Ambitious, yet Grounded — A note on NIUM becoming a Unicorn
Recently, it came out in the news that NIUM has become the first global B2B payment unicorn in Singapore.
I’m not surprised. I still remember vividly, around 20 months ago in late 2019, the time when Prajit (co-founder of NIUM) and I were having a regular catch-up session over beer. We were discussing Nium’s business direction and brainstorming how to find enough funds to survive the next year. Prajit suddenly asked, “NIUM will become a unicorn in 18 months. Do you believe in it?” I nearly choked on my beer. Don’t get me wrong. I believed in him, in NIUM, and in what the company was doing. I believed that NIUM would hit unicorn status in a few years, but maybe not in 18 months since that conversation. NIUM, then, was in survival mode, and I was also trying my best to convince investors in my network to invest in NIUM so the business would tide over the next 12 months.
Due to COVID-19, we were prepared for the worst for NIUM.
A few months later, in early 2020, COVID-19 hit and the funds were not in yet. Many previously interested investors suddenly disappeared due to one reason or another. We gathered in Prajit’s office, with fear hanging like a fog in the air. The Vertex team was mentally prepared to help provide funding for their bridge round, but that commitment would require Prajit to impose drastic cost-cutting measures. After much prolonged discussion, despite the potential cash flow issues, Prajit decided that he wanted to continue growing the business since the projections were still healthy. More importantly, he felt that the business would soon be booming based on “on-the-ground” information provided by his sales team and his direct interaction with clients. In the end, both parties compromised with a targeted cost-cutting measure, starting with salaries. Vertex supported the bridge financing, and Prajit volunteered a salary cut of 30%. Then, everyone else from senior to junior positions, took a pay cut of 10% to ~20%.
Based on my experience, companies which face cash flow challenges and must go through drastic cost-cutting measures usually face a huge problem of low morale. A few ‘Star’ employees would leave for greener pastures, and it could spiral into a vicious cycle which could eventually lead to the demise of the business. This is because, in addition to just dealing with the sales and finances, the management would be over stretched with dealing with HR issues, as well as tricky stakeholder management issues.
Fortunately, the targeted cost-cutting strategy worked well, and the team stayed together and remained motivated.
NIUM maintained good growth for the following months and Prajit made sure that the burn rate stayed low during that period of immense uncertainty. I imagined that it must have been difficult to look strong and put-together to his team and stakeholders, while fretting about the business numbers. Hence, what I thought was noteworthy about Prajit was that he demonstrated strong leadership skills and acted as a good role model despite the challenging period. He was able to communicate effectively with stakeholders and continue motivating his team well throughout the period. His resilience paid off. This fearful period turned out to be a blessing as NIUM came out on top in the payment industry, with very strong business metrics and a highly committed team in 2020. Prajit had managed to do it — transformed a challenge into an opportunity for NIUM.
Now, 20 months after that beer session, albeit slightly later compared to his initial prediction of 18 months, Prajit delivered on his promise. I feel that it is typical of him — very ambitious with a vision, yet also very grounded with the ability to execute. I’m so proud of him.
Here’s the backstory…
Vertex Ventures SEA invested in Instarem in 2016 (which later renamed as NIUM in 2019). When we started having conversations with Prajit, he just moved to Singapore. At that time, he did not have an office yet and we often saw him working alone at the Technopreneur Circle (the free co-working space managed by Vertex Ventures, with the objective of giving back to the start-up ecosystem). We were truly inspired by his passion and his vision.
NIUM stays competitive because Prajit continuously dreams and innovates.
Over the past 5 years, NIUM has grown from a small consumer remittance business to an important global payment infrastructure player. Prajit was relentless and just kept pushing boundaries. His ambition has inspired and attracted many like-minded talent to work with him, yet he remains grounded while tirelessly building the business. I believe the foundation he has built will prove relevant for the next 10 years to come — a solid foundation in which his team would constantly churn out new initiatives and take everyone by surprise. Many times, when he excitedly came over to share new interesting ideas with me, I would nervously comment, “Oh yes, that sounds great, but….,” then his excitement would fade a little, but he seldom gave up. He would rebut with, “you are right, but let me try this first…. or test that out on a small scale….” A few days later, he would come back and say “you are right, I will drop it…” or “I still think it makes sense and here’s why…” Most of the time, we decided to support him on his new idea because he has often thought through things that we may have not. At times, he would emerge with a vision that would get us both excited and fearful at the same time. For instance, “I am going to enable the whole next generation of embedded Fintech players on a global scale….” Despite all that, we decided to stay ALL-IN to support him all the way.
“Vertex Ventures SEA is our cofounder” — What makes Prajit stand out is his Positive and Humble Personality
People who know Prajit would know exactly what I am talking about. He is very friendly by nature, often greeting others with a big smile. He is also very energetic and has that eagerness to change the world. Many look up to him as he is very inspiring and always dares to dream big. But what gave me a strong and lasting impression of him is that he is also very humble and grounded as a person. Despite knowing the intricacies of his business, he is always willing to take inputs from others, and he appreciates the people around him.
As an investor, Vertex Ventures SEA is proud of our operator-investing approach in providing significant value-add to founders, beyond just money. From our experience, not all founders appreciate such value-add or appreciate taking inputs from investors. Prajit has been very humble and open-minded, and constantly engages us on minor topics, like product brainstorming, office selection, to more major one like strategy building, fundraising and more. I used to feel amused whenever I heard him acknowledging Vertex Ventures SEA as NIUM’s cofounder, though I think that is the best compliment a VC can get. He also practices gratitude. After the recent raise, he messaged us in our chat group:
As a VC, we are always here to support our founders. However, considering big ambition is often accompanied by big egos, it really takes founders with a big heart to appreciate us!
Founders with both ambitious vision and the ability to execute are rare and at Vertex Ventures SEA, we are looking for founders like that.
It has been a very interesting 5-year journey for us with Prajit and his team at NIUM, and we look forward to the next 5 years with him. We will continue to support Prajit to build NIUM as a key global infrastructure player, enabling many more interesting fintech innovations. And we look forward to supporting many more like-minded entrepreneurs like Prajit! As an investor, we are not just investing for profits, but also believe in nurturing and growing together with our portfolio companies.
PS: Over the weekend we popped a bottle of champagne together to celebrate this milestone. I can’t resist including the picture below as it shows the essence of a good five years relationship, but more importantly, it captures the spirit we are having to start the new journey of growing NIUM in the coming years…
