Droom to offer AI and ML-based enterprise-level tech solutions

Rohit Katyal

With rising ownership of smartphones and increasing internet penetration, AI and ML are very handy in giving a real-time analysis of customers to the companies, which they can utilise to continue facilitating more specific and better accessible financial services and products says Rohit Katyal – Head – BFSI, Droom, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

Rohit Katyal

How exciting or challenging it is to be the Head-BFSI of Droom technology?

I believe that being the Head of BFSI vertical in an organisation like Droom is very thrilling and fruitful! Given how fintech has become one of the most essential enablers for any e-commerce business, there are several opportunities that one can tap into.

While BFSI has always been challenging when it comes to the automobile sector, Droom has created a comprehensive, and necessary, ecosystem around automobiles for their pricing, inspection, history, and BFSI Services. The Company also offers the best tech solutions in each of these verticals and therefore, heading the BFSI with such a strong portfolio of clients is always exciting. And Droom’s Culture is like the icing on the cake, so working in such a positive and nurturing environment adds to the thrill!

What new innovations have you planned for the company?

For Droom’s BFSI vertical, we have been leveraging new-age technologies to create products, while bringing multiple lenders on board, to enable paperless loan disbursements for the pre-owned vehicle category. At present, ours is the largest network in the country for this category. Additionally, we are also leveraging technological interventions like AI and ML in our enterprise solutions to provide the best estimates to our BFSI partners and facilitate better decision-making in their used vehicle loan disbursals, insurance IDV, and break in policy, etc.

How do you feel technology is changing the face of the banking sector?

 I believe that digitisation is transforming the very way the BFSI sector in India has functioned so far. For instance, financial services like payments, loan disbursals, Insurance policy buying etc. are just a click away. With rising ownership of smartphones and increasing internet penetration, AI and ML are very handy in giving a real-time analysis of customers to the companies, which they can utilise to continue facilitating more specific and better accessible financial services and products. Even at Droom, we have been building AI and ML-based enterprise-level tech solutions for the BFSI sector.

Droom is India’s first and largest online marketplace to buy and sell used vehicles?

Yes, Droom is India’s largest and pioneering online automobile transactional marketplace. We have many features, products, and services that differentiate us from the rest and help us strengthen our position as the largest online marketplace. For instance, we have four marketplace formats i.e. B2C, C2C, C2B, and B2B. Further, we offer a wide range of automobile categories ranging from bicycles to planes.

We have also built an entire ecosystem around the automobile buying and selling journey by leveraging new-age technologies to provide proprietary tools like Orange Book Value—an unbiased and comprehensive pricing engine, ECO—a 1000+ points vehicle inspection tool, History—India’s biggest repository of vehicles, and Discovery—dozens of pre-buying research tools.

Droom Credit, which is India’s first and only marketplace for used auto loans and dealer financing, is also one of the unique tools provided by Droom. We also extend automobile services such as warranty, RSA, and insurance, etc. Because of such provisions, Droom continues to be the country’s largest online marketplace, not just for used vehicles but for automobiles on a whole.

What steps are you taking to curb frauds and cyberattacks in the company?

At Droom, we are very vigilant about any fraudulent activity or cyberattacks and have been applying sophisticated systems and processes to successfully identify and combat these. Firstly, we have a thorough process for the identity verification of all our end-customers, be it the borrower or the seller. While most of these processes are automated, we also go for manual verification wherever it is deemed necessary. We take into account verification of details like email, mobile number, KYC, bank statement, credit bureau, any duplicate loan applications, and digital signature before closing the loan agreement to ensure zero deceit among the borrowers. Further, to check the legitimacy of the sellers, we verify their email, mobile number, and bank account details. We also make it imperative to perform our certification serviced like ECO and History etc. on the used vehicle being sold to detect fraud, if any.

When it comes to the protection of the transactions being made, we have completely automated the process to rid it of any manual intervention and the apprehensions associated. Moreover, the money is disbursed over an encrypted file to provide standing instruction to the bank for funds transfer. We also ensure due reporting of loan disbursal, delay, and delinquencies to the credit bureau. Moreover, if multiple approvals are taking place from any lender in quick succession within a stipulated time, we also provide them real-time alerts for their protection. Therefore, through such measures, Droom has been taking a proactive initiative towards identifying and curbing any frauds and cyberattacks.

What are your plans for the rest of 2019?

We plan to expand Droom Credit by bringing more and more lenders such as banks, NBFCs, and fintech companies. We have partnered with the bigger names among banks, insurance companies, and enterprises in the past. This includes names like Hero FinCorp, IDFC First Bank, Mannapuram Finance, TATA Capital, YES Bank, LendBox, and I2i Funding, among others.

Moreover, some of these partners have also been utilising our platform to market their products, considering the heavy traffic on it and Droom being the 3rd largest e-commerce platform in the country. Through such strategic moves, both we and our partners plan to leverage each other’s strength to bring strength to them as well as to the Droom Auto ecosystem.

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