Bhavin Turakhia looks to take fintech product to US, Europe

Mumbai, Jan 22 () Serial entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia on Wednesday said he is focusing on taking his newest business Zeta to the US and Europe as he looks to decrease the fintech firm's reliance on India for revenues.

The 40-year-old billionaire said the company is not looking at any acquisitions or stake sales at present, but will be open for a strategic investor coming in like French player Sodexo.

Turakhia said over USD 70 million has been invested in the company, including USD 40 million by him and co-founders and USD 30 million by Sodexo, for creating a product suite targeted at banks.

"We have been building the product for four years and will be launching in US, which is the biggest market for fintechs, and European countries this year," Turakhia told .

He said all his previous businesses, including Directi, have depended on overseas clients for revenues, but Zeta has been an exception, wherein it sold services to Indian banks initially, and then branched out to Brazil, the Philippines and Vietnam in its four-year journey till now.

The UK, Italy and Spain are the markets in Europe the company is looking at, Turakhia said, adding it takes up to six months for customising a product to local compliance requirements and ensuring connectivity with local financial switches.

The company launched the suite called 'Tachyon' on Wednesday, wherein it has integrated a host of applications and services into a single suite.

The company is looking at increasing its total headcount to 650 by end of March 2021, and half of the incremental talent will be hired overseas across functions, Turakhia said.

It will continue to look at India as a key for its engineering and product development activities, but will also hire talent for this function overseas, he said.

At present, it counts on Kotak Mahindra Bank, RBL Bank, IDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank as among clients, Turakhia said, adding that it has also developed core banking softwares for which it is in a few conversations.

Typically, a new age bank or one which is entering into a new vertical like credit cards is the one which will be looking for the core banking solution, he said, adding the company sees the ongoing mergers of state-run banks as an opportunity.

Turakhia said the company will be "self sufficient" from a cash flow perspective and added that it does not require any external capital. It has last raised capital at a USD 300 million valuation. AA MR MR