GrowFix is building fixed-interest, high-yield debt assets that were previously only available to institutional investors and the ultra-rich.
Indian investors are always on the lookout for products that offer better returns at a lower risk. In a pandemic-like environment, the market scenario is even more unstable. Mutual Fund returns are not delivering as they used to while Fixed Deposit rates are barely covering inflation.
Leveraging innovation and technology, digital investment platform GrowFix has now made Securitized Debt Instruments (SDIs) accessible to a larger retail investor base.
The platform enables retail investors to invest in SDIs, for a minimum ticket size of INR 10,000, at 9% returns. You can withdraw your money anytime without incurring any cost. The risk is lower in this product because the underlying asset has more than 1.5x gold collateral.
Growing The Investor Base
Ajinkya Kulkarni, Co-founder of GrowFix, says, “This is a disruptive product and one that is backed by a safe, secure business model. It is accessible to a wider base of retail investors, and will especially appeal to newer generations, as well as traditional investors with an appetite for low risk, high-value returns. “
Ajinkya along with his former batchmate Abhik Patel, from IIT Gandhinagar, co-founded GrowFix with the aim of democratizing the gold-backed loan asset, inspired by their own experiences with personal finance. The duo has earlier co-founded their startup CreditPeriod, together. Post a successful exit in 2017; they began looking at various ways to invest their own money.
Patel and Kulkarni went on to study a lot of investment products and discussed the options at length with friends. “One of the investments they absolutely loved was that Ajinkya was giving some money to his dad’s business. In return, he would get a fixed 10% interest rate with no lock-in period. Our friends’ eyes would light up, hearing this, ” shares Patel.
These conversations led the duo to embark on a quest, to understand investor obsession with Fixed Income Products. They were simultaneously also looking out for a fresh business idea.
“We realised that the Indian investment philosophy is “Greed in Moderation”. The average investor seeks fixed income investments meaning with no volatility and higher returns than FDs. They are also risk-averse,” shares Patel.
What followed was an intensive journey of studying RBIs & SEBIs circulars, laws and regulations of the past 30 years. Based on their research, the duo dabbled in several ideas, of which over 10-15 were discarded.
The result was the launch of their first-ever product GrowFix Gold, which met all the criteria of their target investor. Users can log onto GrowFix.in for details, and get started on building their investment portfolio.
Building Unique Debt-Based Assets
The GrowFix Gold model leverages gold-backed loans. GrowFix purchases thousands of the safest gold-backed loans from the entire pool, from NBFCs, where gold is offered as collateral to the borrowers.
In the case of non-repayment of loans by borrowers, the gold used as collateral is liquidated. Investors then get principal plus interest. Hence, the risk is low. Growfix makes money by earning 2% from the NBFC and passing 9% onto its retail investors.
The duo is now joined by IIT-Bombay alumni Shashank Chimaladari as their tech co-founder. GrowFix will continue to build fixed-interest, high-yield debt assets that were previously only available to institutional investors and the ultra-rich.
For more information, visit GrowFix.in.
