Fintech South 2022: Amyn Sadruddin with Intellekt AI

Intro: [00:00:08] Broadcasting live from the Georgia World Congress Center for Fintech South 2022, it’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by Atlanta Blockchain Center. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:28] Lee Kantor here. Back at Fintech South 2022. I’m so excited to be talking to an old friend, Amyn Sadruddin with Intellekt. Welcome.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:00:36] Hey, what’s up, man? Long time no talk.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:38] I know. So, what brings you to Fintech South?

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:00:41] So, we are a finalist for the Innovation Showcase.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] Oh, congrats.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:00:45] Thank you so much. So, we pitched yesterday the investors, and today we’ll be pitching, I think, during the keynote hours. So, pretty excited and gotten a lot of great support from the tech folks and all the folks at Fintech South.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:57] So, tell us about Intellekt. How you serving folks?

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:00:59] Sure.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:59] What’s you’re — what’s the product service?

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:01:02] Yes. So we’re a platform, a SaaS platform. And what we do is we help Fintechs onboard their customers. It’s a self-onboarding tool. And basically, what we do is we offer compliance around the onboarding process and we offer the data to be cleaned during that process from their customers so that they can efficiently onboard them. And then they can also leverage the data to run, you know, cross-sell, up-sell as well. So, basically, what we do is at the inception point of how a Fintech onboards their customer. We basically enrich the data that they are processing so that they can be more intuitive with it. So, enhance the Intellekt.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:41] Now, what was the genesis of the idea had to come about?

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:01:44] So, I joined this company as co-founder and chief revenue officer about two years ago. The origin of the company was a managed services firm and we did a lot of data evolution projects for financial institutions, banks, neobanks, crypto. And we saw a high resonance that all Fintechs have an issue or have some gaps or pain points around the onboarding process. So, we basically came in and we were doing a lot of data aggregation work and found that you know, through the tools and technologies that we’ve built that we can, you know, transform this into a platform that could be a self-serve tool, so.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:19] And then what are some of the symptoms that, you know, your potential clients are having were Intellekts the solution? Like, what are the clues that they might have a problem that they may not even realize?

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:02:31] Sure. You know, folks in the Fintech space are, you know, it’s highly competitive now. It’s very digital in nature. And if you look at some of the bigger banks or bigger institutions, they’re trying to serve a very digital audience, millennials, Gen Zs. No one wants to go to a brick and mortar, but some of the items that need to be digested by a Fintech is sometimes very brick-and-mortar related, right? Submitting an ID, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:02:55] Right.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:02:55] It has to be on point, right? It has to be scanned properly. You know my name, Amyn Sadruddin, as long as it is. But I sometimes shorten it and just do Amyn S. And depending on how that institution is collecting my profile information, whether it’s, you know, connecting to a Facebook account or whether it’s attaching to my e-mail. Those are a lot of data points that need to be aggregated and make sure that when you build the persona of an Amyn or a Lee, you know, that you do it at the most accurate level. So, that when you verify them to transact on your platform, that you’re doing it with accuracy. So, that you know that, hey, I know that if I give Lee a credit card in my platform or if I let him transact on my platform, that I know that he’s not going to commit fraud, so.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:35] And then it’s also — there’s opportunity because if you’re using different, you know, like Amyn, Amyn S,whatever the — whatever Amyn means, right?

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:03:44] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:45] Then they want to make sure that there’s the right offer at the right time for you, that’s relevant to you rather than just not you.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:03:54] Yes, I think the — you know, one of the pain points that we saw and, you know, we did a lot of customer discovery through Fintech CXOs in the market. And a lot of them, you know, always look at the data that they collect from their customer as like an after-effect that they want to then leverage that data afterwards to then do the cross-sell and upsell. But you know, the origination of when the customer submits their data is when you should tackle it, and clean it, and prep it. So that whenever you put it into your lead management system or your CRM system, or you want to do continuous monitoring on an individual, it all boils down to clean data.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:04:30] So, that’s kind of what we provide is that, you know, we do a lot of shit cleaning on the front end and then provide a lot of intuitiveness on the back end so that when a Fintech wants to onboard a customer, they have a lot of confidence in who they’re onboarding. Because compliance is also an issue. I think in — yesterday the three tracks that I attended, including the main stage, compliance was touched on. And that you know, they’re —

Lee Kantor: [00:04:49] Each one of them?

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:04:50] Of them on each one of them.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:51] Right.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:04:51] Yes, yes. So, that — they were trying to figure out is, how do we instill more accurate compliance? Because compliance, you know, kind of presents two issues for the Fintech, is one is that they’ll get penalized, right, for not doing it properly?

Lee Kantor: [00:05:04] Right.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:05:04] And then you lose the customer, too. So, now you’re like double negative revenue, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:05:07] Right. And it’s table stakes now.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:05:11] Correct.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:11] And then for you, do you have any examples of when you are that clean at the beginning, that the results are worth the effort to do that?

