Perfios Software Solutions, a B2B fintech software company, is working towards fraud check solutions across the financial sector. Sabyasachi Goswami, chief executive officer tells Ajay Ramanathan that the unrealistic valuations in start-up industry has gone through a much needed correction which is good for the industry. Excerpts:
Q. What are the new product solutions are you working on?
A. When we build a product, it is industry agnostic, segment agnostic, and geography agnostic. We are looking at all segments, all industries, all geographies. As the pace of digitisation increases, frauds will become more evolved. While we already have an advanced fraud solution, we are continuously working on upping our game on the fraud or anti-fraud solutions. Apart from frauds, there are deep fakes. I would not say that we have completely gotten there. But, we have built certain products and capabilities on deep-fakes. Then, we are working on insurance product to solve fraud, wastage, and abuse. These are being used by a couple of big players, both globally and in India. Then, there are others on the digital platform too. These are some large key products.
Q. Start-ups have found it difficult to raise funds in recent years. How long will the funding winter last?
A. The winter is only for people who have not managed basic fundamentals well. There is always a summer for people who have managed fundamentals well. Those fundamentals are growth and profitability. Keep your house in order. If the house is in order, why would an investor not be willing to fund. Yes, there was a period when valuations were unreal. That course correction has happened, which was required. If people have got unreal valuation at some point in time, that had to change. It has changed. It is good for the industry because people realised how hard they need to work to make the product sustainable. To show true potential, and then get true value. It is not something in thin air. That has changed for good. If your house is in order, your fundamentals are good, I think there is no dearth of money. If people are still expecting funding at the rate which happened for a brief period, that is not happening. That was unreal. I do not think it will come back.
Q. Are you looking at any acquisition opportunities?
A. We are looking for inorganic growth opportunities. When you are building a complete lifecycle, you can either build it in-house or you can go out and get something. If you are building it in-house, you need to see how much you will take to build something versus a buy. If one out passes the other, you make the choice. We are always open for inorganic growth provided it fits our product lifecycle and our vision. Secondly, it fits our culture and our aspirations. If there is a synergy, we are always open. We do not want to do something very different. We will always want to be in the space that we understand. We understand the domain well. We understand the adjacent areas well. So at best, we will invest in adjacent areas.
Q. You had raised $229 million in 2023. Are you looking at any more fund raising opportunities?
Not really. But, opportunities keep coming. We will keep exploring.
