FundsIndia

FundsIndia
Website www.fundsindia.com
Promoter Wealth India Financial Services Pvt. Ltd.[1]
Founders CR Chandrasekar and Srikanth Meenakshi[2]
Directors CR Chandrasekar, Srikanth Meenakshi, Parag Dhol, Ashu Garg, Sameer Shroff, Aditya Parekh[3][4][5]
Products Mutual funds, equities, corporate deposits, bonds, IPOs and NCDs
Services Advisory services, different types of SIPs, ready-to-go portfolios, Robo-advisory services (Smart Solutions, New India Portfolio), trigger-based investing, portfolio x-ray, Value-averaging Investment Plans (VIPs), e-insurance repository, and other financial services
Physical Office Uttam Building, Third Floor, No. 38 & 39, Whites Road, Royapettah, Chennai – 600 014

FundsIndia (est. 2009) is an online investment website headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.[6][7] The website is owned by Wealth India Financial Services Pvt. Ltd.[1] It was initially created just for mutual funds but later introduced other investment products like stocks, corporate fixed deposits, bonds, and more.[8] FundsIndia was founded by C.R. Chandrasekar and Srikanth Meenakshi,[2] alumnus of the University of Hyderabad.[9]

History

Chandrasekar and Srikanth, were hostel mates while pursuing their Masters in Computer Applications (MCA) at the University of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, in 1990. After they completed their post-graduation there, they both moved to the United States of America to pursue their postgraduate degree in Computer Science. Chandrasekar pursued his Masters at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, while Srikanth studied at the Oregon Graduate Institute in Portland, Oregon. They both began working in a variety of high-profile jobs in the field of financial services and after over a decade, they decided to return to India in order to stay closer to their respective families.[9] Eventually, they decided to launch an online mutual fund investment website together after realizing that most platforms in the country only offered access to investments in equities online.[10] Hence, FundsIndia was launched on 16 June 2009.[1][6]

Srikanth Meenakshi (left), co-founder and COO, FundsIndia, and CR Chandrasekar(right), co-founder and CEO, FundsIndia

Initially, Chandrasekar and Srikanth pooled in their savings of about Rs. 1.5 crore in order to launch FundsIndia in 2009.[9] In 2010, the company found that they required additional funding to fuel their growth and hence, they approached the venture capital firm, Inventus Capital Partners. However, the company was asked to approach them for funding at a later date, once it had shown a good performance record. Within nine months, FundsIndia was successful in acquiring several customers and earning higher revenues. Impressed by their performance, Inventus Capital Partners invested Rs. 3 crore in the firm.[11] This was FundsIndia’s Series A round of funding that was used to expand their customer base and introduce new products and services. After this, Parag Dhol, the Managing Director of Inventus Capital Partners assumed the post of Director in FundsIndia’s management.[3] In July 2012, the company raised an amount of Rs. 20 crore in its Series B round of funding that was led by the Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, Foundation Capital. Inventus Capital Partners also participated in this round of funding. After this round of investment, Ashu Garg, General Partner, Foundation Capital, also assumed a post as director at FundsIndia.[4] In June 2015, the company further raised an amount of Rs. 70 crore in its Series C round of funding. This round of funding was led by the venture capital firm, Faering Capital, with follow-on investments from current investors, Foundation Capital, and Inventus Capital Partners.[12] After this round of investment, both Sameer Shroff and Aditya Parekh, co-founders and Managing Directors, Faering Capital, assumed a post each as director at FundsIndia.[13]

Products and services

Products offered include mutual funds in India,[6] equities from the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), corporate fixed deposits and bonds, and other products. FundsIndia was the first platform in India to offer Government-promoted NPS in a fully online-enabled environment.[14] However, it currently, NPS is not available on its platform.

As some examples of a few of its services, FundsIndia was the first to launch trigger-based investing across all mutual funds in India. Using this service, investors set triggers to their investments based on different criteria like the performance of the SENSEX, the net asset value (NAV) of a particular fund, returns generated by his/her portfolio, and so on.[15] Recently, it became the first investment service provider (mutual fund distributor) to provide its own rating service for mutual funds. This service has been named FundsIndia Ratings.[16]

It was also the first financial services platform in India to offer a Value-averaging Investment Plan (VIP).[17] Using VIP, investors can invest more when the markets are low, and less when the markets are high.[18] FundsIndia offers different kinds of Systematic Investment Plans like Step-up SIPs, Alert SIPs, Portfolio SIPs and SIPs on exchange-traded funds (ETFs).[19] The platform was the first to launch Flexi SIPs in India, which enable investors to alter their investment levels depending on their financial situation.[20] FundsIndia pioneered robo-advisory services in India with its Smart Solutions and New India Portfolio products.[21][22] The platform also offered ready-made 'ready-to-go portfolios' tailored according to the investors’ investment time frames, or life stages.[21] These products were then replaced with an enhanced robo-advisory service called 'Money Mitr'.[23] It also allows its users to generate their CIBIL credit reports using their FundsIndia account.[24]

