Connaizen, an early stage Fintech startup has managed to rake in pre-seed funding from two Ex-Citi top executives. Vikram Sud, former APAC O&T Head for Citigroup invested in the startup at an undisclosed valuation. This brings the count of the investors to two after Umang Moondra, former MD of Citi Singapore, fueled in the capital earlier this month.
Connaizen got in touch with both the investors during its participation in Startupbootcamp Fintech, Singapore cohort of 2016. The fintech stalwarts had mentored the startup at the Startupbootcamp program.Vikram Sud, in an official statement comments,
I’m excited about the prospects that data & intelligence holds for financial services marketing in India. Since a customer’s spending pattern captures transactions and not ‘intent’, Connaizen enables marketers to create wholesome strategies taking into account what their customers are doing outside of their stores.
Connaizen, the brainchild of Nikhil Garg (CEO), Vikas Bharti (CTO) and Sanchit Kapoor (Head – Product and Marketing), was incorporated in 2015.
The spend analytics platform examines transaction data available with banks, giving key insights of consumer behavior to major e-commerce and retail giants. It leverages users’ card transaction history, search history, geographical locations and purchases of peers.
It simply intends to be a DIY strategic platform for marketers enabling them to understand how, when and where the users would most likely spend. The thorough wallet-insights covering the prominent data enables them to have a complete view of the users’ spending. Marketers,
Marketers, post which can connect with the relevant customers through the startup’s partner financial institutions. It allows them to target customers, customize campaigns, optimize ad-spend (increase ROI) and also measure campaign performance with competitive benchmarking. Its clienteles include big names such as Thomas Cook, Swiggy, Jet Airways and Starbucks.
Connaizen also envisions to help financial institutions to run targeted offers which can only be availed only if the user chooses digital/card payment. Sanchit Kapoor, co-founder of Connaizen, expressing his excitement said,
We’ve had the pleasure of being mentored by some of the finest in the Fintech industry and it’s very reassuring to see them back the idea and the team time and time again. Vikram is a huge value add to the team given his expertise in the domain.
The news comes in at a time when Connaizen is gearing for its first commercial launch with one of India’s biggest private bank with 3 more planned in the coming months. The startup is currently involved with four out of the top five banks in India.
