Easing Finance: Interview with Rohith Reji, CBO of Neokred

By Puja Sharma

Aiming to democratize banking infrastructure by lubricating its interior processes, Neokred, with its technological propensity bridges companies and employees through its new-age API banking account offerings.

Rohith Reji is a young entrepreneur, inordinately dedicated to and involved with technology. Fascinated by start-ups and innovative ideas ever since his childhood, Rohith incorporated his new company- Neokred Technologies in December 2019, which became successfully functional by June 2020.

Merely 24 years old, Rohith has come to acquire multidimensional experiences, starting from the endeavour of working on Expedite- a technology-driven app aiming to integrate numerous features into a single platform.

Neokred is an Open Banking Stack that provides curated versions of the issuance and acquiring side in the payment ecosystem. It is a FinTech infrastructure company that empowers corporates, FinTech, and start-ups to pioneer their banking services with the help of modified tools.

Aiming to democratize banking infrastructure by lubricating its interior processes, the firm, with its technological propensity bridges companies and employees through its new-age API banking account offerings.

Founded by Tarun Nazare and Rohith Reji, the company is based out of Bangalore, the Neokred platform not only simplifies expense disbursements and improves organizational productivity but also “redefines modern corporate solutions in the field of branded card management, account management, pay-outs, etc” by acting as the issuing engine for brands, corporates, FinTech looking to co-brand and democratize open banking stack to them.

Neokred not only provides Co-branded cards with their client’s design but also develops customer-centric applications for banking service by providing indispensable features and its Card Management Programmes allow Corporates to manage/customize the cards and their use cases. It also encompasses some noteworthy corporate reward programs thereby encouraging cashless transactions in India

The startup has designed India’s Corporate Neobank in partnership with Yes Bank providing them with their first-ever prepaid card ‘YES BANK Neokred Card’. YesBank now serves as the issuing bank for its prepaid cards that will be consigned to its corporate partners from various sectors.

IBS intelligence interviewed Rohith to understand Neokred, and how it is enabling the next generation of financial services:

How does Neokred work?

Neokred is a FinTech enabler working closely with brands, corporates, fintech houses, and banks to create an amicable interface for the stakeholders to interact and utilize any banking features on the go. We are a DIY ( Do it yourself) universe trying to embed and lubricate legacy infrastructure to make it extremely easy for anyone to come in, drag n drop and choose their service.

What are the types of clients you cater to?

The clients range from Healthtech startups launching health & insurance payment cards, student platforms launching teenage smart cards, digital lending firms launching credit, BNPL, and lending modules, and brands launching their version of savings and salary accounts.

What is your growth strategy for this year and the next?

We look at enabling more and more brands to come in, choose their feature choice, and design their version to go live. Our strategy has always been straightforward; To co-create and curate use cases and add them into our universe while replicating the same for more brands to understand how fintech ripple is created in every industry. The goal is to educate about how financial technology adds tremendous value to an existing business model for any industry.

How is the company simplifying expense disbursements and helping organizations overall?

Our platform comes with a robust infrastructure and scalability that allows organizations who utilize the platform to understand and be on the top of their service in monitoring, understanding, and assessing their most core areas of monetization. It lets you reconcile very easily and brings out a gentle approach to downloading reports.

What are your expansion plans in the next 1-2 years?

Neokred acts as a catalyst for open banking. We are trying to create more products around lending, neo banking, acquiring, and even payments to a pure drag n drop DIY ( Do it Yourself) mode.

What is the future of open banking? And how will this market evolve in the next 5 years?

Open Banking is considered the end goal that all the fintech we see around us strives towards. If we see the works in the UK, which has implemented one of the most successful models around Open Banking, India and her fintech are aggressively trying to create an environment whereby fintech and banks will co-exist to make life easier. With account aggregation policies, RBI fintech collaborations are all the visible factors of how the future of financial technology will be an Open Banking arena for India.

Your thoughts on the RBI’s proposed law around digital payments?

The recent development of RBI stating payments up to INR 200 can be done offline is a fascinating move as it emphasizes the work towards a cashless & digital nation. We have been at the forefront of enabling the same with the launch of NeoKey- Rupay on the go by the National Payments Corporation of India for Rupay. This complements the move and enables a truly cashless nation.

Any comments for the IBSi readers?

Neokred strives extremely hard to create a universe around financial infrastructure for banks, brands, and corporate houses to democratize financial technology. We are trying to be the friendly neighbourhood fintech for the stakeholders to create their banking version, logic, and business model.