How Three Friends Made Bank Bazaar - A Rs. 2000 Crore Startup?

BankBazaar is a dynamic online marketplace based in Chennai that aims to raise financial knowledge among Indian customers by providing quick and personalized prices on a wide range of financial instruments available in the Indian financial market. The company was founded by Adhil Shetty, Arjun Shetty, and Rati Shetty in 2008 as a long-awaited remedy to the rigged Indian banking system. It has carved out a niche for itself in the fin-tech industry over the years.

Bank Bazaar Startup - Key points

• Company name: BankBazaar
• Headquarter : Chennai - Tamil Nadu (India)
• Founders: Rati Shetty, Arjun Shetty, Adhil Shetty
• Sector: Fintech
• Founded: 2008
• Parent: A & A Dukaan Financial Services
• Website: www.bankbazaar.com

Bank Bazaar Startup – India’s Financial Products Marketplace

Bank Bazaar aims at providing customers’ with awareness as to what goes in the financial markets. It is the first online platform that gives consumers instant quotes on loans, credit cards, insurance products and mutual funds.

BankBazaar Startup – Features & Strengths

• It is easy and convenient which can easily be applied, searched, and compared.
• Paper work assistance is provided with guidance
• It is easily understood. There is no befuddling finance jargon
• Offers and discounts are customized
• No charge is applied

Bank Bazaar Startup - Founders

• Adhil Shetty Adhil Shetty is the CEO and co- founder of India’s one of the biggest startup the Bank Bazaar under A&A Dukaan. It is claimed to be the world’s first neutral online platform for customized loans and credit cards. He was born in 1980 in Chennai and now he is the director and CEO of Bank Bazaar. He has a graduation degree in International finance and business. He completed his graduation from Columbia, University of New York.
• Arjun Shetty Arjun Shetty is the COO of BankBazaar & holds a master’s degree in Operations Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has studied from the college of Engineering in Guindy.
• Rati Shetty Rati Shetty is the CPO of BankBazaar. She holds a bachelor degree in Business administration. She pursued her bachelor’s from MOP Vaishnav College in Chennai.

Bank Bazaar Founders - Adhil Shetty, Arjun Shetty, and Rati Shetty

Bank Bazaar Startup - Important Core Team

• Iype Isac : Chief Delivery officer
• Senthil Arumugam : Head of process Excellence
• Sriram V : Chief Human Resource Officer
• Murari Sridharan : Chief Technology Officer
• Ramesh Shrinivasan : Chief Financial officer
• Aparna Mahvesh : Chief Marketing Officer

Bank Bazaar Startup - Funding

Bank Bazaar has raised around $110 million details of which are:

• October, 2017 - $30 Million
• July, 2015 - $60 Million
• January, 2014 - $13 Million
• March 2011 - $6 Million

Bank Bazaar Startup – Investors

• Sequoia capital
• Amazon Mousse partners
• Walden International
• Fidelity growth partners India
• Eight Roads Ventures
• Experian
• Sequoia
• Sequoia India
• Eight Roads Ventures
• Walden SKT Venture fund
• Eight roads Ventures India
• GUS Holdings
• Iype Isac
• Murari Sridharan
• Ramesh Srinivasan
• WSV

Bank Bazaar Startup - Services

• Basic credit information report of the consumers
• Enhanced credit Information Report
• Equifax Portfolio Review
• Equifax Alerts
• Equifax Risk Score

Bank Bazaar Startup - Achievements

• It has won top honors in the financial Communications Category at PR Awards Asia 2019
• It has gained recognition at the India Content leadership awards 2018
• Bank Bazaar has also been awarded the 4th Indian Banking reforms conclave & BSFI award for the best Fin-tech Bank Collaboration

Bank Bazaar Story – Competitors

Though Bank Bazaar is one of the finest Indian startups but there are still there are competitors growing to achieve fair share in the market

Competitors of BankBazaar include:

• Policy Bazaar
• Vera Bank - Financial Services - Private
• Bank of the James Financial Group
• BIMA
• Huntswood
• Gullakh
• MoneySmart
• CoinHako
• Bro4u

Bank Bazaar Startup - Challenges

Though it is one of the finest startups still it had to face a lot of challenges. Some of the challenges faced by Bank Bazaar include

• A single advisor had to handle multiple customers
• Hampered productivity
• Business downtime
• No ways to recover lost database
• Increased amount of call drops

Bank Bazaar Startup – Business Model

BankBazaar works & revolves around the Business Model of providing fast & easy paperless loans. It offers its clients to apply for all types of loans such as personal loan, car loan, home loans, fixed deposits, health insurance, life insurance and car insurance.

Bank Bazaar Startup – Growth & Financial Numbers

• BankBazaar's operational revenue was INR 53.92 crore in FY16-17, with total revenues of INR 71.16 crore.
• BankBazaar had a revenue of INR 240 crores in FY 17-18.
• One of the founders, Adhil, reported in October of the same year that the BankBazaar platform had had close to 23 million visits, a 100 percent increase from October 2016, when the platform had only received close to 11.5 million visitors.
• The Startup has a total team of over 1000 people.
• 169 million unique people visited BankBazaar's website to acquire financial products in 2018.
• In 2017, BankBazaar gained close to 15 to 20 new financial institutions to its roster, bringing the total number of financial institutions on board to 85.
• In addition, BankBazaar expanded its product offering to include two-wheeler insurance and a free consumer credit score in collaboration with Experian.

BankBazaar - Initiative to Develop India’s Banking System Solution

BankBazaar’s online credit processing platform aims at providing a solution to India’s long awaited banking system. Their dedication towards providing simple, clean and clutter-free product experiences using smart technology with innovations such as paperless transactions and instant approval/disbursal is commendable.