Viral Pathak: A Passionate Fintech Leader Equipping The MSME Sector With Innovative Ai-Based Software Solutions
Viral Pathak
Founder
HISABKARO is an IIM Lucknow incubated AI based fintech company targeted for the MSME and its employees. Let’s get acquainted with Viral Pathak’s exemplifying journey and his venture HISABKARO.
Give a brief account of your professional background and experiences. What inspired you to establish HISABKARO & what drives you today?
I am B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from NIT Surat. I kickstarted my career journey working as a Management Trainee at Vizag Steel Plant (a PSU), and having worked there for almost six years, I also tried my small stints in entrepreneurship. Big Bang Papers (in 2014) was my first venture through which I strived to classify notebooks into diverse segments for different standards. One of the major challenges I faced in then was how much to produce and when to produce. I quit the business in 2016, due to cash flow issues. Later I did my MBA from IIM Lucknow in 2019, and then I worked as a Management Consultant; in between I ventured through a small company in my hometown in. However, the issues still existed, and the major challenges involved access to finance, the absence of proper software (which could help me consolidate the data), and inventory
management (some times I had a stock-out and sometimes a dead stock issue). It wasn't different for other MSMEs as well, as the problem thrived preeminently across the board. Due to this, I interacted with over 150 MSME owners with diverse backgrounds, turnover ranging from 50 lacs to almost 200 crore!
Analyzing this situation, I finally resigned from my job as a Management Consultant and started HISABKARO as a full-time entrepreneur. As I have been in the MSME field for almost a decade, I have seen the problems first-hand, and I know the pain points better. HISABKARO under Vanik Analytics (my company) is my sincere attempt in this regard. Vanik is a Sanskrit meaning ‘business’, and we named the company 'Vanik Analytics' because we’re focused on making businesses efficient. HISABKARO being the core product of our company is a one-stop solution for MSMEs from software to getting loans.
I have been actually quite intrigued with the ‘efficiency’ term since my school days ever since trying to improve my efficiency in whatever things drive me.
How has been the learning experience at IIM Lucknow? Also, what did you learn from the campus beyond academics?
It has been phenomenal. IIM Lucknow has got you the kind of people with whom you interact, the diversity in the classroom is amazing, the professors there are very helpful, and I am in touch with many of the professors. Even now when I feel like, I need certain kinds of guidance they are open to us, they keep on interacting with us and, overall the atmosphere itself is very enthralling. The scope for exploration is also immense. You can touch upon several new horizons and gather ideas that can significantly prove encouraging for entrepreneurship as well.
How would you define HISABKARO as an organization and its current position in the market?
As an organization we are very open to ideas. We discuss freely on each and every features within our team. HISABKARO is an AI-based fintech app. If I talk about how we are
When people say something, I listen to them, & I take the necessary & relevant information & imply it
Analyzing this situation, I finally resigned from my job as a Management Consultant and started HISABKARO as a full-time entrepreneur. As I have been in the MSME field for almost a decade, I have seen the problems first-hand, and I know the pain points better. HISABKARO under Vanik Analytics (my company) is my sincere attempt in this regard. Vanik is a Sanskrit meaning ‘business’, and we named the company 'Vanik Analytics' because we’re focused on making businesses efficient. HISABKARO being the core product of our company is a one-stop solution for MSMEs from software to getting loans.
I have been actually quite intrigued with the ‘efficiency’ term since my school days ever since trying to improve my efficiency in whatever things drive me.
How has been the learning experience at IIM Lucknow? Also, what did you learn from the campus beyond academics?
It has been phenomenal. IIM Lucknow has got you the kind of people with whom you interact, the diversity in the classroom is amazing, the professors there are very helpful, and I am in touch with many of the professors. Even now when I feel like, I need certain kinds of guidance they are open to us, they keep on interacting with us and, overall the atmosphere itself is very enthralling. The scope for exploration is also immense. You can touch upon several new horizons and gather ideas that can significantly prove encouraging for entrepreneurship as well.
How would you define HISABKARO as an organization and its current position in the market?
As an organization we are very open to ideas. We discuss freely on each and every features within our team. HISABKARO is an AI-based fintech app. If I talk about how we are
different from the other players, nobody at this point in time is focusing on data automation. We have done complete data automation which means a user need not manually enter the purchase or sales data into this system. You just have to upload the PDF or scan the invoice and all your data will be entered into the system. This automated product will be live in December and will be a revolutionary feature for MSMEs. It is first in the segment.
Tell us about your leadership approach.
I am a good listener and I always believe in empowering the co-workers. When people say something, I listen to them, and I take the necessary and relevant information and imply it. However, I value experiential learning in business and every where; and if my goal is fixed, I don't bother too much about the negative comments and do what seems practically possible through strategic innovation.
First thing to keep myself updated, I tend to read a lot so I try to read a lot of books and different online magazines to keep myself equipped with the industry trend. Secondly, nowadays I've started attending a lot of seminars and I keep meeting more new people. Their insights helped me in redefining my product.
What is the future destination you are heading towards?
The digital lending space in India is presently worth more than $350 billion and in next six years it is poised to be more than $1.3 trillion. We want to be the market leader in MSME segment. To achieve that, we are starting first with the data sanity for this huge market. Our product in many ways is first in the segment. We are doing rigours testing of our product to make it very robust. We want to remove the language barrier and make sure our product is available in all languages.
What advice would you give to budding industry leaders?
Believe in yourself. Listen to market. Be thick skinned. No one knows the success formula, it’s a self enlightenment journey. I am also going through same phase so giving you an honest opinion.
Viral Pathak, Founder, HisabKaro
An alumnus of IIM Lucknow, Viral holding prolific experience in business development and management consulting is a seasoned professional in the fintech world. HISABKARO, a game changing fintech app is one of the first and unique fintech solutions for MSMEs.
Tell us about your leadership approach.
I am a good listener and I always believe in empowering the co-workers. When people say something, I listen to them, and I take the necessary and relevant information and imply it. However, I value experiential learning in business and every where; and if my goal is fixed, I don't bother too much about the negative comments and do what seems practically possible through strategic innovation.
First thing to keep myself updated, I tend to read a lot so I try to read a lot of books and different online magazines to keep myself equipped with the industry trend. Secondly, nowadays I've started attending a lot of seminars and I keep meeting more new people. Their insights helped me in redefining my product.
What is the future destination you are heading towards?
The digital lending space in India is presently worth more than $350 billion and in next six years it is poised to be more than $1.3 trillion. We want to be the market leader in MSME segment. To achieve that, we are starting first with the data sanity for this huge market. Our product in many ways is first in the segment. We are doing rigours testing of our product to make it very robust. We want to remove the language barrier and make sure our product is available in all languages.
What advice would you give to budding industry leaders?
Believe in yourself. Listen to market. Be thick skinned. No one knows the success formula, it’s a self enlightenment journey. I am also going through same phase so giving you an honest opinion.
Viral Pathak, Founder, HisabKaro
An alumnus of IIM Lucknow, Viral holding prolific experience in business development and management consulting is a seasoned professional in the fintech world. HISABKARO, a game changing fintech app is one of the first and unique fintech solutions for MSMEs.