Interview: Siddharth Agarwal, Founder and Managing Director of Mobicule Technologies

An interview with Siddharth Agarwal, Founder and Managing Director of Mobicule Technologies, a leading enterprise mobility software company

Mr. Siddharth Agarwal, a visionary entrepreneur and the driving force behind Mobicule Technologies, stands as a paragon of innovation and leadership in the realm of enterprise mobility software.

With a relentless pursuit of excellence and a deep-rooted passion for technology, Mr. Agarwal has propelled Mobicule to the forefront of the industry, earning accolades for its cutting-edge solutions and unwavering commitment to client satisfaction.

As we delve into the insights and experiences of this dynamic leader, we unravel the journey of Mobicule under his astute guidance, and glean invaluable wisdom from his wealth of expertise.

Elaborate on the myths associated with debt collection.

Siddharth Agarwal: There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to debt collection, the most common being striking an active contact with the borrower.

With automated digital debt collection platforms, the reluctance to reach out to borrowers, establish continued communication throughout the repayment lifecycle, and accomplish debt recovery objectives without losing out customers is eliminated. Another common myth is considering debt collection as the last resort.

But as the saying goes, the longer you wait, the less likely you are to recover any money. Thus, investing in an efficient and modern digital debt collection system is a necessity for smooth business functioning.

The third myth is associated with cost. Yes, integrating a debt collection system into the existing business function comes at a cost in terms of time and integration, but it is a one-time investment that can ease, safeguard, and assure the recovery process for lenders.    

What is the most common challenge in debt collection?

Siddharth Agarwal: The biggest challenge persisting in the debt collection industry is poor communication and engagement among lenders and borrowers. Traditionally, lenders resorted to unpleasant ways of communication, like letters and phone calls, which were considered intrusive and intimidating, resulting in borrower resistance.

However, with digital debt collection platforms, lenders can overcome this challenge of communication and leverage other common channels like SMS, WhatsApp, and emails. This will help strike personalized communication and maintain ongoing engagement, without being intrusive.

Another challenge for the industry is its heavy reliance on manual and subjective decision-making processes, which has led to inefficiencies and subpar outcomes. What added to this setback is a lack of access to real-time data.

However modern debt collection platforms have capabilities to provide sensitive borrower information, like their payment history, financial situation, and behavioural patterns. This is assessed using advanced data analytics/machine learning and by tracking borrower’s existing digital engagement, which can contribute to customizing recovery strategies and increasing the likelihood of recovery.

How AI is playing a role in debt collection?

Siddharth Agarwal: Up until now, loan collection has been a call-and-respond business, which resulted in numerous errors and grave reputational problems. Thanks to advanced AI, lenders have gained access to a well-thought-out loan collection strategy, thus optimizing debt collection, saving time, and reducing collection costs.

More importantly, AI intervention has introduced debt collection agencies to automated communication channels, including SMS texts, voice bots, WhatsApp, and emails. This approach has improved customer engagement and satisfaction, thereby averting recovery loss.

Not to forget, AI has also emerged as a great contributor to predicting potentially defaulting borrowers. This has become possible due to access to real-time data and by monitoring borrower behaviours, which has allowed lenders and debt collection agencies to customize their collection strategy and make it more human-centric. All in all, AI has made a huge difference in how debt is collected and recovered.

How is Mobicule Technologies different and why should it be trusted?

Siddharth Agarwal: The fact that we are one of the early entrants in this space gives us the advantage of being more experienced and aware of the market. But what truly differentiates us is an industry-first end-to-end platform covering the borrower journey with a 360° view and encompassing debt monitoring and all the stages of delinquency from early to late delinquency.

Our capability to operate in rural markets where there is a need for cash collection and receipting gives the edge for multi-portfolio scenarios and readiness to work with Bharat. None of the players have managed to tap into this segment, where the rate of cyber threats and other frauds are prevalent.

Mobicule’s platform is equipped to deal with these gaps and enhance mobility in the collection space. Not only that, we have designed the platform in a way that it eases the work for lenders, automates allocations, and escalates collection through different modes, including cheque, cash, UPI, debt, POS, AEPS, and offline capabilities.

This ensures the collection and recovery process does not come to a halt in areas with low network or connectivity. Given these offerings, we have successfully amassed a strong portfolio of 40+ clients and 4,00,000+ daily users, collectively delivering 10 Mn+ total transactions.

