Financials

<h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Q1. Could you start by giving us a brief overview of your professional background, particularly focusing on your expertise in the industry?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">I am the Founder &amp; CEO of Neocerebrum Solutions, a leading provider of product-based solutions known for its innovative approach and dedication to quality. Our focus is not only on addressing challenges but also improving overall ROI by enhancing operational efficiency and maintaining a customer-focused approach for their clients. I am a Business Leader with 20+ years&rsquo; experience across the BFSI domain, in various disciplines - Delivery, Managed services, Customer Engagements, Product management/Engineering. I had the opportunity to work in diverse geographies like India, Japan, Australia, SEA, the Middle East, and Europe.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I have been involved with different types of Organizations - Banks, Credit Unions, NBFCs, HFCs, MFIs, Aggregators, and BFSI Business lines - Lending, Core banking, Term Deposit, Cards, Consumer Durables, Co-lending, Trade Advance</p><p style="text-align: justify;">My Career Highlights:</p><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Transformed and added value to 70+ organizations across 20+ countries</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Incubated SaaS Offering from scratch (Startup mode). More than125% growth YOY</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Provided leadership to 200+ associates and led Digital Transformation Programs</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Massive improvements in Metrics - Program Management, Customer Satisfaction, Learning</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Created and nurtured Partnerships - Channel, Cloud, and Implementation partners</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Proven excellence of working in senior leadership roles in delivering value to global businesses with insightful knowledge &amp; exposure by exercising thought leadership, driving innovation, Digital Transformation, and Technology integration</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Driving excellence in efficient Product Roll-out by constantly innovating and refining best practices &amp; processes; successfully implemented 150+ modules across 70+ customers in the last 3 years</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Delivery Anchor with career success in delivering Cloud Business Solutions that remedy core business issues and position the organization</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Excels in contributing significant impact to budget optimization and P&amp;L through innovative technology planning, robust operating standards &amp; procedures; experience in business planning &amp; budgeting, managing P&amp;L of the Delivery Unit</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Played a key role in executing &amp; steering large/complex project implementations on Customer Acquisition, Loan Servicing &amp; Customer Delinquency Management Modules at Banks &amp; Non-Banking Financial Institutions</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Championed project management disciplines such as Agile and Waterfall</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><h2><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Q2. What shifts are you observing in the BFSI sector&rsquo;s appetite for SaaS-based lending solutions in 2025, and can you share any adoption or growth metrics you&rsquo;ve seen across regions or segments?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">Primarily, BFSI is getting shifted on the below lines, majorly driven by regulatory changes, customer expectations, along with digital transformations&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>CapEx to OpEx Models </strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">To minimize the infrastructure and maintenance cost, the NBFCs, Cooperative banks, and even Insurance Institutes are shifting from Traditional Data centres (On-premise) to SaaS SaaS-based model and solutions.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Faster Loan Approval Process or Agility in Credit Decisioning </strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">To ensure that customers are retained and a faster onboarding process, industry players are adopting platforms like</p><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Rule Engine Platforms to automate Credit Decisioning</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Multiple Integrations with third-party players to get KYC &amp; AML information</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Focus on the STP process for faster Customer On-boarding and Loan Approvals</li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Focus on AI, ML &amp; Analytics Models, Scorecards in SaaS Lending </strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">BFSI Industry players are ready to adopt quantitative analysis for faster &amp; reliable credit decision-making. This helps them to improve the credit models, fraud detection, and risk scoring for new and existing customers, helping them to reduce the overall NPAs</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Focus on Compliance, Data Security, and Regulatory Alignments </strong></p><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">With the RBI focus on Compliance and Data Security, the BFSI industry is ensuring that RBI-regulated Lending Workflows are in place to comply with RBI standards.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Data is getting hosted within India to ensure data-localization</li><li style="text-align: justify;">For every KYC, the digital consent is getting mandatory at all levels</li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Overall Growth &amp; Trends</strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">From market studies and articles published, it is projected to scale to USD 95+ billion by 2030 from current USD 44+ billion in 2025, almost double within the next 5 years, and most of the growth shall be driven by embedded lending and SaaS platforms.