Problems faced by the Chitfund industry and how Chitmonks is solving it
Around the world, people have been pooling money for over 7 centuries. In India, the Chit Fund is an established rotary saving/ investment scheme used by millions. Although they have been around for so long, Chit Funds still have a long way to go in terms of innovation and thus attracting the next generation of subscribers
The size of the organized chit fund industry is close to Rs 1,50,000 crore (AUM), with 30,000+ registered chit fund entities working in the country. However, the size of the untapped chit fund sector is more than 30 to 40 times of the regulated one.
In July 2020, we at Unicorn announced an investment in Chitmonks, a SaaS offering to chit funds to help them bring their whole process online. ChitMonks was started in 2016 and has grown to be an integral part of the industry in Telangana, working with both the state government and Chit funds alike.
The current processes in the Chit Fund industry are still antiquated, slow and inefficient. The industry does not enjoy the benefits from an established ecosystem like players in Insurance, Banking and Regulators do. Currently users must meet, auction, and distribute money in person. Furthermore, due to the lack of transparency, one does not have to look far to find cases of misappropriation and service related inefficiencies. Taking a further look, illegal Ponzi schemes have come to dominate the market, along with the unregulated chit groups, estimated at $50 billion.
ChitMonks proposes a unique solution to the aforementioned problems the industry is currently riddled with. Their offerings help the regulated chit funds, who operate mostly offline, to bring their operations online and, in the process, reduces inefficiency. Consumers can now join, auction, and transfer money all online and on mobile in the comfort of their own home. Furthermore, the level of transparency between the chit fund operator and the customer increases, easing any worries of fraud.
ChitMonks is also currently working directly with the Telangana government via its product T-chits. T-chits is a blockchain based system which helps the regulator keep track of all registered chit funds and greatly reduces the risk of Chit funds misappropriating consumers money.
The added benefit here is that as ChitMonks works directly with the state government, it gives them an unparalleled ability to make sure all their B2B clients are fully inline with regulation. In an industry where clear rules are yet to be established this is invaluable
Chit Funds though fall under the category of Miscellaneous Non-Banking Finance Companies thus administration and monitory activities have been given to the state governments instead of the RBI. Due to the complexities in administration, monitoring of Chit funds as an industry has always lacked prioritized support from the state governments. Hence there is a huge gap in terms of how chit funds can play a vital role in Financial Inclusion vs Just a mere Savings and Borrowings tool. A similar tool like P2P lending which is a subset of what Chit Funds have been doing for decades, has got due importance from the regulators (like RBI) who formulated an entire act to lubricate the industry. It is time for regulators to show this innovation in the Chit fund space as well. We believe Telangana is playing an important role by taking the first step in implementing T-Chits, a Blockchain driven Chit fund administration, designed and developed by ChitMonks. This could be a new beginning to redefine the trust and transparency in the Chit Fund space.
Furthermore, mistrust is rampant throughout the chit fund industry in its current form. Consumers do not trust chit fund companies which they have not heard of; chit fund companies do not trust consumers out of their subscriber circle. Hence many chit funds only grow organically. The underwriting process in the chit fund space has been the same for decades and the ticket sizes have grown and slowly many organized chit funds have moved away from the lower ticket sizes due to multiple reasons including both operational and income levels. Can technology come to rescue the chit funds to both increase their efficiency and grow at an accelerated pace? Again, ChitMonk’s approach in enabling the Chit fund companies is bringing a fresh new perspective in the B2B space.
Similar to regulatory agencies like State governments, many other ecosystem enablers such as Insurance companies or relevant regulators like IRDAs, Banking entities governed by RBI and NBFCs have been keeping Chit funds out of many services which could potentially cater to millions of subscribers who still connect to Chit Funds more (at least in terms of savings) than any other relevant financial instruments like FDs, RDs, Savings accounts etc. We believe it is again a derivative of the trust, due to the way Chit funds have operated previously and thus equates to very slow product innovation at all levels. ChitMonks approach in building a truly inclusive ecosystem working with the relevant stake holders at every level has placed them in a very unique position. By using their blockchain-based system, they want to create a new narrative when it comes to this financially inclusive asset class.
We believe that ChitMonks will be the future of the industry. Their unique B2B/ B2G model will give them an edge on others who compete with them. The team is well versed in the chit fund industry and understand the complex regulations that are in place. Taking current conditions into account, bringing chit funds online in a transparent manner is of the upmost importance so they can continue to do business in a safe and more efficient way.
