Credgenics CEO Rishabh Goel Talks Tech Revolution in Debt Collection

In a rapidly evolving financial landscape, the debt collection industry in India faces unique challenges and opportunities. Historically characterized by manual processes and a lack of comprehensive regulations, debt resolution in the country has been ripe for transformation. Rishabh Goel, Co-founder, and CEO of Credgenics, sheds light on how his company is leveraging cutting-edge technology to revolutionize debt collection practices, reduce non-performing loans, and drive efficiency in this exclusive interaction with StartupTalky.

StartupTalky: What are the biggest challenges facing the debt collection industry in India today?

Mr. Goel: Historically, debt resolution practices in India have remained overlooked and disregarded for several reasons. Despite modern technology adoption propelling various facets of the banking industry forward, this particular area has lagged behind in modernization. It is commonly perceived as a back-end operation driven by manual efforts, utilizing bulk strategies, operating with isolated expert teams, and lacking an integrated approach. The available technological solutions have followed a disjointed and piecemeal approach, failing to address the broader industry-wide goals. Additionally, there exists a cultural barrier surrounding debt collections, as society tends to shy away from openly acknowledging and discussing financial challenges. Debt and financial difficulties are often considered private matters, and seeking professional assistance for debt resolution can sometimes be viewed as a sign of inadequacy or failure.

Until recent years, the debt resolution industry lacked comprehensive regulations and oversight. This absence of oversight led to borrower concerns and unethical practices being adopted by some service providers, further tarnishing the sector's reputation and public perception.

StartupTalky: How is Credgenics using technology to revolutionize the debt collection industry in India?

Mr. Goel: Credgenics is a pioneer in embracing AI and ML capabilities and the power of digital to create new-age technology solutions for the debt collections industry. The insights from ML models in the Credgenics platform provide actionable insights on borrower segmentation, behavioral patterns, risk-based strategy, and the efficacy of digital engagements by analyzing past data. This helps equip the collections teams with the right input for making informed decisions, making the collections process more efficient, personalized, humane, and productive. With tailor-made automated communications across multiple channels, on-demand scale-up capabilities, and adopting human-like interactions through multilingual bots, the collections processes are becoming faster, more transparent, customer-centric, and modern.

Credgenics has ensured that lenders' debt collection processes align with both rapidly evolving business needs and regulatory frameworks. With extensive controls in place, lenders can monitor and track compliance and adherence to business practices easily.

Credgenics will continue to leverage the latest technological developments to provide its customers with the most effective collections management solutions, ensuring strict compliance with rapidly evolving regulatory requirements, and enhancing customer experiences and engagements during the collections phase.

StartupTalky: What are the key benefits of Credgenics' platform for lenders and borrowers? How is Credgenics helping lenders reduce their non-performing loans (NPLs)?

Mr Goel: The future of collections is digital-first and data-driven. Over the past decade, the financial services sector has evolved tremendously, thanks to developments such as wider access to smartphones, deep internet penetration, simpler digital payments, seamless data sharing, focus on financial inclusion initiatives, and the rapid rise of FinTechs. There is a need to align strategies in light of these developments and transform the collections processes overall. Debt collections is a crucial area, that has lagged in the transformation curve, and Credgenics is facilitating that change.

Credgenics has created an enormous impact on the lending ecosystem through its state-of-the-art integrated collections technology platform, which allows lenders to digitize and manage their end-to-end recovery workflow - including communications, strategy, field operations, litigation, billing, payments, and reconciliation - from pre-due stages to various delinquency buckets and field collections to legal stages. Our SaaS-based specialized technology platform and data-driven approach have enabled us to reimagine these processes for lenders and help them get future-ready when it comes to debt collections.

Credgenics currently works with more than 100 customers and has managed an overall loan book worth USD 47 Billion in Financial Year 22. So far, the firm has managed 40 million retail loans overall and sends out 60 million digital communications every month. With Credgenics, lenders have increased resolution rates by 20%, improved collections by 25%, reduced collections costs by 40%, reduced collections time by 30%, and improved legal efficiencies by 60%.

Collections processes of the future will be automated, digital, and will become a lot more touchless. A substantial portion of collections can easily happen via completely digital mode. Personalization and regionalization in strategies and relying on data-backed insights can make a lot of difference in the collection’s outcomes. Human efforts have proven to be much more effective when aligned with complex stages, while routine and repetitive tasks can be easily managed by machines. Machine Learning models are extremely useful in identifying gaps, improvement areas, and the impact of mitigation efforts over a period of time. Credgenics is using the latest technological capabilities to provide its customers with the most effective collections management solutions, help them with complete adherence to rapidly evolving compliance requirements, and enhance customer experiences and engagements during the collections phase.

StartupTalky: What role do you see technology playing in the future of debt collection in India?

Mr. Goel: As the debt collection industry evolves, technology is expected to play a crucial role in driving the entire narrative for reimagining debt collections. Lenders are beginning to realize the positive impact that this transformation can have on their businesses, and Credgenics is at the forefront of this change. With new lending business models gaining ground, digital loans rising in demand, and instant loan approvals being preferred, debt collections for such loans require a modern approach backed by robust technology. Our proprietary tech tools and data-driven approach have enabled us to create an effective communication channel with borrowers, increasing loan recovery rates and reducing collection costs.

In the future, collection processes will undergo significant automation and digitalization, aiming to minimize human involvement. We strongly believe that a substantial portion of collections can be efficiently conducted through digital channels, and the customization and fine-tuning of these processes can greatly impact the outcomes. Human efforts can be better directed toward complex stages, while routine tasks can be effectively managed by machines. The utilization of data-driven insights will play a crucial role in identifying areas for improvement, focusing on key aspects, and implementing mitigation strategies. Credgenics remains committed to harnessing the latest technological advancements to provide our clients with highly efficient collections management solutions. Our goal is to ensure strict compliance with rapidly evolving regulations while enhancing customer experiences and engagements throughout the collections process.

StartupTalky: What are your top priorities for Credgenics in the next 12-24 months, and how do you plan to expand your business internationally?

Mr. Goel: Over the next few months, we will continue to invest in adding new capabilities to our solutions based on the evolving business needs of our customers. We plan to expand our business operations in other countries in Southeast Asia, and we will be incorporating the regional requirements as well. We are also looking at solving the collections-focused challenges of related industry segments where strong synergies exist.

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