Introduction: The Information Interface India P Ltd, promoter of Niyogin, acquired a BSE listed NBFC – M3 Global Finance Ltd, and rechristened it to Niyogin Fintech Ltd. Post the acquisition, the company raised equity capital of Rs 235 crore from Institutional Investors to drive its growth as a Fintech company. Its objective is to cater to the evolving needs and realities of the MSMEs in India. The Fintech company is building a Neobank platform that will serve the MSMEs by providing credit, financial inclusion, investments and SAAS services on a single platform.
Acquisition Route to Fuel Growth
Niyogin has embarked on a vision to help the MSMEs, which have remained underserved or unserved across financial products and technology. In alignment with its vision, Niyogin aims to expand its reach to the under-penetrated territories in India and drive financial inclusion.
About four years back, the credit segment was launched to meet MSME needs in urban India. The small ticket unsecured business loans were offered to MSMEs and focused on accessing the market by engaging finance professionals. In addition, Niyogin adopted an inorganic route to fuel growth when it acquired Moneyfront in 2019, bringing in a Wealth Tech segment to enhance the product stack in urban India. The following year, it acquired another company, iServeU, where it added the Rural Tech segment, giving them access to under-penetrated rural India.
Product Basket
- Credit Products: Unsecured working capital advances, small duration loans, and secured loans. Some of these secure products could be of third parties not forming part of the balance sheet.
- Wealth Tech Products: This platform could be directly accessed by individuals to help them in financial planning.
- SaaS B2B Platform: The finance experts can use this platform to offer wealth management services to assist MSMEs or MSME owners.
- Wealth Analytics Platform: The finance experts get insights from analytics for their clients, and individuals could also access the platform for financial planning.
- Rural tech Platform: It enabled Direct Money Transfer (DMT), Micro ATM (mATM), Aadhaar enabled Payment Services (AePS), and Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) services in rural areas.
Revenue Model
Niyogin generates revenue from interest as well as fee income. The fee income is generated from the commission, licenses, and cross-selling products to MSME clients using finance professionals’ services. Partnering finance professional earns one-time setup fees for using the Wealth Tech platform and onboard MSME clients. The medium enterprises also pay fees for using the analytics platform. Additionally, the enterprise’s annual maintenance fee is payable to use the platform.
Expanding Distribution Network
With the acquisition and integration of iServeU, the FinTech company expanded its distribution network in rural India through 2.5 lakh plus retailers. In the Urban Tech segment, new mortgage partners were added. The Wealth Tech segment added new enterprise logos in the analytics business. In addition, new products were added to the credit as well as non-credit segments. The iServeU acquisition added Direct Money Transfer (DMT), Micro-ATM (mATM), Aadhaar enabled Payment Services (AePS), and Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) services to the existing bouquet.
Niyogin is building a unique distribution network that provides FinTech companies efficient market access and enables local services by bringing neobank to the rural populace. It is also doing business with retail stores located in neighborhoods of the same locality. Expanding product offerings and easily accessible Tech platforms permit the company to rapidly expand its reach onboard partners from local retailers, enterprises with store frontage, Fintechs, and finance experts.
The financial inclusion, inorganic growth route, innovative data usage, mitigating credit risk and enhancing distribution network to reduce dependency make it unique. Furthermore, upgrading obsolete technology to withstand fierce competition, putting internal control systems in place, and human capital development is other activities to de-risk the business model. They remain compliant with extant regulations governing FinTech companies.
Conclusion
Niyogin is an innovative FinTech company providing bouquets of products through its distribution network of finance experts, retail stores, Fintechs, and stores with extensive frontage. Its business model is unique, with the potential to expand its reach. Financial inclusion is a significant part of the services extended to the underserved and unserved populace. In addition, the Wealth Tech platform by Finance professionals extends financial planning services to MSMEs and their owners.