Comprehensive Financial and Health Platform for Low-Income Workers: Entitled Solutions
CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Mr. Anshul Khurana, Co-Founder and CEO, Entitled Solutions
- Brief us about your business model like how did the idea came to start and how does it work (step by step procedure)?
The thesis of Entitled was built on our experience of working and building startups in the past that dealt with large sets of low-income workers. We saw that workers constantly struggled with lack of access to basic financial services in the market and kept coming back for support from employers. They would constantly tap the informal market for funds and get stuck in debt traps. The experience helped us build a solid thesis around the need for financial and associated services for workers.
Entitled is a platform building for financial and health needs of low-income workers. It partners with gig platforms, staffing companies and employers to onboard workers and enable access to essential services for them. Our user facing ecosystem, “Sarvam” opens up access to loans, insurance, primary and preventive health services and support with government schemes enrollment and navigation for workers.
Entitled partners with regulated service providers on the other hand to co-create products specifically for our user segment, i.e. low-income workers.
The platform creates a win-win for organisations that deal with low-income workers, workers themselves who are able to access essential services and thrive as well as service providers who are able to gain access to this massive segment.
- What are the unique key points of your company?
The following points make us unique in terms of what we are doing:
- A comprehensive platform of essential services for low-income workers; our focus is not to build one particular service but instead a platform that caters all of the essential needs to workers
- Building embedded access by partnering with gig and staffing platforms and employers; ensures high awareness, trust and uptake along with a seamless process for users
- Custom products built with the needs of low-income workers in mind
- Service flows built on WhatsApp and accessible in a multilingual format
- How are you different from the existing competitors?
There are two key differences between what we are trying to do vis-a-vis competitors:
- Most competitors are focusing on one service line, and it could be loans or insurance or primary health services. We are trying to build a comprehensive platform that caters to all essential needs of workers while enabling significant value-creating use cases for organisations. The value therefore that we generate for workers as well as organisations is unmatched.
- Ease of access to services using a multilingual interface built on WhatsApp; no requirements of users of downloading an application or getting used to a new interface, thereby enabling users with low digital literacy to access the service ecosystem
- What is the funding status and monetization model?
In terms of the revenue model, Entitled makes money in the following ways:
- Marketing fees from partner service companies enabling loans and insurance
- Revenue from enabling primary and preventive health services
- By virtue of the large group of low-income workers as well as an inclusive ecosystem of essential services on the platform, Entitled also becomes an implementation or technology partner for large impact projects. Fee from these programs becomes a key part of our overall revenue mix as well.
Entitled has raised about INR 11 Crores from institutional/corporate investors including HDFC Capital, SIS Group, LetsVenture, Sotheby’s and IIMA Ventures and angels including Mr Nipun Sahni (Partner – Apollo Global), Mr Mohit Satyanand (Chairman, Teamwork Arts) Mr Ashok Jaipuria (Chairman and MD – Cosmo Group)
- What challenges are you facing in running your business?
Building products for the segment of users that we are targeting is extremely challenging. Typically, financial service providers have not been able to build for this segment because of a lack of understanding and data with respect to the segment. Entitled is trying to solve this issue by bringing in deep data profiling, uptake and usage data. But building out new products is still a long drawn process and getting service providers who are open to building for this segment is a task as well. So while we are looking to expand the product ecosystem swiftly, each product, specially on the credit side, requires a long cycle.
- How has been the people`s response so far?
We have partnered with close to 70 organizations and opened up access to more than 1 million workers to our service ecosystem. The uptake rate has been extremely high, with more than 60% of the workforce accessing services.