These numbers are a testament to our commitment to reinforcing the debt recovery and collection industry using Mobicule Technologies.

What is it that Mobicule offers to clients, yet keeps itself out of scrutiny from regulators?

Siddharth Agarwal: Mobicule’s mCollect platform provides a customer-sensitive multi-channel contact strategy which performs better than traditional methods and helps improve resolution across buckets of delinquency management.

Mobicule has aided in reducing operational costs and efficiently managed to streamline the entire debt collection process. Our AI-powered platform helps in minimizing bounce rate and enables to efficiently identify potential defaulters efficiently at early stages.

We are a one-stop solution for end-to-end debt collection and recovery needs. With our feedback system, dashboards and real-time analytics, have managed to formulate effective strategies to enhance recovery and collection rate.

Mobicule has helped in enhancing borrower’s experience and helped in increasing the engagement rate with borrowers throughout the collection process. We have managed to create a system that assists our customers in sending out legal communication to borrowers within the set guidelines of RBI.

How is Mobicule bridging the gap and addressing traditional loan recovery challenges through its Phygital Debt Collection Platform?

Siddharth Agarwal: The debt collection landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, thanks to technological innovation giving rise to “phygital” debt collection platform. These innovative systems seamlessly combine physical and digital approaches to address the shortcomings of traditional loan recovery methods.

The phygital debt collection platform is now effectively tackling the challenges that have long plagued traditional debt collection techniques. Mobicule’s phygital debt collection platform has emerged as a game-changer in the world of loan recovery.

It addresses the challenges of traditional methods by improving communication, implementing data-driven decision-making, reducing operational costs, enhancing the customer experience, and streamlining the overall process.

This platform offers a win-win solution for both creditors and borrowers, bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds to create a more efficient, cost-effective, and customer-centric approach to debt collection.

As the financial industry continues to evolve, the adoption of phygital debt collection methods is poised to become the new standard in loan recovery.

What are the unique features of Mobicule’s Industry First Phygital Collection platform mCollect?

Siddharth Agarwal: Mobicule’s Industry’s first Phygital Collection platform mCollect for debt collection and resolution is disrupting the loan recovery space by leveraging both technologies backed by AI and human engagement to reduce bounce rates and increase collection efficiency.  

Often, banks and NBFCs assign cases to digital collections, and unresolved cases are then transferred to call centres for resolution. Often, both channels are used simultaneously or under utilised, resulting in inefficiency and increased costs.

Mobicule has introduced an integrated debt resolution service that seamlessly combines a multi-lingual / multi-city 100 plus seater integrated contact centre operations with digital outreach, creating a true omni-channel solution that leverages technology, data science, strategy, and a physical call centre viz SMS, Email, WhatsApp, IVR, Voice Bot, Outbound, and Inbound call centre services.

The company’s goal is to optimise the synergy between digital and human call centre capabilities, utilising real-time customer interactions and behaviour on the platform.

The phygital debt collection platform caters to all stages of delinquency pre, early, mid and late. The platform is designed to especially cater and manage to recovery cycles of settlement, asset repossession and legal workflow management.

Here comes the next differentiator where Mobicule is offering an integrated platform with legal services to manage legal processes backed by lawyers catering to specific areas of expertise and locations.

Mobicule’s Phygital Debt Resolution Service aims to redefine debt collection and recovery by combining technology with personalised customer engagement. We intend to improve recovery rates and reduce operational costs for financial institutions.

Why has Mobicule launched Phygital Notice, a fully secure print-to-post solution?

Siddharth Agarwal: Mobicule has recently launched a pioneering fully secure Print to Post solution to intelligently manage the printing and dispatching of Phygital legal notices. With the ability to dispatch 2.4 million notices per month, Mobicule aims a 30% reduction in operational cost for customers through this service offering.  

Mobicule Technologies is a recognised player in phygital debt  collection and a leading home-grown digital customer on-boarding company in India. The secure single Click Print to Post solution, Phygital Notice is a step forward in the phygital debt collection journey.

Mobicule has successfully penetrated the debt collection industry through the introduction of its revolutionary Phygital Debt Resolution service to enhance the capabilities of debt collection and loan recovery.

