A Fintech For Employees – BW Disrupt
By offering products designed to benefit both employees and companies, Jify seeks to address a major gap in the consumer finance space
Fintech platform Jify, founded in 2021 by Anusha Ramakrishnan, Anisha Dossa Aibara and Aditya Mehta, which enables employees to access their earned salaries on demand besides providing other financial benefits to them, has been doing well despite a difficult funding environment this year on account of global political and economic headwinds.
A dazzling performance in the very first year of operation has turned the spotlight on the start-up, and earned the founders a place on this year’s BW Disrupt 40 under 40 entrepreneur list. The startup has grown 100 percent month-on-month on various parameters including revenue and is on track to end the year with a loan book of Rs 250 crore, informs Anusha Ramakrishnan, COO, Jify.
Also, despite a cross-industry funding crisis, Jify recently raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Accel and Nexus Venture Partners. The company says the money will be used to improve and expand its product offering as well as strengthen its customer base.
“Good business ideas with sound business models get funded at the right valuations. We have been fortunate not to be affected by the current challenging environment when we raised Series A with Accel and Nexus and currently have a runway of 24 to 36 months,” says Ramakrishnan .
“The era of ‘easy money’ seems to be over, but this can be a good thing for startups,” she adds.
Ramakrishnan believes that 2023 will likely continue to be a cautious year for all businesses, including startups. “There will be a lot of focus on capital and cost savings to guide us through the next few quarters given the overall global market sentiment,” she says.
Future prospects
Although it is not easy at all for a startup to undertake expansion in the initial stages, in 2030 Jify plans to redouble its efforts to build the team, especially in technology, product and sales. The company also intends to grow its current user base from 1 million to more than 2.5 million over the next year, besides focusing on expanding its reach to companies in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.
The ambition to build and grow a business usually clashes with the mentality of being conservative on spending. But Ramakrishnan explains that as founders they have always been conscious of being frugal when it comes to cash burn, and the current environment definitely calls for this.
