Foreign exchange is a mix of organised and unorganised trade. Whenever one travels, some cash is needed irrespective of whatever percentage of cashless economy any developed country has.
The immediate stop for the individual is either forex services at a bank or at the airport or the unorganised market. Shubham Aggarwal, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of CurrencyKart.com, talks to Ateeq Shaikh about the year old venture that is an aggregator for forex.
Being a frequent traveller myself, I was always in need for foreign currency. Realising that the currency market is quite unorganised and people are clueless about the right price whenever they are buying or selling any currency, the idea clicked to have an online business set-up. This was to bridge the gap between money exchangers, buyers and travellers.
It is a brainchild of 5 start-up enthusiasts, close friends and family members. CurrencyKart was found in early 2016 to revolutionise the forex business in the country. Around a crore in seed capital was contributed by the co-founders themselves. RBI approved only dealers and international travellers as to deal in forex and similar products. Accordingly, the product or service is delivered to your place at no extra cost. There are times when travellers are unaware of the transparency and operations of the forex market failing which they face several difficulties in sourcing the foreign currencies.
That’s where CurrencyKart plays its part. We encourage dealers to join our platform and help customers get the best prices and services through our medium. Dealers, on a regular basis, update the rates of full variety of forex related products such as currencies, travel cards and wire transfers which enable their reach in the market and customers to choose from variety of the products and see what different dealers are offering, and choose conveniently right from the vicinity of their home.
We have our presence in 20 cities which include Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur, Goa, etc. We have over 300 vendors spread across the country and over 10,000 registered users.
As the market is largely buying-oriented, wherein travellers buy foreign currencies. Hence, it has been our main target. We will also be focussing on inbound foreign travellers. We have three modes of delivery ranging from door-step deliver to at the airport delivery.
We want to tap foreign travellers by having tie-ups with three and five star hotels. Even medical tourism is among our next focus areas, as it is a big industry in itself. As part of our first phase of expansion plans, we want to set up forex counters at international airports, for which additional investment is required.
There are two other phases for expanding our business which includes getting into hedging. Presently, we are looking for investments to the tune of $3 million from venture capitalists to meet our expansion requirements for another couple of years.