Several factors encouraged me to come up with the GroupFund idea including my past experience as the Director of Rao Brothers Chit Fund, my two decades of experience in the financial industry, as well as my entrepreneurial zeal and exposure to IT. For me the idea all came together when I was closely looking at eBay and Amazon and how they changed traditional business. When Amazon started there were large retailers, but Amazon’s convenience, scale, and technology innovations changed the game. Likewise, traditionally auctions have always existed, but eBay democratized auctions through a different channel. When I came up with GroupFund, I was thinking in a similar manner.

With the recession and inflation hitting consumers hard, banks have been wary of offering loans and interest rates have dropped. Consumerism has increased in India with the changing demographics. Traditional chit funds offer a flexible savings/loans instrument, but are mired in practices that are suited to a different segment. Because of this, we felt there was a great opportunity to introduce this centuries old, proven financial instrument while providing technology innovations that ensure transparency, better customer service, better automated underwriting processes, and a trusted brand.