When an organization works to integrate with legacy financial institutions, it faces a number of challenges. The APIs and documentation to work upon are not readily available and are also flooded with a lot of errors and loopholes.
Also, it is very hard for the tech teams while coordinating the service breaks or any updates. On top of that, the lack of a single point of contact from the underlying institutions makes the already long integration cycle of 5 months more difficult for the team.
This is where Decentro comes to the rescue and helps companies solve all the above-mentioned issues. Decentro is a full-stack platform where you can come, select your desired modules, play in the sandbox and launch your product with the APIs within a couple of weeks!
Not only that, but we also take care of all upcoming fixes, iterations, and updates without breaking any flow. In this brand story, we will be knowing everything about Decentro right from their vision to their growth.
About Decentro
Decentro is a full-stack API banking platform that helps companies launch their financial product 10X faster, in just a matter of a few weeks, and with 80% reduced expenditure.
Companies can select customized modules and integrate them in the sandbox, test it, and go live. The platform also takes care of all fixes, iterations, and updates without breaking any flow.
With Decentro, businesses don’t have to run around for months to integrate with multiple banking partners for launching their products. It saves time and provides modules with the highest degree of automation so that businesses can focus on execution and faster go-to-market.
Decentro offers several modular products, including KYC & Onboarding, Accounts, AML & Compliance, Lending, Cards, and Payments. These products are available in the form of simple, automated, plug-n-play APIs, and also web dashboards.
Decentro’s Vision and Mission
Almost all the fin-tech companies face a number of hidden challenges –
- Making the choice of the first bank for integration and the APIs within.
- Lack of a single POC in the banks / financial / KYC institutions to avoid running around between departments to get APIs and solutions.
- Testing and reaching product-market fit quickly & cheaply
- The choice of banking/financial license (if any) to go to market
Imagine the possibilities in Fin-tech if we remove more than 90% of the friction in the flow of money and financial data. Imagine the amazing innovations that can happen!
We are a group of people who can help you reach the next level of financial innovation.
The idea is both simple & powerful- Decentro wants to do away with the archaic problems of the Indian banking system and offer automated solutions for seamless transactions.
In the long run, we aim to be the go-to platform for companies that build innovative products on top of it, at an unprecedented scale, be it fintech companies, enterprises, or marketplaces.
🏷️ Decentro’s Tagline: A full-stack API Banking Platform for companies to launch products 10X faster!
Decentro – Founders And Their Team
Rohit laid down the foundation of Decentro along with Pratik Daudkhane, amidst the pandemic, in April 2020. Decentro was incubated by YCombinator in the same year in their summer batch.
Rohit Taneja is the CEO and Founder of Decentro. He is an IIT Delhi alumnus and holds a degree in engineering. A fintech serial entrepreneur, Rohit brings in 7+ years of experience in fintech & banking to lead business development, product strategy, and growth initiatives at Decentro.
📌 You can connect with him on LinkedIn: Rohit Taneja
Pratik Daudkhane is the Co-founder and brings over 6+ years of experience in financial services, analytics, and investment. Before Decentro, he worked with the investment and portfolio team of Guild Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm. He has also worked with Hannam & Partners and Trevista as an analyst.
📌 You can connect with Pratik on LinkedIn: Pratik Daudkhane
And, here is how team Decentro looks like:
Decentro’s Story and How It All Started
Rohit laid down the foundation of Decentro amidst the pandemic, in April 2020. Decentro was incubated by YCombinator in the same year.
Before Decentro, Rohit co-founded Mypoolin in 2015. Mypoolin was acquired by a California-based global payments player Wibmo in 2017 following two rounds of funding. It was later acquired by Naspers-backed PayU in 2019.
Over the course of running the previous venture as well as leading the expansion of Wibmo and PayU, Rohit realized the numerous challenges faced in legacy banking integrations firsthand, which eventually gave birth to Decentro.
My aim in life is to contribute to the world by solving some of the toughest problems that exist. – Rohit Taneja, Founder & CEO at Decentro
Both a startup and a corporate with over a thousand employees had to go through the same tedious process and expend months when it came to simple banking integrations. Since its inception, Decentro has made some great progress in the infrastructure space by becoming a seamless integration layer between banks and businesses.
Decentro has created a unique brand value and is working with some of the most trusted banks in India to provide innovative solutions to its clients.
