There’s often talk of millennials not being the best money managers. But five 20-year-olds turned that perception on its head, developing a money management app while they were still in college.
Finnie, as their app is called, manages expenses and builds in smart shopping as well. In the last three months, it has attracted over 2,000 users.
The app is the brainchild of Megharaj Birje, who had come to Mumbai from Ratnagiri to study in the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. He began developing the app in his second year of college, putting together a team of five to work with him on it. And towards the end of his final year, when most students would be slogging away at their studies, the team found the time to launch the app in February 2016.
What Finnie does is track SMSes received from the user’s bank accounts, and categorises her expenditure into categories like food, apparel, travel, groceries and others. And then it adds on a kind of smart shopper’s assistant. As Mr. Birje explains, “Finnie puts all available shopping coupons and discount opportunities at the disposal of the users. The hassle of installing separate apps for separate shopping sites has been erased. The app is a comprehensive platform, providing its users the liberty to access over 50 e-commerce apps like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm, Freecharge, through it.” Which, considering that Indians spend more time online hunting for coupons than on e-shopping (as per the Smartphone User Persona Report SUPR by Vserve & Neilson Informate Mobile Intelligence).
User response has been positive. “The interface of the app is very user-friendly,” said Sameer Pathan, 28. “Reminders have been provided to document non-digital expenses manually. Users can also export data to their laptops and other devices. Privacy is also not a concern since one does not need not provide account numbers or passwords for its functioning.” Vidya Iyer, 25, said, “I couldn't have asked for anything better. Finnie tracks my daily and monthly expenditures and shows it to me in a graphical format.”
It hasn’t been easy for the creator though. “Paying simultaneous attention to Finnie and academics was difficult,” Mr. Birje said. (He made sure his studies didn’t suffer, though: he graduated in April 2016.) “Time management and team building have always been challenges. Finding equally motivated individuals with the same vision as the founder is a difficult task.”
Finance, however, was not a problem, he says. “People have the pre-conceived notion that every venture needs money. In this age of internet and cloud computing, money is not required to start such a technological venture if you plan it right. Money becomes necessary only while scaling up the business.”
That time has come now. While he had ignored expressions of intent from some high net-worth individuals earlier, Team Finnie is now actively looking to raise capital to fuel growth.
The writer is an intern with The Hindu.
