Monish Anand. He’s a banker, a technologist, and a Fintech evangelist. Above everything else, he’s a father. He spent 20+ plus years in corporate working for large banks and technology companies only to realize that they were not solving big problems and quite frankly, were often part of the problem. His company, Datasigns Technologies, aims to provide underserved and unserved access to optimal credit.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Calvin and Hobbes
What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos
Favorite online tool? — Google Calendar and Google Task
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish I knew what Internet was”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:35 – Nathan introduces Monish to the show
02:20 – Datasigns Technologies started last year
02:32 – Datasigns Technologies gives credit ratings
02:38 – 400M people in India apply for loans yearly
02:42 – Less than 107 get loans from banks and other financial institutions
03:00 – Datasigns Technologies tries to bridge the gap between the credit givers and credit takers
03:15 – Datasigns Technologies has grade scoring algorithms
03:35 – Monish believes that the calculus used to determine credit worthiness is not good enough
04:03 – Datasigns Technologies calculates data from sources and turns them into algorithms
04:10 – Monish shares his driver’s experience applying for a loan
05:18 – Datasigns Technologies relies on mobile data
- 05:48 – Datasigns Technologies has a mobile app
06:06 – Datasigns Technologies’ marketing explained
06:35 – Datasigns Technologies has a tie-up with micro-small to medium enterprises
07:00 – Datasigns Technologies does financial literacy for the enterprises
07:21 – There are 75K people who now understands Datasigns Technologies
07:54 – Datasigns Technologies has around 10K app downloads
08:07 – Datasigns Technologies has closed 600 loans
- 08:20 – Loan terms
09:24 – Datasigns Technologies was Angel funded, last year
- 09:31 – They have raised around $400K on an equity round
- 09:39 – Datasigns Technologies is raising another round of $5M
09:50 – Nathan breaks down the math
10:27 – Datasigns Technologies’ interest rate varies from 22-26%
- 10:46 – Interest rates, in India, are much higher than in the USA
11:27 – Datasigns Technologies is the only company in India that is mandated by financial institutions to acquire customers
12:00 – Loan sharks charge 3% a month
12:40 – Datasigns Technologies has a processing fee and a basic interest rate
13:03 – How Datasigns Technologies makes money
13:43 – Datasigns Technologies helps banks build their books
14:00 – Why Datasigns Technologies is raising $5M
14:22 – Team size is 17
- 14:36 – All based in Bangalore, India
14:45 – Monish shares why he started Datasigns Technologies
- 15:05 – “There are people who deserve loans, but are not getting loans from the banks”
16:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Be the solution—not just part of the problem.
There are people who deserve a loan, but are not given a chance—Monish wants to change that.
The fintech space is one of the hottest spaces, at the moment.

Resources Mentioned:

The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
Organifi – The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 617: DataSigns Raises $5.4M, Gives Loans To Indian Credit Borrowers At 1/2 The Rate Money Sharks Do With CEO Monish Anand

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

EP 617: DataSigns Raises $5.4M, Gives Loans To Indian Credit Borrowers At 1/2 The Rate Money Sharks Do With CEO Monish Anand