17 Sept 2020
Spocto- Enabling enhanced analytics

    Most banks and other non-banking financial institutions (NBFCs) tend to depend on traditional methods to deal with collection clearances and physical transactions. The clearance of cheques, DDs and Pay Order is not a seamless process and it involves a lot of manpower and time. This is a serious hindrance to the bank's performance and it heavily depends on call centres and field teams as well.


    Spocto, a category-defining analytics startup aims to solve this very issue that bugs almost all Indian financial institutions. It implements technology to enable players in the BFSI domain to make collections. It also uses the help of Big Data analytics to use customer data as an insight into where the businesses should focus or improve upon.


    The company has more than 20 partner banks and an AUM (assets under management) worth $6 billion in its arsenal. Spocto has also established offices in the US and it has clients across India and the Middle East. It is also eyeing a future expansion in the SAR and Australia.


    The build-up


    Spocto was co-founded by the husband-wife duo of Sumeet Shrivastava and Puja Shrivastava. Both of them are BIT-Mesra alumni and both of them were involved in high-profile jobs across various geographies and business sectors before they started the company. While Sumeet is the CEO of Spocto, Puja holds the helm as the CTO of the startup.


    The startup now has more than 70 employees across all departments.


    What is it about?


    Spocto was founded in December 2016 to provide meaningful insights on customer trends and beneficial customer data which enables its clientele to improve and enhance their services and increase profitability as a result.


    In the retail sector, Spocto aids its clients with beneficial analysis and data which helps its clients get an idea about unique buyer propositions for each of their customers, instead of providing generic data which provides insight after averaging the trends.


    Spocto works in a B2B business model, and its services and products include Big Data analytics, ML/AI implementation to generate insights and its in-house analytical algorithms.


    Spocto’s offerings


    The startup essentially aims at banking and other financial institutions. Apart from that, it provides customer-based analytics and trends which functions as actionable insights to the retail sector. Its marketing-oriented solution, Spocto Marketing, helps in collecting and observing customer trends and provides that data to its clients which enables them to know what each customer expects out of a company- based on buying patterns and interests.


    Another product, SmartCollect helps bankings and other financial institutions to digitally clear transactions and recover outstanding loan amounts. The company also offers Trace, a platform which is used to analyse customer data using the help of no less than 50 sources and receive data for each customer to the client.


    It also offers an eTrustScore, which enables lending authorities with information about the borrower as a background check which prevents fraud.


    The company’s first customer was AXIS Bank.


    The potential


    The startup claims that it has been adding new clients and expanding their operations across new geographies since the pandemic. The need for digital platforms to run operations seamlessly has witnessed an upsurge, and the startup is aiming to cater to the rise in demand with its innovative analytics-based solution.


    Its current clientele includes the likes of Godrej, ICICI Bank, Mudhra Circle, Kotak Mahindra Bank, UBI and Lodha Group.


    According to a survey conducted by Markets & Markets, the brand analytics sector is pegged to reach $9.54 billion in 2022 as opposed to $2.23 billion in 2016 at a compounded growth rate of 28.6 per cent annually.


    It currently competes with players such as Meltwater, Vaizle and Brandwatch.


    Spocto has been bootstrapped since its inception and the company has grown to thrice its size since its inception. It has registered a 500% year-on-year growth and their revenue is profit-centric and not VC fund-focused.


    The company has not resorted to any pay cuts or layoffs despite the economic slog. Added to that, it aims to double its team size within the next six months.