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Q3. Which geographies are emerging as SaaS growth hotspots&mdash;and how are localization, compliance, and cloud maturity influencing GTM success?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Emerging growth hotspots in India</strong></p><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Majorly Tier 2/3 cities are the emerging hotspots, due to strong UPI usage and smartphone penetration</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Karnataka business loan growth in FY24 rose 133%, reflecting rapid fintech penetration beyond metros</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Gujarat and Rajasthan also show rising digital infrastructure development</li><li style="text-align: justify;">BNPL usage in non-metro towns grew ~150% YoY mid 2023 to early 2025; 60&ndash;70% of new BNPL users now from Tier 2/3 cities</li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Q4. What types of operating models or GTM strategies are enabling BFSI SaaS players to scale efficiently across regions?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Operating Models &amp; GTM Strategies</strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Multi-tenant Systems </strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It enables players to lower the overall infra cost with better ROI</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Different Pricing Models, like revenue-linked pricing </strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">This helps them to get better results and helps both the financial institutions and SaaS Players</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>LC/NC Configurability </strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">This enables the overall low maintenance cost for both financial institutions and SaaS players</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Product-specific SaaS Platform </strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">This helps to have a niche use case for financial institutions to reach better.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Q5. What compliance or regulatory risks could disrupt growth in co-lending or embedded finance ecosystems, and how are players navigating them?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Compliance risks for Co-lending </strong></p><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Non-Compliance of RBI Digital Lending Guidelines on Loan Disbursal, Key Fact Sheet, Consent, etc.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">First Loss Default Guarantee (FLDG) Capping</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Compliance risk related to KYC and Account Aggregator</li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Ways to Navigate these Compliance risks</strong></p><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">SaaS architecture should be &ldquo;Compliance by Design&rdquo; &ndash; This will ensure that RBI guidelines are followed for data consent, Key Fact Sheet, Data Privacy, etc.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Ensure better underwriting and transparency on collection oversight</li><li style="text-align: justify;">SaaS platforms to enable and adopt the Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) and the Account Aggregator Ecosystem</li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Q6. Which technologies are you seeing BFSI players adopt to manage regulatory changes proactively, and how are these innovations helping them build long-term defensibility or competitive advantage?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">Adoptive Technologies are:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Cloud</strong> - AWS India (BFSI-compliant), Azure India, Yotta (RBI&rsquo;s Partner)</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>DR</strong> - Multi-zone DR setup, Cross-region backup with versioning</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Data Lake</strong> - Amazon Redshift, Snowflake, BigQuery, Delta Lake</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Backend</strong> &ndash; Microservices-based architecture - Node.js, Java Spring Boot, Golang, Python (FastAPI), NestJS</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Frontend </strong>&ndash; Responsive-based architecture - React.js, Next.js, Vue.js, Tailwind CSS</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>API Management</strong> - Postman, AWS API Gateway</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>To secure these APIs</strong> - JWT, OAuth2, Mutual TLS, and WAFs are getting adopted.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">These Technologies build defensibility for &ndash;</p><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Regulatory Compliance</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Faster Product GTM and changes</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Build trust in Fintech players</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Long-term technology stack advantages</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Overall Ecosystem Readiness</li></ul><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><br><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Q7. If you were an investor looking at companies within the space, what critical question would you pose to their senior management?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">Apart from understanding the core values and overarching theme of the organization, I would critically assess</p><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Domain expertise and functional background of the leadership team</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Depth of industry knowledge and strategic clarity that truly differentiates high-potential ventures</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Startup&rsquo;s focus on its market segment&mdash;ensuring there is a clear, scalable opportunity with a well-defined customer base</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Alignment between domain strength, functional expertise, and market relevance is essential for long-term success</li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p>