The Shift From Paper to Digital – Signzy, Contracting Made Easy!
Offering a digital on-boarding solution for banks, NBFCs and other financial institutions, Signzy uses a combination of Artificial Intelligence and advanced cryptography we can ensure that digital compliance is convenient but yet secure. Recently recognized as “The Most Innovative Company’ by the Reserve Bank of India, BW Disrupt got into an exclusive with Ankit Ratan, Ankur Pandey and Arpit Ratan, Co-Founders, Signzy to about all about their platform:
Q- Tell us more about Signzy?
A- A digital world is inevitable, but trust establishment still requires offline mechanisms. We at Signzy are creating 'building blocks for a Digital Trust Infrastructure'. Such a system should uniquely identify individuals/entity and reward them for good past behavior.
Signzy currently offers a digital on-boarding solution for banks, NBFCs and other financial institutions. Most banking services are going digital but one key process that is still offline and hampers consumer experience is regulatory compliance. There is a pressure to dilute digital KYC however digital has high risk. We at Signzy believe that through a combination of Artificial Intelligence and advanced cryptography we can ensure that digital compliance is convenient but yet secure. We started development in 2015 and launched our first product in March 2016. Since then we have got good feedback and traction and were awarded as most innovative payment solution by RBI in June 2016 and were also finalists among top 30 global startups in PNP fintech.
Q- We are very keen on knowing about the background of the founding members and your expert areas?
A- We are three founders:
● Ankit Ratan, IIT Delhi, 6 years’ experience in Data Sciences working with financial institutions in the US and India.
● Ankur Pandey, IIT Khargpur, has developed over 25 full stack applications and is a security geek.
● Arpit Ratan, ILS Law School, 6 years’ experience, with expertise in financial regulations and working with statutory bodies.
Q- What technologies are you using?
A- We are a Cloud API focused company and the capabilities we have built are within Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain and Big Data optimization
Q- Which all players are you working with currently?
A- Payment Gateways, NBFC/Banks, Online Lending Players, P2P Lender, Rural Financing, Payment wallets.
Q- What are your major offerings?
A- Signzy offers today:
● Complete Merchant on-boarding solution for Payment Gateways, wallets, e-commerce, online lending.
● ID/Document Verification enabled by AI
● Statutory Background Information using ARI (Algorithmic Risk Intelligence).
● Digital Contracting using E-signature and Cryptography
Q- A lot of paperwork, policies and lengthy procedures are some things are a lot of customers face. How is Signzy offering a solution to all of it?
A- A lot of this paperwork and regulations have been created to reduce fraud or malpractices. These steps require manual verification and background due diligence. Signzy uses AI to automate ID/Document verification, a digital contracting system to allow signing and a Blockchain based strong auditable infrastructure.
We are further aided by the Indian government. Proactive approach towards digital initiatives, especially India Stack where the government themselves want to aid this shift from paper to digital. Hence we feel that India would be the most shining examples of complete movement from paper to digital, even before other advanced nations.
Q- Digital trust is the currency of today and will be central to defining the high performers of tomorrow- what are your views on the same?
A- In a completely digital world that will be the only thing of any real value and we at Signzy understand this paradigm. This future digital trust infrastructure will be based on some of the hot technologies of today, such as AI and Blockchain.
Some of our solutions are in stealth and this may not be the right time to discuss them but, the trust technology of tomorrow would look very different from the cumbersome procedures of today.
Q- You were also recognized as ‘The Most Innovative Company’ by the Reserve Bank of India. What were the efforts that went into achieving it?
A- That was one of the most challenging things we have encountered as a team. The competition included participants from entire financial industry. In the finals we were competing against veterans like ICICI Bank, YES Bank, HDFC Bank and other senior vendors.
We were confident about our technology solution, but we were by far the youngest team in the competition and had little to show for our backgrounds in banking. As a team, we focused on solving a real challenge and providing technology innovation instead of merely a business innovation. I think that is what impressed the judges.
Q- What is your long term vision and future plans?
A- We are looking to digitize a lot of statutory data that is available and help create a risk profile based on this data. We want to achieve this using the new age tech like AI and blockchain.
We think India is one of the best user case, as it has one of the highest instances of fraud and we want to build a secure Digital Trust Infrastructure which we can then take to the world.
Q- A quick advice to the young entrepreneurs?
We are ourselves too young to give any advice, but we try and focus on the client problem at hand and solving it, rather than worrying about investment.
