The Fintech Innovator: Tarun Nazare, Co-Founder & CEO, Neokred The year 2023 was a year of remarkable growth and strategic pivots for them. They not only became profitable and achieved a five per cent profit margin, but also invested heavily in creating its own UPI switch

For Tarun Nazare, a discussion with a digital banking head of a major Indian bank on an ordinary afternoon became a eureka moment to start his own venture 'Neokred'. "We were brainstorming ways to enhance customer engagement when, suddenly, it hit me. We were so focused on individual banks and their customers, but what if we could reach beyond those silos? What if we could build a bridge, a universal thread that could connect different financial players and services, seamlessly weaving them into a tapestry of better experiences for everyone? That conversation became the catalyst for Neokred," shares Nazare, who dove headfirst into product management and data science after college and later spent six years in fintech.

He started his venture with Rohith Reji, in 2019, "We weren't just creating a B2B solution; we were embarking on a mission to democratize finance for all". The startup's offering of Banking-as-a-Service APIs enables businesses to introduce new financial solutions in a much shorter period.

"Neokred isn't just another service provider; we're data-driven strategists who act as true partners to brands. We analyze not just their customers, but the entire spectrum of customer engagement across the industry. This allows us to pinpoint the exact "pain points" brands need to address and develop solutions that create exceptional user experiences. For example, for a leading e-commerce player, we used our insights to recommend personalized product recommendations, boosting customer engagement by 30 per cent," he adds. Over the past five years, it has served 1000+ companies across India in industries such as education, lending, NGOs, and D2C. What sets Neokred apart from the rest? "It is our comprehensive 360-degree customer engagement platform. We handle everything from secure KYC onboarding and seamless payments to in-depth data analysis that drives informed business decisions."

The year 2023 was a year of remarkable growth and strategic pivots for them. They not only became profitable and achieved a five per cent profit margin, but also invested heavily in creating its own UPI switch, "This game-changer will go live both domestically and internationally this year, enabling us to offer faster, cheaper transactions and expand our reach significantly."

So, what's next? For the year 2024, it aims to increase its profit margin to 30 per cent. "Data AI solutions, primarily focused on personalized customer experiences and optimized business operations, are already showing great promise. For instance, our AI-powered recommendation engine recently led to a 15 per cent increase in conversion rates for one of our clients. We plan to replicate this success across our client base and leverage insights from our borderless platform to identify further opportunities for revenue growth and cost efficiency."