Rohit Gajbhiye: An Experienced Fintech Professional Boosting Education EcoSystem
Rohit Gajbhiye
Founder & CEO
Rohit Gajbhiye is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and possesses Stanford Ignite Entrepreneurship Certificate. Before starting his own company, he worked with the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS). He is experienced in Credit Risk, Commercial Banking, Liquidity Risk, and Management. Along with growing his company through his consistent hard work, he also does voluntary work with organizations like Lions Club, Amma Nanna Old Age Home, and Lotus Learning Foundation.
Rohit engages in an exclusive interaction with the CEO Insights Magazine.
What inspired you to establish Financepeer and what drives you today?
The inspiration to establish Financepeer comes from the never dying spirit of Indian entrepreneurs. While working on a project for Boeing during my college days, I developed an inclination toward entrepreneurship. Further, working in the finTech segment of DBS strengthened my resolve and I joined Stanford Ignite to hone my entrepreneurial skills. Although my first start-up didn’t bear the expected results, it taught me some valuable lessons. Equipped with those lessons, I started Financepeer in 2017, and the impact of Financepeer on the Indian education ecosystem has been immense. The motivation to impact the lives of more and more students with every passing day is the driving force that helps me to keep moving.
How would you define Financepeer as an organization and its position in the market? Tell us about your flagship offerings and the value additions customers can expect from your services.
Financepeer is the flag bearer of the fee financing revolution in the country. We are the biggest and the most trusted education fee financing company in the country. We have already partnered with more than 13000 institutes in the country and served more than two million students. Our vision is to facilitate access to quality education for students across the country. For this, we are partnering with various solution providers and coming up with new technology interventions that will not only help the students to access better education, but also assist the parents in financial planning to fund higher education.
Every parent wants his child to receive the best possible education, however, liquidity is a severe constraint in front of almost every parent. With the ever rising cost of education, parents can only fund their children’s education through proper financial planning. Financepeer helps parents in this regard where we offer cost-free financing solutions to students across the country besides being cost free, our solution is fast hasslefree, and paperless.
In addition to this, fee financing with Financepeer is accompanied by insurance for the child’s education. If something unfortunate happens to the child's parents, the child's education cost is taken care of by Financepeer. Moreover, with every fee payment made through fee financing, students receive 10 percent reward points. These reward points can be utilized to learn new skills on the Financepeer Edinfinity platform.
What are the major factors you take into consideration while suggesting solutions to clients?
While suggesting a solution to the clients, our first consideration is whether this solution will help the student have better access to higher education. Most people opt for fee financing as they want to ease the financial burden that school fees exert on them, therefore cost-effectiveness is the key. Moreover, many people do not have the time or financial literacy to go through
Financepeer is the flag bearer of the fee financing revolution in the country. We are the biggest and the most trusted education fee financing company in the country. We have already partnered with more than 13000 institutes in the country and served more than two million students. Our vision is to facilitate access to quality education for students across the country. For this, we are partnering with various solution providers and coming up with new technology interventions that will not only help the students to access better education, but also assist the parents in financial planning to fund higher education.
The first step towards any goal is always the most difficult one
Every parent wants his child to receive the best possible education, however, liquidity is a severe constraint in front of almost every parent. With the ever rising cost of education, parents can only fund their children’s education through proper financial planning. Financepeer helps parents in this regard where we offer cost-free financing solutions to students across the country besides being cost free, our solution is fast hasslefree, and paperless.
In addition to this, fee financing with Financepeer is accompanied by insurance for the child’s education. If something unfortunate happens to the child's parents, the child's education cost is taken care of by Financepeer. Moreover, with every fee payment made through fee financing, students receive 10 percent reward points. These reward points can be utilized to learn new skills on the Financepeer Edinfinity platform.
What are the major factors you take into consideration while suggesting solutions to clients?
While suggesting a solution to the clients, our first consideration is whether this solution will help the student have better access to higher education. Most people opt for fee financing as they want to ease the financial burden that school fees exert on them, therefore cost-effectiveness is the key. Moreover, many people do not have the time or financial literacy to go through
lengthy and complicated processes to get the funding sanctioned therefore the solution must be convenient to be truly effective in practice. We are also bringing in several software interventions which help parents bring in financial planning for the wards.
Tell us about some of the toughest challenges you have faced and how you over come them.
School fee financing was something unheard of and the biggest challenge that we faced was convincing people that this was something real and can work for them. We overcame this challenge through hard work, persistence, and consistency.
When COVID-19 struck and the entire world was shaken, Financepeer, like any other organization was faced with the difficult question, of whether to continue with the same efforts as before or slow down the pace, cut costs, and lay off some part of the workforce. Unlike most organizations, Financepeer did not go for any cost cutting or reduction in the workforce. Instead, we continued our efforts with the same enthusiasm as before that helped us grow 10X during this period.
What are the changes in market behaviour that you anticipate and what are the opportunities that you foresee?
In the future, the fee financing revolution will spread to Tier-III cities and rural areas. However, more companies will venture into the segment and the competition will become tougher which will eventually increase the market size. COVID-19 accelerated digital adoption across all sectors of business and life. FinTech companies have been the biggest beneficiary of this and will continue to be so.
Rohit Gajbhiye, Founder & CEO, Financepeer
A former employee of DBS, Rohi Gajbhiye started his own company in the year 2017. He is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and earned Stanford Ignite Entrepreneurship Certificate. He has expertise in Credit Risk, Commercial Banking, and Liquidity Risk.
•Hobbies: OTT, sports, reading
•Favorite Cuisine: Indian and Chinese
•Favorite Book: Untamed Origins by Sunit Gajbhiye
•Favorite Travel Destination: New Zealand
Tell us about some of the toughest challenges you have faced and how you over come them.
School fee financing was something unheard of and the biggest challenge that we faced was convincing people that this was something real and can work for them. We overcame this challenge through hard work, persistence, and consistency.
When COVID-19 struck and the entire world was shaken, Financepeer, like any other organization was faced with the difficult question, of whether to continue with the same efforts as before or slow down the pace, cut costs, and lay off some part of the workforce. Unlike most organizations, Financepeer did not go for any cost cutting or reduction in the workforce. Instead, we continued our efforts with the same enthusiasm as before that helped us grow 10X during this period.
What are the changes in market behaviour that you anticipate and what are the opportunities that you foresee?
In the future, the fee financing revolution will spread to Tier-III cities and rural areas. However, more companies will venture into the segment and the competition will become tougher which will eventually increase the market size. COVID-19 accelerated digital adoption across all sectors of business and life. FinTech companies have been the biggest beneficiary of this and will continue to be so.
Rohit Gajbhiye, Founder & CEO, Financepeer
A former employee of DBS, Rohi Gajbhiye started his own company in the year 2017. He is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and earned Stanford Ignite Entrepreneurship Certificate. He has expertise in Credit Risk, Commercial Banking, and Liquidity Risk.
•Hobbies: OTT, sports, reading
•Favorite Cuisine: Indian and Chinese
•Favorite Book: Untamed Origins by Sunit Gajbhiye
•Favorite Travel Destination: New Zealand