Our guest today is Chitresh Sharma, a serial entrepreneur, whose latest venture, Refyne, has notched up over 700,000 users and funding of some $106 million in under a year, backed by investors including Tiger Global. In this conversation, Sharma talks about why he thinks Refyne will go on to be the category creator in India for earned wage access. 

(00:40) Intro to The Daily Tech Conversation

(00:53) Our guest today — Chitresh Sharma, co-founder and CEO, Refyne, an earned wage access fintech

(02:00) The path to Refyne — a serial entrepreneur’s journey; starting with an outsourcing outfit at 19

(04:50) The problem that Refyne is solving and why it’s an opportunity

(08:25) Partnering the employers to give staff earned wage access 24/7

(10:15) Started only in Feb 20221, and seeing strong early response

(11:350 Funding snapshot — strong investor backing; raised $106 million to date

(13:35) Valuation — a 6.5X increase from Series A to Series B

(14:10) Using the money for product development — already supports 12 languages, for example; money hits the bank in 60 seconds; need to hire top talent

(16:25) The simple workflow of getting the money — a few taps and choices on the app and a consent

(17:50) Highly automated process

(19:00) Earned wage access — not really a loan

(21:10) Tech stack — importance of data security, and a plug-and-play product for employers

(23:20) Innovations around data — integrating a banking experience into Refyne; understand customers better

(26:45) Profiles of people who use Refyne, and how often

(27:38) Should Refyne go overseas as well?

(28:55) Biggest challenge ahead

Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds:

https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds