“Alternate Data Solutions Help Avoid Negative Profiles” Says Nageen Kommu

The banking and Finance sector has come a long way in establishing itself as a digital native industry being the forerunners in ushering in the digital revolution. However, given the inherent risks the BFSI operations carry within, it has become most prone to data threats and fraud. In such cases, only analytics-based customized solutions seem to be the way out. Digitap.AI, to bridge the gap between the demand-driven market and the inertia in implementing innovative ideas, brings in AI/ML solutions into the technology stack to enhance the credibility of the products. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Nageen Kommu, Founder & CEO, Digitap.AI.

1. Kindly brief us about the company, its specialization, and the services that your company offers.

Digitap is an early-stage tech start-up dedicated to developing cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and compliance-related digital solutions for organizations in the BFSI sector. We assist BFSI firms to employ AI/ML-powered big data to deliver a seamless and fully compliant client experience. This helps companies in both improving their risk management as well as reducing fraud. We provide BFSI businesses with solutions for credit underwriting and digital customer onboarding. KYC solutions, Optical Character Recognition and document validation, and Video KYC solution that complies with RBI are some of the onboarding options.

The BFSI sector currently focuses primarily on Bureau data to underwrite customers. However, close to 400 million Indians lack proper access to credit because of low bureau scores. We are providing BFSI companies with alternative data sources and scoring models so they may underwrite these clients and reduce their NPAs. We have market leading AI-ML based alternate data solutions to assist our clients to reduce risk and increase user life-cycle value. We look at multiple data sources including telecom, social media, eCommerce, employment, etc., among others.

2. Kindly mention some of the significant challenges the company has faced till now.

A few of our major challenges include:

•Competition in the onboarding product segment: As multiple players are offering similar solutions in the market, we can circumvent this by providing better accuracies and efficiencies leading to more clients coming onboard

•Client's limited exposure to using alternate data in their automated journeys: Many of the clients we work with are new to AI/ML data analytics for user profiling and underwriting. We see this changing fast though

•Hiring and grooming top-class tech and development talent: We have a young team now who are dedicated to our cause and goals.

3. What is your company's edge over other industry players?

The unique data sources we have identified that will have a substantial impact on the customer's credit profile are what differentiate our underwriting solutions from the competitors. Our USP is in the scoring models as well as helping clients create bespoke scoring models that will be more accurate for their customer segment after the data sources are identified

4. How is Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) shaping the BFSI industry today? How is it changing the role of CIOs and leaders?

The BFSI industry makes substantial use of technologies like AI and ML for various purposes including financial monitoring, risk management, marketing, customer retention, data management, process automation, algorithmic trading, and more. These technologies are undoubtedly changing the quality of products and services the BFSI industry offers. They have not only improved user experience and created better ways to handle data, but have also sped up, streamlined, and redefined conventional procedures to make them more efficient. With this, we can say that today, a BFSI company's success can be determined by how well it can use technology to harness the power of its data to create innovative and personalized products and services.

We know for a fact that the role of the leaders and C-suite executives has certainly grown over the years. However, the disruptive potential of AI, ML, and other rapidly developing technologies means their role should become much more strategic and high-profile. Thus, CIOs must prepare themselves to take on a more central role in their organizations. In the digital age, acceptance and embracing of the changes and advancements that new technology provides are essential for effective leadership. Leaders will need to take the initiative to not only oversee the technology but become translators between the technology and the business. CIOs need to think about how to be digital business enablers and not just technology providers.

5. What are your growth plans for the next 12 months?

Given the significance of data in business decision-making, especially in the BFSI sector, we believe that there is a tremendous opportunity for a wide range of data-related use cases. In addition to credit underwriting, we are presently focusing on enlarging the data-related use cases to include marketing, fraud detection, and identity management. We are also working to build a robust Personal Finance Management tool, which will assist our clients to understand users better while providing a mechanism for better financial management and discipline. We intend to expand beyond the BFSI sector in India and also target customers globally. Our goal is to reach an ARR of USD 20–25 million in the next five years.

6. How is your company helping customers deliver relevant business outcomes through the adoption of the company's technology innovations?

•We help our clients build a seamless user onboarding journey while providing better fraud control and verifications

•Alternate data solutions help our clients understand their customers better and avoid negative profiles. This leads to better control of business losses and hence brings a positive effect on the bottom line.

•Being a Technology Service Provider, we assist our clients to access the Account Aggregator framework. This helps them build a seamless experience for the user sans any complexity in the back end.