“Building The Operating System for the Future of Money Management” – An Exclusive Interview with Castler’s Founder.
The world is moving towards digital transactions at an unprecedented rate, and India is at the forefront of this transition. The need for secure and reliable digital escrow services has never been more critical in a country that is aiming for a cashless economy in the current decade. That’s where Castler, India’s leading digital escrow platform, comes in.
In this exclusive interview, we sit down with Vineet Singh, the founder of Castler, to discuss the inspiration behind the platform, their vision for the future, and how they’re changing the game when it comes to escrow services. Vineet shares how two incidents of fraud that he and his friend faced in online transactions led him to create a platform that would solve this problem for businesses, banks, and regulators.
What’s unique about Castler is that they’re not just a traditional escrow service but a modern end-to-end escrow platform designed for the new age companies that conduct their business over the internet. They are building “The Operating System for the Future of Money Management in India,” and this interview will give you a sneak peek into how they’re doing it.
1. What inspired you to start Castler, and what is the vision behind it?
In early 2020, our founder Vineet sold his car to an online used car platform. They promised him payment in 30 minutes, but Vineet received the payment after 10 days and after a long and arduous follow-up. During these 10 days, he felt the usual pangs of fear, insecurity and anger that any short-changed customer would feel. Around the same time, Vivek Sinha, a dear friend of Vineet, sold some furniture to a buyer from a listing site. He was defrauded INR 17,290 by a fraudulent buyer. These two incidents left an impression on Vineet’s mind, and he decided that his next venture would be about the “eradication of fraud” in online transactions.
And thus, Castler was born.
During our journey, the vision of Castler has evolved from not only solving the problem of fraud for consumers to also solving key problems facing our industry and country at large. Though India is poised to become the third-largest economy in the world over the next 5 years, the sky is the limit if we can solve some of the key problems facing businesses, banks and regulators.
Over the last few decades, India’s economy has grown at a rapid pace to become a 3 trillion economy. Currently, it is the 5th largest economy in the world and is poised to touch the $5 trillion mark and become the world’s third-largest economy by 2028. Digitisation has been a key driver in India’s growth. This kind of humongous growth though enormously beneficial for its stakeholders, brings its own set of problems for regulators – what are the problems?
- Complex business models
- Innovative Revenue Models
- Complex multi-party transactions
- Source of money
- Identity Verification
- Consumer & Customer Protection
Castler is building The Operating System For The Future Of Money Management In India to solve the problem of everchanging business and revenue models, complex transaction flows, source of money, identity verification, fraud and customer-consumer protection.
- How do Castler’s services differ from traditional escrow services?
We are an early mover in the category and the first ones to scale significantly. In contrast to traditional escrow, we operate entirely online and use technology to facilitate secure transactions. Our digital escrow services provide a modern, streamlined approach to transaction security and management that traditional escrow services may not be able to match.
Castler’s digital escrow solutions have been well-received in the industry and have won many accolades. Castler has been recognised for its exceptional performance and innovation in the fintech and digital industry. In 2023, Casler was among the Top-5 finalists at the NASSCOM Fintech Awards, Top-3 finalists at the IAMAI Digital Awards, and a finalist at the MINT Tech Circle startup ICON and the BW Young Enterprise Awards. In 2022, Castler was among the Top-5 finalists at the NASSCOM Fintech Awards and Top-10 Product Showcase in the Global Fintech Festival, competing against 1000 startups. These awards and recognitions highlight Castler’s commitment to delivering innovative and industry-leading solutions to its clients, cementing its position as a market leader in the digital escrow space.
- What is your funding, and who are your key investors?
We are backed by Rainmatter (Zerodha), Venture Catalysts, 9 Unicorn and have raised INR 10 crore so far.
- What industries do you primarily cater to?
Castler’s digital escrow services cater to a wide range of industries, providing secure and transparent escrow solutions. Our focus on providing efficient, secure, and hassle-free services has resonated well with businesses looking for reliable escrow solutions. As a result, we have seen a significant uptick in the clients and industries we serve. Below is a list of major industries that benefit from our services.
- Fintech
- Edtech
- Agritech
- Gaming
- Logistics
- Proptech
- Manufacturing
- Services
- Healthtech
- Manufacturing
- Marketplaces
- Litigation
- IT
- What technologies have you used to build your platform?
Castler is built on AWS and Microsoft Azure and primarily uses the tech languages JAVA, REACT, Node.js, and Angular. Castler is running its platform on AWS and uses server-side languages like Java, Node.js to run its payment engine. Castler’s web interfaces are primarily built on React.js and Angular.
Apart from this, Castler is using various AWS services like EC2 for running and deploying its dockerised services, S3 as a data store for logs and documents, AWS Security Groups etc. Castler has integrated with 6 banks so far and supports an average of 200k requests per day.
- How do you see the future of digital escrow services evolving in the next five years and your plans for the same?
We see the market growing current $100 bn to upwards of $250 bn in the coming years. We intend to become a full-stack escrow service for consumers, MSMEs, and enterprises for both cross-border and domestic transactions.
7. If you could only use three terms to describe your digital escrow service, what would they be?
- 100% secure
- Open own operating model
- Standardised pricing