The Print to Post, Phygital Notice will further streamline the delivery of both physical and digital communications to enhance customer satisfaction and boost financial performance.

How will Phygital Notice help financial institutions in managing their large requirements of printing and sending physical legal notices?

Siddharth Agarwal: Several large entities including financial institutions, corporates, legal firms, government frequently struggle in the current modern economic landscape to manage their large requirement of printing, sending physical legal notices and managing the status of the receipt by the customer on a daily basis.

The current challenges associated with printing and dispatching physical legal notices includes high operational costs, time-consuming and in-efficient process, compliance and security regarding customer’s sensitive information, potential errors in delivery, logistical complexities and update of notice delivery status.

Additionally, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and maintaining data security throughout the process poses significant challenges, leading to operational inefficiencies and rising expenses. Mobicule’s Phygital Notice addresses these issues with an efficient, reliable and cost-effective approach.

The main problem regarding the printing and dispatching of physical legal notices revolves around the inefficiency, costliness, and potential errors associated with traditional methods.

The task of printing, packaging & posting, tracking & recording the communication today is a highly disjointed process leading to inefficiency and consumer data exposure risks. We realised there is a need for a more streamlined, cost-effective, and reliable solution that addresses these challenges while ensuring compliance and data security.

Our research enabled us to put together a comprehensive Phygital solution with one-click-print-to-post functionality which will not only resolve the key concerns associated but also integrates digital and physical processes seamlessly.

This solution eliminates the need for manual intervention and reduces the likelihood of errors. With a single click, users can initiate the entire process, including document creation, printing, addressing, and dispatching, saving time and resources.

Additionally, leveraging digital technology allows for better tracking, compliance management, and cost optimization. This holistic approachmerges digital with physical and ensures efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness in managing legal notices, addressing the key pain points associated with traditional methods.

What are the USPs of phygital notice?

Siddharth Agarwal: Phygital Notice, our service offering is fully secured and backed by automated mechanized processes. The dispatch to the consumer is instantaneous without any personnel dependency, thereby increasing team productivity as well as ensuring security and compliance.

Most importantly, there is a noticeable cost reduction and efficiency improvement. Customer needs are evolving and we at Mobicule, are quick to align and adapt to these requirements. Our agile technology intelligently manages and securely delivers all legal communication by analysing large amount of data using AI/ML and identifying cases that are eligible for further legal proceedings.

Customers can integrate further legal workflow with our Phygital Notice system with our mCollect platform and get real time insights on all the related activities and make effective strategies for collection and recovery.

Phygital Notice is an integrated solution, a one stop shop which smartly understands the full journey of the borrower as well as the collection requirements of the customer thus navigating debt recovery roadmap on a single platform.

Banks and NBFCs can future proof their debt recovery through 100% secured process offered by mCollect Phygital Notice. Mobicule has collaborated with India Speed post and the service is backed by well-known industry lawyers.

Overall, the Phygital Notice service offers tangible benefits such as cost savings, efficiency improvements, compliance assurance, and enhanced customer experience, making it a valuable solution for organizations across various industries.

(Mobicule is a pioneer in products focused on mobile field force and has successfully deployed and managed some of the largest mobile field force implementations across Sales & Distribution, Telecom, BFSI. With its experience and domain knowledge now spanning 2 decades it has established its niche in Debt Collection, KPI & Gamification, and Digital KYC integrated end to end with internal (core banking, EPR, CRM) and external systems (credit bureaus, govt portals).

Backed by a strong R&D and adopting the latest and upcoming technologies it has managed to establish a niche market position. Mobicule’s steadfast vision and commitment to add value to its customers, employees, and all its stakeholders have put it on a rapid growth path to attain a leadership position in the business domains it caters to.)

Our conversation with Mr. Siddharth Agarwal has been nothing short of enlightening and inspiring. Through his words, we have gained profound insights into the ethos and trajectory of Mobicule Technologies, a beacon of innovation in the ever-evolving landscape of enterprise mobility software.

Mr. Agarwal’s unwavering dedication to excellence, coupled with his visionary leadership, serves as a testament to the limitless potential of entrepreneurship in driving transformative change.

As Mobicule continues to chart new horizons under his stewardship, it reaffirms our belief in the power of visionary leadership to redefine industries and shape the future of technology.

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