &Paypal spread across the Banking and Finance Industry.

Product – Innovation in Credit-ability
Creditseva helps individuals address the complex challenges of managing one’s credit profile by bringing a radical difference through their algorithmic suggestive engine and online analytical tools. A do it yourself (DIY) free application, CreditSeva is India’s first online data analytics and decision making platform for customers to connect instantly with bankers and credit bureaus and execute transactions such as loan closure, rectifying errors and monitoring credit report and score. The product also improves the efficiency of the debt management process of a bank by providing customized loan closure offers based on consumer credit data points.

The application delivers a broad range of customized consulting services online to clients, all done through encoded algorithms. The innovative tools let people assess their credit profile themselves, negotiate loan closure/settlements, track and rectify errors, set reminders for payments, etc.; which in turn, helps them better manage their credit.

USPs and Key Features
The strategy builds on Creditseva’s core strengths: its unique position as an online credit rating consultant, its instant ability to analyze credit reports and provide tailor made plans for settling loans and credit cards, its strong presence in the Asian market.

 Self Help Platform
Creditseva is a leading provider of consumer debt management with its first of its kind, free DIY consumer app that helps in managing credit portfolio and score on a real-time basis.

1. Pioneering the bad loans industry: Creditseva boasts of being a leader in the bad loans space by helping its customers in closing bad loans through a transparent and simplified process which connects the user to the decision makers instantly and helps them negotiate settlement through its advanced, secure and fast algorithm.

2. Complete Credit life cycle management: While most players in the industry consider only factors such as income and assets info to customize loans and credit card offering, Creditseva goes beyond and provides better comparison of interest rates by accounting credit data points and using intelligent analytics to help loan closure, rectification of errors and score monitoring, making it a complete credit life cycle management app.

 Technology Solutions
Creditseva improved lives of millions throughout the world with its data analytical product comprised of the following distinctive tools:

1. Loan Closure tool: Enables real time loan closure offer to get optimal offers from banks to close bad loans and make payment online to banks directly.
2. Rectification tool: Commences users’ communication with Credit Bureaus and Financial institutions to highlight errors in the credit report card
3. Score Building tool: Identifies the shortcomings of the low score with score drivers and credit score simulator in place and improve credit score by adding the right product to the credit portfolio
4. Safeguard tool: Protects good credit score by choosing the right identity theft protection product.
5. Robo Advisory: The online credit management service provides automated, algorithm-based credit management advice without the use of human financial planners.

 Quality Interface
1. At Creditseva, simplifying complexities is a core value. The product with its actionable features is as simple as it gets.
2. Be it negotiation, settlement or closure of loans and credit cards, all these are enabled on its online platform secured by the best network infrastructure.
3. Provided fulfilling functions as part of the design therein which is rich and deep-rooted, letting users seamlessly toggle from one service to the next in seconds

Challenges Creditseva faced Initially
Managing credit has been a challenge for users for a while. The company is trying to do something disruptive in the fin-tech industry. Being a sensitive space, Creditseva is tapping the industry one step at a time by bringing transparency into the financial process. Despite facing resistance from the banking industry in terms of compliance and regulation, the company has been relentless in its efforts and dedicated a significant amount of time and money to create a platform with all the pillars such as partnerships and infrastructure in place. The company is trying to create reach and communicate the right message to the mass media by creating awareness about its role in this industry.

What kind of marketing opportunity is Creditseva looking for?
There is a huge gap in the industry where the under-banked consumers with low credit score have no option but to depend on informal credit options which are costlier than the main stream bank finance. Managing one’s credit portfolio with discipline to improve the profile with right actions taken at the right time is the need of the hour for these under-banked consumers. Creditseva plans to attract more such users in the upcoming months by investing resources in building the right tools to simplify the loan or credit card management process. The company is reaching out to its potential user base with the help of various channels by bringing awareness through digital communications and media outreach.

Revenue Model
Creditseva integrates its platform with banks and financial institutions and charge them on transaction basis instead of charging users for using the application. The company generates revenues through loan origination and closure through its offer and acceptance platform where financial institutions pay fee on every successful transaction.

Market Size and Audience
Creditseva target customers in the Indian market are the 350 Million consumers who are having Credit reports with the Credit bureaus to help them manage their credit profile easily. On top of this, Creditseva is also targeting consumers who are new to credit with no credit history by helping them build a good credit score.

Creditseva is planning to reach out to net savvy, digital active Internet users who have low credit score or no credit score, with an aim to help them improve and maintain a good credit profile.

Future Plans and Ideas
Creditseva, having scaled from more 10,000 users to 200,000 plus users, is growing at the rate of 25 percent per month and is taking a balanced approach to capture the credit profiling opportunities in emerging markets, the largest of which is in the India. With an innovative mind-set, the team hopes to bring in a radical change in the field of finance and credit. Taking in account, the problems such as consumer awareness and availability of timely credit at the right cost still persistent in India, the company works in the direction to make things easier for its users and bring simplicity in transactions.

Hoping to launch its mobile app in the near future, Creditseva seeks to leverage the growth coming from tier-2 towns of India and become a one-stop credit management application which can simplify the credit scenario for all Indian users. After establishing a strong foothold in India, the company plans to expand to South East Asian markets in 2017.