Neobanking Firm Niyo Acquires Personal Finance App Index

Neo-banking firm Niyo has acquired personal finance startup Index for an undisclosed amount. Niyo will integrate Index’s personal finance tracking features into its products, especially NiyoX.

According to their website, NiyoX is a zero balance account especially designed for millennials, with 7% interest on savings and 0% commission on mutual funds, and a full wealth management suite built into the app.

With Index’s abilities integrated into NiyoX’s offerings, Niyo says its users will be provided an all-round view of their earnings, savings, investments, insurances in a single glance. Customers will also get the notifications to plan their expenses, pay bills and save. 

Post acquisition, Anand Krishna, cofounder and CEO of Index said,“Index’s technology will now be in the hands of millions of users that Niyo has already captured – and millions more to come. Niyo is the market leader in neo-banking in India and Index will only strengthen that leadership position.”

Index was launched in 2020, by Anand Krishna and Kumar Siddhartha, with backing from SOSV Investments. It derives insights from users’ financial data to give them a view into their spending habits, transaction history, and account information. The product is aimed at helping users make better-informed financial decisions.

“The aggregation and analytical capabilities of Index will help expand NiyoX’s functionality to equip users with the valuable insights they need to meet their financial goals. As always, our focus is on the customer and what we can empower the customer to do,” Vinay Bagri, cofounder and CEO of Niyo said. 

The Index team, including founders Anand Krishna and Kumar Siddhartha, will join Niyo as part of the deal.

This is Niyo’s second acquisition, the first being the acquisition of Goalwise around mid-2020 to launch a vertical under the brand name Niyo Money.

Niyo was founded in 2015 by banking industry expert and IIM Calcutta alumnus Vinay Bagri and mobile application and payments expert, Virender Bisht to create a technology enabled and value-added product & service offering layer over the existing banking infrastructure, to offer a comprehensive digital banking proposition to its retail and SME customer base.

Apart from NiyoX, Niyo also offers Niyo Money which is a platform for investing in stocks, goals and mutual funds. Niyo Global is an international banking card. Lastly, Niyo Bharat is a combination of an app and a prepaid card for blue collar employees.

Niyo had raised $35 Mn in a Series B funding round in 2019, bringing its total raised funds to $49 Mn.

A neobank is one that exists solely online, without any physical branches and independently or in partnership with traditional banks. Neobanks can be called fintech firms that provide digital and mobile-first financial solutions payments and money transfers, money lending, and more. However, in India, regulations don’t permit 100% digitised banks. Fintech companies showcasing themselves as neobanks offer services that are built on top of traditional banking services. Startups in this sector will have to comply with the regulations under the Payments and Settlement act. They keep the customer’s money in the nodal bank account of the bank with which they have tie-ups.

The global neobank sector is reportedly expected to touch the Compounded Annual Growth Rate of 43%. Razorpay’s neobank RazorpayX claims to have seen a 400% growth in transaction volume in the last 12 months of Covid and helped over 15,000 Indian businesses to manage their money.

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