- What are the traction details (like users/ app downloads/ other achievements of the company)? Any technology role at Entitled Solutions
Unique Users: 500,000+
Transactions Processed: 400,000
Value of Transactions Facilitated: INR 140 Crores+
Technology is at the centre of everything we do, all of our processes are completely digital with zero paper transfers, which lends the entire model incredible scalability. But ensuring that the process for access was simple enough for a segment that might not have high digital and financial literacy was a challenge. We tacked it by building access via WhatsApp in multiple languages. Our flows on WhatsApp allow people to access everything that we enable along with all the support as well. We have done the hard work at the back-end to ensure that users on the front-end can access everything in the simplest manner possible. Our ecosystem also ensures that the complete user experience is owned by us and at no point do we send users out to a different ecosystem.
- How do you look at expansion?
We are look to enable access to more than 4 Million unique users over the next few years and scale monthly transaction rate to close to INR 200 Crores. This will come from scaling acquisition as well as monetization.
The next steps with respect to scaling acquisition will come from SMEs and MSMEs acquisition channel; we are looking at building an HR ecosystem where these entities can digitize the HR function and open up access to benefits for the workforce associated with them.
The next step in monetization will come from new products in the credit space. We are looking to add two-wheeler and commercial vehicle loans, consumption loans, home loans and other associated products to the overall ecosystem of services that we enable. The expansion in the credit products suite will increase uptake as well as significantly increase monetization of users on the platform.
- What are your marketing plans?
There are two sides of marketing for us; the first one entails marketing efforts in scaling B2B associations. We have a number of new initiatives here including organic content based activities as well as email campaigns. The initiatives have worked well and we will continue to enhance activities here. Specially as we start adding more SMEs and MSMEs to the ecosystem, these marketing initiatives will expand significantly
The second part is marketing to end-users wherein the main activities focus on creating awareness and generating trust. Most of our activities here are focused on messaging and communication on WhatsApp. Hyper-personalization is what we are trying to solve for here, thereby ensuring the marketing efforts result in extremely efficient output.
- What has been the biggest learning so far?
Building a great organization is a marathon, not a sprint. Long term thinking and decision making should always trump decisions that result in short term wins.
- What is the market size and opportunity?
The overall market entails more than 100 million workers with a total available market size of over INR 14000 Crores across all the enabled services.
- Any latest survey report you have done on gig-workers?
Entitled Solutions conducted multiple surveys on the following aspects:
60% Women Face Financial Issues to Manage Critical Emergencies: Entitled Solutions Survey Uncovers Concerns over Emergency Savings
Limited access to financial resources and income disparity lead to financial burden on approximately 60% women
As International Mother’s Day approaches, Entitled Solutions unveils critical insights into the financial challenges faced by women, particularly those in blue-collar professions, regarding emergency savings. The findings shed light on the significant hurdles hindering women’s financial security, emphasizing the need for targeted interventions to address these pressing issues.
Entitled Solutions Presents Comprehensive Report: “Unmasking Gender Disparities in Blue-Collar Occupations”
The eye-opening report revealed that women participation in the blue-collar industry increased by 35- 40% post-pandemic but overall percentage of women in the blue collar workforce is extremely low and stands between 14% – 15%
Entitled Solutions, a pioneering advocate for inclusive workforce practices, has unveiled a groundbreaking report that sheds light on the pressing issues behind gender disparities in blue-collar occupations. Titled “Unmasking Gender Disparities in Blue-Collar Occupations: Insights and Pathways to Equality,” this report is the result of extensive research conducted by Entitled Solutions, aimed at delving deeper into the factors contributing to the gender gap in this field.
75% of Indian Gig Workers Face Financial Challenges, reveals a study by Entitled Solutions in collaboration with BFA global
The study aimed to identify the financial health of gig workers, develop personas, and explore ways to improve financial health.
Entitled Solutions, a comprehensive ecosystem to enhance the well-being of blue-collar workers, has conducted a study in collaboration with BFA Global, an impact innovation firm on the financial well-being of low-income workers in India, with a specific emphasis on gig economy participants. The study aimed to identify the state of the financial health of delivery drivers, develop personas, and explore ways to improve their financial health.
