5 WealthTech companies helping to grow financial literacy in India

By Leandra Monteiro

India has over 275 million households, with an estimated 90% living in Tier 1 and beyond. The vast majority, comprising the estimated 100 million households, are estimated to become savers for the first time – looking beyond traditional investment avenues such as bank FDs and Gold. However, lack of financial awareness and infrastructure has poised to be challenging to up their investment game and create opportunities for passive income sources.

FinTech players are providing new-age solutions backed by technology to simplify financial management for the common man and enable access to a multitude of financial services. Below are the top 5 WealthTech players contributing towards financial literacy and inclusion for retail investors:

Wint Wealth: A alternate debt asset platform, Wint Wealth was incorporated in November 2019 as a digital investment platform. Opening doors of debt investment avenues for the common man, it crossed transactions worth ₹ 100 crores within 12 months of operation. This retail investor-oriented platform democratises fixed-income assets that were previously available to HNIs with a low ticket size of ₹ 10,000. Through the platform, investors get access and education about high yield NCDs(Non-convertible debentures), enabling them to earn higher returns than fixed deposits but are less riskier than equities. The company is striving to democratise debt investments in India for the common man.

Earlier this year, the company has raised a seed fund of $2m from marquee investors. As the company has grown, it has continuously introduced new structures that give investors more opportunities to diversify their portfolios. The platform is co-founded by individuals with strong experience in the financial services industry, debt capital structures, and strategy- Ajinkya Kulkarni, Abhik Patel, Shashank Chimaladari and Anshul Gupta.

Fintso: MFDs and advisors in India, especially beyond the top 30 cities, face challenges like high agent churn, shrinking margins, lack of automation or infrastructure, and dependency on a single product for revenue. This makes the long-term sustenance of distributors problematic.

To bridge this gap, Fintso is an AI and ML-based B2b2C platform that aggregates independent financial advisors and retail investors on one platform, providing infrastructural and back-end support to IFAs, helping them to assist beginner investors. The start-up has been able to connect to over 51,000 clients across 406 districts and over 15 lakh retail investors in a span of a year’s time.

Globalise: Globalise is a platform for guided global investment that makes global investing accessible for Indian investors. It offers a completely interactive digital journey for experienced as well as new investors. The Liberalized Remittance Scheme allows Indian investors to invest in stocks like Apple, Tesla, Google, Amazon, etc.

Globalise allows Indian investors to directly invest in and create wealth from 5,500+ international stocks, funds, and ADRs listed on NYSE and NASDAQ. It offers a cloud-based, integrated digital ecosystem for customers to collaborate with their existing advisors and extend their trusted relationships to build international portfolios.

IAMIN World: I AM IN World is one of India’s leading financial literacy platforms, allowing parents to empower and financially educate their children. This Mumbai-based start-up believes an early introduction to financial literacy will empower young minds to make wise money decisions. Its goal is to create a global community that values financial literacy.

The educative sessions have been specifically designed keeping age-group in mind. For Classes 1-3, the basics of concept of money and financial terms are included. Whereas for teens in Classes 10-12, the focus is on real-life skills that matter like monitoring finances, insurance, and so on. I AM IN is an acronym for “I Am Investing.” Spend, Save, Invest, Earn, and Learn are the five most important quotients of Financial Literacy that the platform focuses on.

Stratzy: The number of first-time investors is at an all-time high in the market with the number of Demat account holders in India being more than doubled in the past 3 years. Stratzy is a zero-learning-curve virtual investment guide for retail investors. The platform recommends trading techniques to internet investors based on research and observations. It bills itself as a no-broker platform that eliminates the need for consumers to pay high management fees or take a share of their profits to an investment manager.

The platform allows investors to explore the most recent stock ideas, as well as a description of why they make sense; these ideas are specifically curated for maximum returns in 2-3 months. The start-up has integrated with a number of online broking platforms where people can execute Stratzy’s trading game plans.

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