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Background of founders, Journey toward the idea
R N Iyer, CEO & Founder of Vayana Network, is a serial entrepreneur. He was previously the Co-founder and CEO of CashTech Solutions, a leading Cash Management vendor in Asia which was acquired by Nasdaq listed, Fundtech. Iyer has previously worked with Accenture. He is a management graduate from IIM Ahmedabad and an Engineer from Mumbai University. He completely believes in building teams which can build high quality businesses.
Vayana Network was started with a vision to democratize the access to trade finance to the smallest of enterprises. Team Vayana designs tailor-made, affordable, closed loop programs to meet the financing demands of businesses and their supply chain partners with simplicity and speed.
The employees, partners and investors fully understand how Vayana Network operates as it is just as crucial as what we accomplish to create value for all stakeholders. Together, Vayana strives to provide easy, digital access to low-cost financing to every enterprise – from large corporations to MSMEs – to help manage their working capital, grow business and create employment.
Vayana Network’s journey so far includes:
- $3.5 Billion+ Financed
- 250+ Supply chains
- Million+ Transactions Processed
- 1000s MSMEs
- 24+ industries
- 1300+ pincodes
- 600+ cities
- 20+ countries
It is through the spirit of teamwork and a strong sense of vision that the team moved forward on the journey to make a positive impact on the global economy.
What is Vayana Network working with?
Vayana Network works with various large corporates in order to provide them with working capital for their supply chain functioning. It works across 21 industries, connecting them and suppliers to a network of lenders through its tech platform, and financing their payables and receivables. Vayana is also among the biggest GSPs in the country, working with over 500 large corporates in addition to routing traffic from other application service providers through its platform.
The economic impact of coronavirus on India and beyond
The current scenario doesn’t require an economist to predict or inform that a complete lockdown of India for 40 days will severely impact the supply side of the economy.
In the last one year, India was already going through a slowdown with overall GDP growth rate consistently coming down, lower demand in almost all sectors of the economy, capacity utilization of the core industries hovering around 75% with no sign of improvement, Banks and NBFCs facing unprecedented challenges over asset quality, worsening employment scenario, etc. IIP Index rose by 2% YOY in Jan 2020 was a good sign but will be short lived due to the pandemic leading to lock down in March 2020.
The impact of COVID 19 will be felt in all segments of the economy and the world over. The pandemic will bring in some fundamental changes to the existing integrated global economy. Indian economy which was already wobbly, face a high risk of recession as it is a unique blend of supply, demand and market sentiment. A severe demand shock in almost all sectors which are susceptible to discretionary spending is very much on the card.
In segments which are necessities may face supply constraints for prolonged periods as the present linkages are restored or reworked. Social distancing policy if continued for long will lead to sharp fall in consumption demand and hence reduce odds of a V or U-shaped recovery. Any prolonged recovery would lead to debt default both in the retail and corporate segment, which in turn will adversely affect the already fragile financial system in India.
We are of the opinion that the end of COVID 19, will also mark the beginning of a new supply chain era across the world. There would be a major shift of such linkages over a period of two to three years. India does have a major opportunity coming up in its way to move forward with its agenda of “Make in India”. As the story unfolds over the next few months, we believe that China may lose its supreme dominance of trade, supply chain and transport linkages. While much depends on how quickly we come out of the COVID 19 impact, how fast we are able to restore normalcy and latch on to this opportunity to make inroads into the trade, supply chain and logistics business.
Artificial Intelligence & Machine learning in Healthcare
The future of healthcare is shaping up in front of our very eyes with advances in digital healthcare technologies, such as artificial intelligence, VR/AR, 3D-printing, robotics or nanotechnology. The future of healthcare lies in working hand-in-hand with technology and healthcare workers have to embrace emerging healthcare technologies in order to stay relevant in the coming years.
One of the most exciting and fastest growing fields of healthcare is robotics; developments range from robot companions through surgical robots until pharmabotics, disinfectant robots or exoskeletons. The future of healthcare will be the amalgamation of all technology put together, to exponentially advance the healthcare sector. AI and machine learning are already part of our daily lives where our smart phones keep track of our activities on the phone. Artificial intelligence has acted as the main driver of emerging technologies like big data, robotics and IoT, and it will continue to act as a technological innovator for the foreseeable future.
New Areas to expand
Vayana Network will be expanding to new geographies in & deeper in USA, Singapore in the next 18 months. The brand is already catering to 25 different industries. Vayana has already started cross border financing and would look forward to more cross-border, because we see that as a big need in terms of financing. Cross –border in terms of expanding to different industries and to kind of go downstream.