Further, the platform helps businesses experience 10X faster go-to-market timelines and reduces both their initial expenditure as well as operational expenditure by more than 90%.
Major Challenges Faced During The Initial Stage
Decentro didn’t take flight in a situation that you’d exactly call ambient. The pandemic was right at the doorstep, and the lockdown had just been put into effect in 2020 when things had started to shape up. Setting up a company and bringing a team together was no easy feat.
However, they realized that they were about to build something that would ultimately empower thousands of businesses and their products to come to shape in this complex banking and fintech world. Especially during the tough times ahead.
It’d be no easy path, yes, but the timing could never have been more crucial.
With multiple rounds of lockdown, it was clear that the offline economy would be harshly hit. It’d be a struggle for small businesses to cope up and recover. It’s up to the digital companies to do their bit in terms of seamless monetary and fiscal solutions and bring a silver lining to this dark cloud.
After the initial launch, one of the most challenging tasks for any startup is to bring onboard the first set of customers. There isn’t any reason to trust a new player in the market- one of the very reasons why you should be calmly aggressive with the goals.
Therefore, the team took turns talking to customers and attended calls to understand the pain points faced by them in greater depth.
How Does Decentro Work?
At Decentro, any company or developer can sign up, select desired financial modules, play in the sandbox, and then launch a product or service with those APIs within a couple of weeks.
Decentro offers customized banking APIs. Further, every company can get a range of products including ledger (to track transactions, balances) and UPI compatibility (to enable all UPI payment use cases, including payment requests, links, and QR).
Decentro also has API modules to validate user identity, manage payouts, streamline collections & disbursals, leverage prepaid cards, and keep compliances in check.
What Is Their Business Model & How Do They Generate Revenue?
Decentro has a few key business models as below –
- We charge on a per API basis for most of our key APIs across modules like KYC, Accounts, Prepaid Cards, Payments, and more
- There is a SaaS fee component in the form of X Rs. per month that our customers pay to us for the relevant modules
- And there is a new stream in the form of interchange revenue from the card transactions of the customers
Decentro’s Fundings And Major Investors
💰 In May 2020, we closed a small angel round with around 7 angel investors and a seed fund (Plug and Play) as we entered the YCombinator batch of summer 2020.
💰 In September 2020, we closed another round (3X of the size of the previous one) as our seed round post our demo day with a couple of popular seed funds like Funders Club, Locus Ventures, Unpopular Ventures, and more.
What Is Their Current Growth And Stats
Since January 2021, Decentro has grown its customer base by 5X. Whereas, its transactional volume increased by more than 100X over the last 12 months since its first product launch in July 2020. The company is processing more than 4.5 million API hits now per month.
Decentro is also expanding its advisory council to build strong inroads into the larger financial institutions across the country. The company recently appointed angel investor Pratekk Agarwaal to support the company with strategic advice on expanding alliances with fintech, banks, NBFCs, and insurtech companies that are looking to embed API Banking workflows.
The company recently partnered with ICICI bank to offer customized banking APIs and Yes Bank for Co-branded Cards & Wallets module.
What Are Their Future Plans
Based on the current growth rate, Decentro is expecting to increase its customer base by 3-4 times, and its monthly API volume is expected to grow even more exponentially by the end of this financial year.
The company is looking to increase its workforce for positions in engineering, compliance, and bank partnerships in the current financial year, and launch a new module to enable companies to embed lending & credit workflows into their products.
Major Competitors For Decentro
💡 As a product, they do have overlaps with a couple of competing platforms. Setu App on Link-based UPI payments and collections, Yappay – M2P for cards module.
Frequently Asked Questions About Decentro
What is Decentro?
Decentro is a full-stack API banking platform that helps companies launch their financial product 10X faster, in just a matter of a few weeks, and with 80% reduced expenditure.
Who is the Founder of Decentro?
Rohit Taneja is the CEO and Founder of Decentro. He is an IIT Delhi alumnus and holds a degree in engineering. Being a fintech serial entrepreneur, Rohit Taneja brings in 7+ years of experience in fintech & banking to lead business development, product strategy, and growth initiatives at Decentro.
Pratik Daudkhane is the Co-founder and brings over 6+ years of experience in financial services, analytics, and investment. Before Decentro, he worked with the investment and portfolio team of Guild Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm.
Social Media Profiles of Decentro
- Decentro’s Linkedin Profile: Check it out
- Decentro’s Twitter Profile: Check it out