Rubique: A fintech startup on its way to upend banks

A banking revolution just around the corner.

While heated discussions on startups being an urban reality gathers momentum, small town players like Manavjeet Singh, born and brought up in Nahan, Himachal Pradesh, continue to prove this wrong.

Established in 2014, Singh’s brainchild, Rubique, is a fintech startup that has evolved from being perceived as just another online player competing with web aggregators to being one of the leading fintech players in lending. Before launching Rubique, Singh, an MBA in Marketing and Finance from Himachal Pradesh University, had worked with HDFC Bank, Citicorp Finance, SBI Mutual Fund, Reliance Capital and Yes Bank. Singh has also set up businesses like Reliance Commercial Finance and various product set-ups for HDFC & Yes Bank, before embarking on the entrepreneurial journey.

An inspiration for Tier II and III cities, Singh’s story is replete with passion for innovation, hard work and focused intent. Read on!

Creating a seeker and provider platform

While working in the Indian Banking system for more than 25 years with some of the best financial institutions, I have noticed the consumer and lender interaction from very close quarters from different vantage points – Retail lending and MSME finance to Commercial Vehicle Finance. All this while, I saw a huge gap between banks’ requirements and customer needs; and the challenges faced by banks and the pain that the customer goes through. In fact, the current marketplace for financial products is highly inefficient, time consuming and uncertain for customers as well as banks. We believe that for every borrower, there is a lender willing to lend. However, the customer has no sure-shot way of finding that bank and this is where we wanted to intervene and thus the idea of Rubique was born.

Our journey, however, began as bestdealfinance.com, where during the initial period we had to struggle a lot to differentiate ourselves.  Post many hits and trials, we kept refining our approach and eventually decided to change our identity. Thus, ‘Rubique’ was born to solve a customer’s painful and complex journey in search of finances in a unique yet simple way. Today our offerings include a wide range of products such as loans, credit cards and insurance to customers (individuals as well as SMEs) with online in-principle approval and to provide an end- to- end fulfillment.

Though we are compared with web aggregators, we are more than just an online aggregator website generating leads as we focus on disbursements. The one thing that makes us unique is our neutral platform where lenders and borrowers could discover each other, through our matchmaking algorithm and fulfillment engine, which offers faster access to credit along with certainty.

Funding funda

We started with bootstrapping a sum of $1.5 mn, which was utilized for operational set up across six cities and for our incorporation. To strengthen our proposition further and scale up the business, we needed funds so we could bring in the right talent from the industry for functions such as technology, business and marketing as well as deploy them to acquire technology expertise. This is how our search for a Series A partner started. After meeting a few investors, we finally closed our Series A for $3mn led by Kalaari Capital with participation from YourNest Angel Fund, Globevestor and Dexter Angel Circle, in September, 2015.  

We will also raise more funds to grow. We are here to create profitable business and consider ourselves as successful pilot. To take it to a next level we will definitely need funds to strengthen the technology and expand the geographical reach.

The growth chart

Manavjeet Singh

We are currently operational in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Jaipur. Rubique has witnessed over 400 per cent y-o-y of growth in business, facilitating disbursement of loans worth over Rs 1250+crore& 31,000+ credit card setups. And maintaining our SME focus, 65 per cent of our business has been facilitated to the SME segment. So far we have processed loan applications of 1,10,000+ customers.

We could achieve such phenomenal numbers only because of Rubique’s constant endeavor to deploy technology in traditional practices. Along with a growing interest from financial institutions to adopting our technology vision, we are also receiving tremendous recognition on international platforms. Rubique was one of the 40 finalists across the globe in the Singapore fintech festival, was among more than 120 fintech companies across more than 40 countries selected for Paris Fintech Forum and one of the finalists in the Benzinga award to be held in New York this month.

Catering both to individuals as well as SMEs, so far, Rubique has been facilitating best deals across a wide range of loans and credit cards. Recently, it increased its gamut of services by foraying into insurance and has even partnered with Bajaj Allianz & Tata AIG to offer insurance solutions to its customers. However, Fintech is a massive market and despite our success, I still see our company as a successful pilot because other markets are way ahead of us.

The road ahead

We aim to become the largest online marketplace for financial products and one of the fintech players changing the way people buy financial products in India. We are majorly investing into technology to keep sharpening our value proposition for customers as well as for our financial institution partners and will look for more cities as mentioned above.

So far it has been a continuous journey of learning with many hits and misses, and today Rubique has come a long way from being just a mere marketplace to going a few steps ahead in offering complete support and guidance to the end-users.

Can fintech players like Rubique bring about a banking revolution? Do share your views.