London Inc. June 2022 - 32

COVE R
becomes credit bearing. "
But that's not all. The card serves as the client's entrée
to still more products: investments, loans, insurance -
limited only by the variety of partners Asset Direct can
sign up. As of last April, CreditLinks is available in 2,500
Kirana shops. But Rice has partnered with a company
that delivers pre-paid phone cards to 50,000 of those
shops to get his product into many more very quickly. In
fact, he expects to be in 100,000 stores by this summer.
The store owners get a cut of whatever activity is
generated from selling the product. And they continue
getting it as their customers access more and more
financial services using it.
The sign-up process is simpler than some self-check
grocery arrangements in Canada.
the site applies for a product. Rice hopes to achieve a
conversion rate of seven per cent in India. If he gets close
to that and is in 100,000 stores sometime this summer,
well, the sheer numbers will dwarf anything happening
in Canada.
That is only the beginning of course. The company
is partnering with an ATM company allowing people
to apply for loans at the ATM, be approved in under a
minute, and walk away with the cash. Rice hopes to have
a pilot project with 500 machines across India up within
six months.
Another pilot project will put CreditLinks QR codes
in 250 motorized rickshaws in Delhi.
And then there's the data. Scrubbed of individual
identities, it could be valuable for many clients. Before
he's finished mentioning that possibility,
he's onto the Rakuten model, potentially
using his growing Indian sales
network to sell almost anything, with
points and bonuses for clients on all
sides of the goods and services world.
There's also the most recent inves " There
are incredible opportunities.
We're using the same model we've
used in Canada, but the potential
is so much larger "
CreditLinks provides a small counter display with QR
codes, front and back. Potential customers scan the code
and sign up almost immediately through their phone.
The shop owner scans the back side code to register
and be " onboarded " with CreditLinks, establishing a
relationship designed to last years. But it doesn't end
there. The owner gets a phone call every week (from
a call centre in India calling people in India), offering
encouragement, sales tips, goals and other help.
" It's based on the model I learned when I worked at Sun
Life, " Rice says. " But we adapt everything to work in
whatever culture we're operating in. People in India are
used to using their phones like this, more so than here. "
Indeed, Asset Direct is running the same kind of
program in Ontario, albeit on a much smaller scale. It's
in 15 Ontario stores, going more slowly where shoppers
don't have the same communal relationship with local
shop owners.
In Canada, LoanConnect has a conversion rate of
about 20 per cent. One in five people who explores
32|londonincmagazine.ca|JUNE 2022
tor, SOSV of New York, which bought
in last year and is already operating in
India, partnering with Google Pay and
gig workers to deliver groceries.
All told, Rice is going to need a bigger
white board.
Meanwhile, for brand awareness as
much as anything else, Asset Direct is
running a crowdsourced fundraising
campaign, " so everyday Canadians
can get involved in what we're doing. "
The goal is to raise somewhere around
$1 million, which isn't pocket change, but also isn't the
primary fundraising activity.
Beyond all the numbers, there's an altruistic side to
Rice's venture. It's true, his market in Canada and India
is folks who have to pay more for loans because they
can't get the best rates from banks and other grade-A
lenders. And sure, not everyone will follow the model
of building a credit history and moving up the lender
ladder to better rates and products.
But when he looks around some other options people
use, with obscenely high rates, Rice believes his way is
better. " And let's be honest, it's in our interest to help
people move up to get another loan at a better rate and to
keep using the products our partners provide. "
In the developing world, he believes Asset Direct, and
its various locally branded divisions, will help millions
of people to enter the financial world and improve their
lives. That's when he says the real goal is to change the
world. He says it with a straight face; he means what he's
saying. And it's not hard to believe he'll really do it.
S
London Inc. June 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of London Inc. June 2022
