The acquisition strategy of acquiring MSMEs via Enterprises is the key for Actyv.ai, which not only helps it to get good traction, but also creates tightness
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“The mission of our company is to make access to ‘affordable’ working capital easier and provide digital tools for supply chain transformation.”
Raghunath Subramanian,
Co-Founder and CEO,
Actyv.ai
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It was Scott Belsky who had once famously told, “It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.” And this what’s more pertinent to the startup ecosystem than to anything else, for it’s the startups that turn great ideas into tangible reality, living and thriving organizations that give life to a concept, making it profitable, while adding value to lives all around.
The pandemic has been has been an eye opener in many aspects. It has forced a tectonic shift across sectors over the last two years. Thanks to the rapid advancements in the field of deep-tech and digital technologies, despite standstill conditions, organizations prodded on.
Notwithstanding the surrounding gloom and severe despondency, the unthinkable happened! India managed to incubate over 2,250 startups in the year 2021, over 600 more than what was added in the previous year, according to a report by Nasscom and Zinnov. The Indian startup ecosystem remained vibrant and dynamic, despite the pandemic. Although 2022 is projected to be a promising year, the lessons learned in the last two years will be pivotal for the startups, as they navigate through the new normal.
In a series of features on the Great Indian Startup ecosystem, we shall present exclusive interactions with the most promising, innovative startups, based on three key pillars of innovation, collaboration, and entrepreneurship.
As a first in a series, we present here the story of Actyv.ai, an AI-powered Enterprise SaaS platform with BNPL for B2B embedded.
In an exclusive interview to SME Channels, Raghunath Subramanian, Co-Founder and Global CEO, Actyv.ai, provides insights into his company’s mission, stress on innovation, differentiation technology, the innert drive, business-critical early traction, state of current revenue, ways to mitigate risks, and last but not the least, growth projections.
What is your company’s stated mission?
Any country’s progress depends on the MSMEs and for MSMEs to grow working capital is essential. Actyv.ai which is an AI-powered Enterprise SaaS platform with BNPL for B2B embedded. The mission of our company is to make access to ‘affordable’ working capital easier and provide digital tools for supply chain transformation
What’s the background of your founders?
We have an excellent combination of Finance, Business and Technology in our DNA. Raghunath Subramanian is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer is a veteran of over 25+ years in Technology (he is a second-generation Techie), he is also an investor and mentor – with unicorns like UIPath, British Volt. He is a pioneer in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) & business process management (BPM) space, he has been instrumental in evolving it into an industry. He was a founding management member of UiPath and worked closely through UiPath’s evolution from Single Digit Million-dollar company to Multi-Billion Dollar Enterprise and NYSE Listing. Raghu is also an active board member and investor in successful companies like BritishVolt, Simple Energy, Tender Cuts, Social Swag amongst others, in his portfolio.
Raghu Venkat founder and CTO he is passionate about building software teams from ground-up. He believes that building a great Engineering team should combine effective programming techniques with a logical process that helps with communication internally and externally & connecting Users, Products, Test cases and Monitoring. With an experience of over a decade in being an industry mentor, consultant as well as being CTO for prominent companies like Loyalways, evive etc. he has had a lot of experience of the technology sector and has seen it evolve.
Ramkumar Co-founder and COO he is a seasoned entrepreneur and business leader with 20+ years of experience in scaling multiple companies and consistently building great teams predominantly in the Financial Services space. He is a master at MSME finance having done it for over two decades.
He has been the founder/co-founder of many industries leading companies be it Pinnacle India, Advetaya Business Consultant Private Limited, etc. For Actyv.ai he says ‘he is part of the team that makes the magic happen. He looks after the smooth functioning of operations and providing provide embedded financial products for the SMEs.
What is your unique value proposition or competitive advantage?
Our acquisition strategy of acquiring MSMEs via Enterprises is the key. It not only helps us to get good traction, but also creates tightness.
What positive early traction has your company achieved?
Our integration and rating services have enabled us to acquire reputable brands like Canara Bank, Kotak, Britannia and Nivea.
What innovation do you bring into the marketplace? Does your brand have Differentiated Technology?
Our innovation is the B2B BNPL product, which has been co-created with the Banks. The product requires a complex structure that the existing Loan Management Systems cannot handle. Our Technology is based on first principles, which writes testable code that works and scales well. We are proud to have a very highly functional and efficient team. With the help of which we have developed a low code – no-code platform to make it easier for Enterprise to onboard distributors and retailers.
Is your company still pre-revenue or has it broken even?
We are between pre-revenue and yet to break even. We already generate good income and hope to reach the break-even point in 3 years. In the meantime, we are building more products for the market.
What is the biggest risk you face, and how do you plan to mitigate that risk?
The biggest challenge we face is to compete with ourselves. The supply chain is a complex field with many elements like invoice and inventory management, working capital and BNPL, invoicing, reconciliation, etc. we need to remain focused and be on a mission.
What is your growth projection for FY 2022-2023?
We plan to add 100 Enterprises and 20 lakh SMBs.
