New Delhi: Fintech Company The Money Club Technologies Pvt. Ltd., has launched a first-of-its-kind financial well-being product that organizations can offer their employees to provide financial security and loan-free freedom in times of crisis. The startup plans to onboard five million users across organizations in India over the next five years.
Vrddi, developed by The Money Club, is a tech-driven employee benefits program. A corpus is created that enables organizations to provide their employees with access to interest-free funds in times of financial need or crisis.
Through Vrddi, employees can receive a payout of nearly ten times their initial contribution.
A group of employees/ partners, verified by Vrddi and referred by their HR, create a corpus by making regular monthly contributions from their salary.
This corpus will be readily available to contributors in their times of need through the ingenious Vrddi platform.
Most working professionals today don’t have access to funds during crises such as medical expenses, marriage, social obligations, education, health & wellness, travel, and home repairs. This problem is even more pronounced for freshers, who do not have access to salary advances, and individuals with low/ mid income who can’t afford high-interest rates on advances and loans.
“With Vrddi, organizations can empower their employees with access to interest-free funds in emergencies without any paperwork,” said Manuraj Jain, co-founder and CEO of The Money Club.
During any emergency, an employee in the group can request and access this corpus by selecting from over 60 predefined categories.
The corpus money is given monthly to a primary beneficiary using an algorithmic decision-making system. Employees are grouped in clusters of 10 to 12, and the remaining members other than the primary beneficiary receive parking gains.
Funds are disbursed along with the payroll every month from the corpus so that organizations do not need to dip into their working capital to meet the salary advance needs of such employees.
Jain added that unplanned expenses can arise for anyone. “We have seen that only 3-4% of the needy get access to loan advances from the company. More than 95% of them are left to fend for themselves. Vrddi was born out of a need for a financial wellness product for working professionals dealing with unforeseen financial expenses and burdens,” he added that in such situations, the only option is to go for loans from friends, family, or even lending institutions.
Vrddi addresses these challenges by using unique algorithm-based decision-making for disbursements and eliminating human bias. The product can be easily integrated into any Human Resources management tool, and disbursements are paperless and swift.
“With Vrddi, our vision is to provide financial security and freedom to employees across the globe in times of crisis,” he added.
Vrddi significantly reduces the need for employees to pay interest, EMI, or provide collateral. And, unlike salary advances, corporations have no burden of capital blocking. This is The Money Club’s second product, established in 2016. The startup also offers a deep tech platform that facilitates artificial intelligence-powered gamified ROSCAs mechanics, enabling users to save, borrow, and invest.
The Money Club plans to onboard over one lakh workforce to Vrddi in the financial year 2024 across diverse industries such as telecom, hospitality, automobiles, retail, IT, E-commerce, Logistics, and manufacturing.
About The Money Club:
The Money Club, founded by IIT Kharagpur alumni Manuraj Jain and Surajit Ray, provides on-demand liquidity in contingencies via group savings by integrating money pooling mechanics. With more than 500k registered users and a total pooled amount of over INR 200 Cr, the platform has been able to help people in their time of need. The Money Club has earned backing from prominent investors, including July Ventures, Blume Discovery Fund, Venture Catalysts, and SOSV VC. It has secured funding of $4 million until its last Pre-Series A round. It also has another platform called Vrddi that exclusively focuses on employees’ financial well-being, allowing them to access 10x of their contribution in times of financial need.
