This former Flipkart CTO brings financial inclusion to rural Indians

Davinta, an NBFC launched by Ravi Garikipati and Raj Vattikuti, uses AI to provide banking services to the un-banked

What do you do when the company in which you spearhead building technology at scale gets acquired for $16 billion and you end up making a blockbuster exit via an employee stock ownership plan? Instead of becoming an investor, advisor or simply hanging up his boots, Ravi Garikipati, former chief technology officer at e-commerce giant Flipkart, decided to risk becoming an entrepreneur himself. The cause that motivated him to take this plunge was to solve the issue of financial inclusion at the grass-root level. 

Davinta Financial Services, a non-banking financial company (NBFC) that Garikipati launched along with Raj Vattikuti, a well-known Indo-American entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist, is looking at addressing the financial needs of the rural, urban and micro-entrepreneur segments. Recognising that this needs to be done on a massive scale, the firm is leveraging the power of technology in order to achieve this objective. Michigan-based Vattikuti has been a serial entrepreneur, building several multi-billion-dollar businesses, including  Covansys, which was acquired by tech firm CSC in 2007 for $1.3 billion, and Altimetrik Corp, which give clients data-driven insights to launch new products rapidly. Vattikuti Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation he founded, is at the forefront of several charitable initiatives today, including promoting the use of robotic surgery in medical science. 

“For the longest time, financial services for the next billion were non-existent in our country, and when they became available, they were not accessible by everyone,” said Garikipati. “We are building technology to take financial services at a scale to millions of customers who need it the most and drive financial inclusion.” 

An alumnus of BITS-Pilani, Garikipati held various leadership roles at tech firms such as 247.ai, Oracle and Covansys. As CTO at Flipkart, he helped the company build highly-scalable cloud infrastructure and multi-tenant platforms. He left the Bengaluru-headquartered e-commerce firm early last year after its acquisition by Walmart for $16 billion in 2018.

“I'm still the guy who wants to be in the trenches to solve a problem at scale. I still feel I have another 10 plus years in my tank to build something I can be extremely proud of,” said Garikipati.

India has the second-largest labour force in the world, at 500 million, 90 per cent of which is engaged across rural livelihoods, urban blue-collar and micro-enterprise based jobs. Within this segment, millions of families continue to live hand-to-mouth and lack access to basic financial services.

Davinta aims to change this. Funded by promoters with a capital infusion of Rs 140 crore, Davinta is building a unique technology stack that aims to drive financial inclusion for the next billion. The company acquired over 10,000 customers in just eight months ad expects to touch 200,000 by the end of 2020. Davinta currently operates in 100 locations across three states. The firm aims to have a loan book of $1 billion by 2023, and will also tap external investors and lending partners in due course. 

One of the biggest roadblocks to building a financially inclusive society for the next billion is the absence of any formal financial history (credit history), says Garikipati. “Many of our customers are new to credit or have limited credit history and this creates a catch-22 scenario.” 

Davinta, which caters to both rural and urban populations, has built an underwriting model supported by an artificial intelligence engine that, in ‘near’ real-time creates specific customer profiles based on a proprietary list of variables. “Every time a potential customer walks into our retail distribution point, we can now understand who he is, what he wants and also what he (really) needs. Think of the service as a personal financial advisor, except that it is really our AI engine and it can operate at scale,” said Garikipati, who often travels to villages and remote parts of the country.

Much of the traditional financial services industry has been and continues to be paper-based even if some of the customer touchpoints have been digitised. This escalates costs and increases delays, rendering the businesses unsustainable. Davinta has taken a digital-first approach in designing its operations, and works in a paperless, cashless and presence-less environment.

“This requires looking at every transaction point in the entire value chain and replacing that with a digital alternative. Starting with customer interaction, document handling, service delivery and collections, Davinta has digitised every touchpoint in the customer journey,” said Garikipati.