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:05:21] Absolutely. You know, I think a lot of companies now are using identity verification tools. And to make sure that they, you know, have fewer false positives.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:31] Right.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:05:32] And, you know, an identity verification tool is only as strong as what you put into it. So, kind of as mentioned, you know, all of the — I think, we have six active customers right now. And each of them, you know, we basically reduced the cycle time for onboarding.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:05:48] So, if you look at one of our customers, a crypto exchange, they were — they had a backlog of about 35 days to onboard a customer. So, this is —

Lee Kantor: [00:05:56] Really, 35?

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:05:56] 35 days, yes. And it’s because there’s, you know, crypto is a very wild, wild west —

Lee Kantor: [00:06:04] Sure.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:06:04] — you know, industry. There’s different wallets that are available. Different wallets that need to be identified and connected to a persona. So, that presents a lot of problem in being able to really do a workflow that, you know, will give the company confidence and how they are servicing that individual coming on to their crypto exchange.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:06:24] So, you know, all the verification needs and cleaning the data up front makes it easier for them to then have a better customer experience plan around that. Because you want to activate them and then serve them with who they are and how you can potentially, you know, engage them in other opportunities that the Fintech could have, right? So, if the crypto exchange says that, hey, you know, you are — you’re available for maybe a crypto line of credit. That boils down to you knowing who that person is and what he’s transacting with. So, one is that, you know, reducing the cycle time is, kind of, been our key, I would say secret sauce and slash like value prop is that, you know, we can reduce the cycle time and being able to onboard your customer and we’re more accurate with it because we’re cleaning the data and we’re giving clean data, the verification tool. So —

Lee Kantor: [00:07:04] So, in that case, it went from 35 days to what?

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:07:07] Four days?

Lee Kantor: [00:07:08] Wow. So, that’s dramatic.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:07:10] It’s dramatic, yes. And, you know, creating those workflows has been a key piece of what we do is, you know, when data gets digested if any —

Lee Kantor: [00:07:18] Do they believe you when you tell them that because that seemed like really —

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:07:21] Well, we don’t — we just show them. I mean, we run a POC, you know.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:24] Right.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:07:24] We take a set and we say — take a set of customers and we, you know, show them, here’s what — here’s how you’re ingesting your data about the individual. And here’s a better way to do it through our technology that will give you more insights. And because you’re cleaning the data upfront, you’re now able to enrich that for your cross-sell and upsell. Because now you actually have a holistic individual versus you trying to go back to say, OK, can we pull this — can we pull Lee from CRM? Can we pull them from our credit card system –.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:50] Right.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:07:50] — and see like, what is he doing now? But when you clean the data upfront, it makes it — it empowers the Fintech by a lot because now the C-suite has a good viewpoint of where they are. And if there are gaps. So, let’s say there’s a — I’m going to just focus on crypto. Let’s say there’s a certain coin or token that is either being spent or, you know, being transacted on more, or there’s one that’s more volatile. Now, as a company, you have a good know of who that customer base is that’s transacting on that sort of crypto and how you can better service them because now you’re just aware.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:23] Now, for you at Fintech South, I know you’re in this competition —

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:08:28] Innovation challenge?

Lee Kantor: [00:08:28] Right. So, now you have that going for you. But you’re also getting — it sounds like a lot out of the education that’s happening here.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:08:35] Well, of course. Yes, that’s been phenomenal. I think Fintech South and TAG did a really great job with getting industry experts to break down. I think I learned a lot about ethics today. That was one of the things that I think was touched on a lot. Like how do you, in Fintech ethics or, you know, ethics law, and how do you make sure that there’s no racial discrimination with data? And how do you assess someone getting a loan? That was the most insightful for me. I know there’s going to be some gaming conversation, NFT conversations today. So, I’m looking forward to those as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:06] And if somebody wants to learn more about Intellekt, what’s the website?

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:09:09] intellekt.ai.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:11] And then the ideal customer for you is who?

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:09:14] Pass, Neobank, Lender, LinTech.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:17] And then at the leadership level, that’s who you want to have more conversations with?

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:09:21] Yes. Yes, we were fortunate that we got — we were able to connect with Johnson Cook at Green Light. So, it’s definitely a connection make — you know it’s awesome about this stuff being in person is that all the folks that I reached out to on LinkedIn.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:35] Right.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:09:36] Yes, they’re here. And I’m like, hey, Dave, open your LinkedIn messages box, man. Yes, you remember me reaching out? So, I think it’s, you know, having in-person event is always, you know, you get to feel energy, transfer energy.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:46] Sure.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:09:46] And I think that holds a lot of value for business. But, you know, for me, it’s always, you know, building relationships so that, you know, these in-person events like this are always just so effective.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:56] Well, congratulations on all the success.

Amyn Sadruddin: [00:09:58] Thanks, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:58] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We’ll be back in a few at Fintech South 2022.

Outro: [00:10:10] This episode has been brought to you by Atlanta Blockchain Center. The catalyst for Atlanta’s emergence as the premier blockchain innovation hub globally through cultivating entrepreneurship, inclusivity, and education. To learn more, go to atl.blockchaincenter.com.