Creating a smarter online platform for banking, BankBazaar.com gives instant customized rate quotes on all financial products like credit cards, loans, insurance products, and fixed deposits.
Anyone can instantly search for tailor-made offers compare and customize them as per their needs. Then, they can apply for loans, credit cards, fixed deposits, and insurance products on Bankbazaar.com.
Presently offering facilities of Loans, Insurance, Credit cards, and Fixed Deposits, it plans to include all personal finance products and to become a dominant marketplace for instantly issuing financial products.
In 2008, Adhil Shetty (CEO), Arjun Shetty (COO), and Rati Rajkumar (CPO) started BankBazaar.com from its headquarters in Chennai.
An engineering graduate from Anna University and holder of a Master's degree in International Relations from Columbia University, Adhil Shetty held decisive positions at Deloitte Touche Tomahatsu's US East Alliance and Cisco Systems before he dived headlong into scripting the BankBazaar story.
More than nine hundred people are working under his leadership. Now, BankBazaar has marketing and sales offices in Bangalore and Mumbai, respectively. This firm was selected as one of the Top Business Ideas by CNBC Awaaz and featured on their TV series – CNBC Entrepreneur.
"The nature of our business is our biggest differentiating factor. We offer the largest number of financial products in the market as well as the largest number of partner organizations, including the biggest nationalized and private banks, NBFCs, and insurance companies. We have more than 50 institutions on board as partners to provide more than 100 distinct products. Our Services to the customers are free," BankBazaar expressed.
In 2008, BankBazaar raised $1 million from AVT Infotech in angel funding. In 2011, Walden International, the California headquartered VC firm, believed in their seamless banking marketplace technology and invested $6 million in series 'A funding'.
In 2014, $13 million was raised from Sequoia Capital with the purpose of educating customers that now Banking is as easy as shopping, and they can get seven-minute loan approvals online compared with the seven days required to get the same through the offline channel.
The Investment of $60 million by Amazon and other existing investors also have a tech vision to truly democratize finance by delivering 100% paperless financial products by leveraging various platforms like Aadhar, eKYC, etc.
HDFC Bank and ING Vysya were the first bank partners of the company. Today, BankBazar has more than 50 banks and NBFCs as partners, providing more than 100 distinct products. Some of their other partners include ICICI Bank, SBI, PNB, Union Bank, Axis Bank, CitiBank, Tata Capital, Standard Chartered, etc.
"Our vision is to create a one-stop financial services marketplace in India where we can give quick and easy services to consumers. Think of it like an online supermarket for all financial products. We are already leaders by far in online loan and credit card applications. Insurance, along with other products like Fixed Deposit, etc., are steps in the right direction toward fulfilling our vision. From our partners' perspective, we help them sell faster. Plus, the cost of acquisition is less. Our proprietary technology helps in reducing the sourcing and processing costs for the banks. The 'direct to consumer' online technology helps acquire genuine credit-eligible consumers. Also, our technology eliminates the intermediates and reduces the chances of leakages/slippages. All this saving can then be passed back to the consumer in the form of better deals, reduced processing, fees, and better service." said BankBazar.
BankBazaar.com is not merely an aggregator. It provides end-to-end financial services. They have a full-fledged application platform where people can search for offers, select the one that suits them the best, and then apply for it online.
The application is not the end but merely another milestone of the customer's association with BankBazaar. They provide constant support and assistance at every stage, from the application submission and coordinating with the bank regarding the paperwork all the way to the final sanction and disbursal.
Unlike its competitors, BankBazaar.com does not follow a lead-based system where all customer details are collected and passed on to banks as leads. Only once an application is submitted, customer details are passed on to the respective bank along with the application.
They have strict privacy norms in place to make sure that customer data is not passed on to any third party, so there is practically zero chance that their customers will be spammed.