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Eko: Scaling up a Fintech Start-up in Vo...

Vohra, Neharika, G...

Case

Eko: Scaling up a Fintech Start-up in Volatile Market and Regulatory Environments

Vohra, Neharika; Ghoshal, Trisha; Sharma, Supriya; Mendonca, Valerie

IIMA-CIIE0018 | Published July 22, 2020 | 24 pages Case

Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

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Eko India Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. started in 2007 as a business correspondent (BC) for banks, providing account-opening and cash-in/cash-out (CICO) services for non/underbanked Indian customers. Brothers Abhishek and Abhinav Sinha co-founded Eko. Over the years, responding to multiple opportunities that presented themselves and changing regulations, Eko developed a domestic money transfer solution through its prepaid payment instrument (PPI) licence (acquired in 2015) and BC partnerships. Eko targeted low- and middle-income (LMI) customers, who entirely operated in the cash economy and offered them its network of small retail outlets to help them remit cash digitally over its mobile platform. In 2016, Eko monetised its technology assets and opened its platform for entrepreneurs in the domestic money transfer business. At the end of the FY18, Eko had 63 employees and a topline of over INR 400 million. This case highlights the journey of a startup operating in a changing Indian business and regulatory environment. The co-founders naturally effectuate to successfully overcome these challenges of an uncertain environment to create a stable and growing organisation. Innovations in technology, people processes, and the ability to adapt and learn are some of the highlights of Eko’s journey. The future steps on a growth path for the organisation are chiefly the dilemmas facing the co-founders.

To understand the entrepreneurial method: This case could be used to guide participants towards an understanding of the entrepreneurial method, a logic used by successful entrepreneurs in building business ventures. The case highlights the use of different logic, causal and effectual, and illustrates how an entrepreneur could learn to operate in an uncertain or changing external environment.