Exclusive Interview with Monish Anand, Founder & CEO, MyShubhLife

MyShubhLife was started in 2016 under the brand name "Shubh Loans" as India's next-gen credit scoring and digital lending platform. Its platform is based on three key pillars  (a) Financial literacy, (b) a rapidly learning Credit Model powered by deep data sciences and (c) a unique B2B2C distribution model for deeper engagement with its customers and corporate partners. 

1. With what mission and objectives, the company was set up? In short, tell us about your journey since the inception of the company?       

MyShubhLife (earlier "Shubh Loans" and a product of Datasigns Technologies Private Limited) was set up with a mission to leverage technology for building contextual Financial Products for the Next Half Billion people.

When working in the banking, technology, and telecom sectors, I closely witnessed risks involved to the credit takers from informal moneylenders which inspired me to start Shubh Loans. With the increased digital footprint and adoption of smartphones, it made sense to create an ecosystem that was quickly scalable to reach larger segments of society and create financial inclusion for those who are unserved or underserved by formal banking systems.

MyShubhLife was started in 2016 under the brand name "Shubh Loans" as India's next-gen credit scoring and digital lending platform. Our platform is based on three key pillars  (a) Financial literacy, (b) a rapidly learning Credit Model powered by deep data sciences and (c) a unique B2B2C distribution model for deeper engagement with our customers and corporate partners. 

With the introduction of Insurance and SIPs, MyShubhLife started its evolution from a lending-only to a loan & savings platform in 2019. We launched "Shubh Saathi", a flagship Gold membership program to provide affordable and customized financial solutions to the employees of our corporate partners. Today, this customized "Employee Benefit Program" delivers financial well-being to employees of our 600+ partner companies with customized products and services.

In 2020, when the pandemic disrupted the entire world, MyShubhLife showed strong resilience through the period of uncertainty with a well-grounded business continuity plan. By mid-2020, we integrated a number of new products with 100% digital journeys and rebranded ourselves from Shubh Loans to MyShubhLife to reflect the transformation of the company from lending-only to one of its kind financial wellness platform for the next half billion.

With tech as its enabler, MyShubhLife has achieved calibrated growth year on the year thus giving confidence to global investors to believe in our brand and invest over $27Million to date.

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

Credit management is the cornerstone of the lending industry. From day 1, MyShubhLife is invested in data sciences to build credit models that are the best in the industry. This helps us to champion financial services for the underserved segment and also understand their consumption and borrowing habits.

By using real-time analytics and deep customer insights, we specialize in catering to the customer's segment of the 'Next Half Billion,' who are not part of the conventional credit system. This segment comprises households with annual incomes ranging from INR 1.4 Lacs to INR 4.5 Lacs and accounts for 45 percent of the community while contributing just 8 percent to the formal credit system.

By offering consumers access to fair and transparent credit, MyShubhLife provides meaningful financial inclusion, which further helps in creating newer, customized products to meet the various financial needs of our customers.

3. What is the edge that MyShubhLife has over others in the industry? 

Our nearest competitors are conventional lenders from the unorganized segment. Unlike a traditional lender, we have not only eliminated the process frictions but also credit frictions.

With our unique distribution system, modular tech architecture, and ever-evolving credit model we are able to rapidly meet the financial needs of larger customer segments who have low or no access to formal credit.

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

MyShubhLife continues to focus on the first principle of credit risk management by building more contextual products for our customer base, staying positive on unit economics, and reaching profitability in 2023.

5. How is IoT/Big Data/AI/Robotics evolving today in the industry as a whole? What are the most important trends that you see emerging across the globe?         

With the influence of IoT, Big Data, and AI, we are now on the verge of a significant digital revolution that will benefit customers while also reducing operating costs and increasing wallet share for Fintechs. The adoption of technologies here is more driven by shifting customer behavior in favor of higher-value digital lending services and mobile applications.

Customers may connect with Fintechs on their own terms, gaining financial support or guidance as needed, how and when they want it, thanks to the data-driven approach. It will be a creative combination of technology, people, and products that fintech will redefine for the next generation of customers.

6. The industry is seeing a rising importance of business and technology enablers like virtualization, convergence, and cloud. How do you see these emerging technologies impact the business sector?

Virtualization helps in the deeper engagement of customers. There are multiple ways to communicate with customers virtually using digital channels such as email, SMS, WhatsApp, chatbots, document uploads, IVR, and video tools. Especially in a contactless, post-pandemic world, this becomes a new reality and key to providing a smooth experience for our customers to avail of services using a mobile device. Convergence via technology helps in a range of activities – from credit decisioning to fraud identification. Stronger Security, automation, improved customer service, risk profiling, and operational & cost efficiency are the key outcomes of convergence.

MyShubhLife is already a cloud native-based technology platform which ensures we have no fixed costs and have the ability to autoscale. Our communication channels use artificial intelligence and a high level of automation in reaching out to customers. From sourcing to collections and integrating with partners and lenders, the entire process is built using technology as the lever for a simplified user experience.

7. How do you see the company and the industry in the future ahead? 

We, at MyShubhLife, believe that we have all the ingredients to be a digital bank for the next half billion by 2026. Looking at a growth rate of 13x, this credit segment is poised for growth from $25 billion to $335 billion. MyShubhLife is at the forefront of this change.