30 Under 30: Why Signzy is digital banking's final frontier

 
Ankur Pandey, Ankit Ratan, Arpit Ratan | 25, 28, 28
Founders, Signzy
Category: Finance

The financial services sector has made huge strides in going digital. Yet, one process that remains, by and large, entrenched in the offline mode is KYC (Know Your Customer) or identifying and authenticating a client.

On a mission to crack this problem is the Bengaluru-based startup Signzy. The project took off when Ankit Ratan, an IIT Delhi alumnus, decided to use his technology know-how to digitise legal contracts in 2014. He discussed this with twin Arpit, a graduate from ILS Law College, Pune. With friend Ankur Pandey, an IIT Kharagpur graduate, the brothers found a solution that made electronic legal contracts possible.

For authenticating, identifying and doing background checks on clients, the trio successfully deployed Artificial Intelligence (AI) and blockchains—the cryptographic technology behind bitcoins.

By 2015, they had established Signzy Technologies Pvt Ltd. The company’s technology can authenticate and identify a person in a few hours. “A contract has many processes which involve lots of manpower. We replace these with AI solutions,” explains Ankit.

The partners were quick to realise that their platform has immense use in finance where banks and NBFCs spend a lot of time authenticating clients, mostly through old-school paperwork. Signzy’s technology automates this process.

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Signzy is now fully focussed on the finance vertical because that is where the founders see potential. The startup was the winner of the Payment System Innovation Contest 2016 sponsored by the Reserve Bank of India.

“We were attracted to the founders’ clarity of thought and their early proof points in building a proprietary platform that could become an industry standard,” says Bala Srinivasa, partner, Kalaari Capital, which has invested $250,000 in Signzy.

Signzy’s solutions can also be ported to any market in any country and it has plans to expand overseas. The company also plans to use its technology to prevent frauds in credit cards, fund transfer and in the capital market.