Recognition

FundsIndia won the National Online Advisory Service Award at the CNBC-TV18 - UTI Financial Advisor Awards for two years in a row, for the years 2013-2014, 2014-2015 and 2015-2016.[25][26] The platform received the award for spearheading the financial advisory movement online with their unique services and features. The winner was chosen by a jury of financial experts on the basis of customer feedback, quality of service, online viability, organizational growth, quality of online advisory services, and several such factors.[27]

FundsIndia was also awarded Promising Brand of the Year 2015 in the Financial Services category at The Economic Times Best Promising Brands Summit held in Mumbai, Maharashtra, on March 26, 2015.[28]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Wealth India launches online investment platform". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 17 June 2009. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
  2. 1 2 Gajjar, Paritosh (31 July 2012). "FundsIndia Raises Another Round Of Funding". India: Deal Curry. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  3. 1 2 Pradhan, Anmol (3 August 2010). "FundsIndia.com Raises Rs. 3 Crore From Inventus Capital". India: Medianama. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  4. 1 2 Das, Nandana (31 July 2012). "FundsIndia.com raises $3.6M in Series B funding led by Foundation Capital". India: techcircle.in. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  5. ↑ Reporter, BS (2015). "Wealth India Financial Services raises Rs 70 cr in Series C funding". Business Standard. India. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 Adajania, Kayezad (17 June 2013). "Buying mutual funds online is not difficult". Livemint. India. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  7. ↑ Shankar Roy, Kumar (2 August 2010). "Inventus Capital puts Rs 3 crore in WIFS". India: mydigitalfc.com. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  8. ↑ Dhanorkar, Sanket (15 April 2013). "Online investing: Tips to manage your investments through portals". The Economic Times. India. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  9. 1 2 3 Srivastava, Ishan (13 February 2011). "Mutual Fundas". The Times of India. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  10. ↑ Vidya Bala; Aarati Krishnan (8 August 2010). "No-frills mutual fund investing". The Hindu Business Line. India. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  11. ↑ Peerzada Abrar; Vasumita s Adarsh (11 October 2013). "Entrepreneurs must have ability to build top-notch teams with ideas to impress investors". The Economic Times. India. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  12. ↑ Varadharajan, S. (20 June 2015). "Fundsindia gets Rs. 70 cr funding". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  13. ↑ Mahesh, Prahsant (18 June 2015). "FundsIndia.com raises Rs 70 crore for expansion". The Economic Times. India. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  14. ↑ Bhaskaran, Deepti (8 December 2010). "Another portal offers NPS online". Mint. India. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  15. ↑ Bharali, Eureka (1 December 2009). "FundsIndia Investors Savor Value-added Services at Low Cost". Silicon India. India. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  16. ↑ "FundsIndia.com launches FundsIndia Ratings - The Economic Times". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  17. ↑ Shankar Roy, Kumar (13 January 2010). "VIPs have the potential to outperform SIPs". India. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  18. ↑ Venkata, K. (3 July 2011). "The VIP way to lower investment cost". The Hindu Business Line. India. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  19. ↑ "FundsIndia.com launches Flexi-SIP". Business Standard. India. 3 February 2011. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  20. ↑ Joydeep Ghosh; Tania Kishore Jaleel (1 April 2011). "Don't misuse flexibility". Business Standard. India. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  21. 1 2 Dhanorkar, Sanket (13 July 2015). "Would you let a robo-adviser handle your hard-earned money?". The Economic Times. India. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  22. ↑ Mohan, N. "Investment assistance for the family". Banking Frontiers. Glocal Infomart Pvt. Ltd. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  23. ↑ "Investors should approach robo-adviser with caution". www.mydigitalfc.com. Retrieved 2016-11-29. Consider this. FundsIndia, an online investment platform, has recently launched a comprehensive automated investment advisory service. The new service promises to enable any investor to get personalised advice and an investment portfolio in a matter of minutes. The new service has been christened as ‘Money Mitr’.
  24. ↑ FundsIndia Desk (3 June 2015). "Credit reports: Now available on FundsIndia". FundsIndia Marketplace. Wealth India Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  25. ↑ "The Financial Advisory Awards". CNBC-TV18 - UTI Financial Advisory Awards. 1 July 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  26. ↑ "Money Control". 1 July 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  27. ↑ CafeMutual, Team (3 July 2014). "FundsIndia wins award for providing online advisory services". cafemutual.com. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  28. ↑ "फंड्सइंडिया.कॉम को ईटी अवॉर्ड" [FundsIndia.com wins ET award]. Absolute India (in Hindi). India. 31 March 2015. Retrieved 9 September 2015.

External links

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