Celusion Technologies is a software company that enables banks, financial cooperatives, stockbroking firms, and insurance companies to transition their customer acquisition procedures into a fully digital platform. The company leverages real-time regulatory assessments and AI-powered fraud detection to enhance this transformation.
Below is a transcript from a recent email interaction between Praveen Paulose, MD & CEO, Celusion Technologies, and FYI9 News correspondent.
Prateek: The fintech landscape in India has evolved significantly over the past decade. How has Celusion adapted to the changing requirements and technological advancements in this fast-paced industry? What steps has the company taken to stay ahead of the competition?
Praveen Paulose: The past decade in the fintech industry has been driven by a tremendous foray into digitization. This has single-handedly reshaped the way Indians carry out their financial transactions, with most of them being done electronically via the power of the internet. In addition, the government’s push for increased digitalization has introduced proprietary technologies, the most significant being the Unified Payments Interface or UPI.
In understanding the ease, convenience, and benefits of carrying out financial transactions digitally, Celusion has continuously adapted itself to target the changing dynamics of the fintech industry. This starts with thoroughly researching the market to understand how consumers interact with fintech organizations based on their preferences. Based on these inferences, we innovate our solutions to account for the comfort and convenience of our consumers.
The latest technological tools are implemented into our services to deliver customer experiences that are smarter, more secure, and more user-friendly. The digital age is determined by speed, seamless/quality experiences, and security, all of which are essential attributes we keep in mind with everything we do. Having said this, Celusion ensures that efforts are constantly undertaken to ensure compliance with data privacy and cybersecurity norms in our commitment to safeguarding customer information.
Prateek: India is known for its vibrant startup ecosystem in the fintech space. How does Celusion contribute to supporting these startups with innovative software solutions, and what role do you see startups playing in driving the growth of the fintech software development market?
Praveen Paulose: Fintech startups in the country have been instrumental in being a catalyst for large-scale evolutions in the industry. This has been primarily due to the speedy adoption of numerous digital technologies that have brought customers a newfound sense of convenience. Even technologies in their nascent stage, such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, have pushed the fintech industry to create financial systems that are more efficient and secure.
Every startup in the fintech sector contributes to the growing evolution and economy of the industry. Adding to this, solutions from fintech startups are built to be equipped with advanced security features. They also push the industry to be more compliant with regulations that concern the data privacy of individuals.
Celusion contributes to this bustling ecosystem as an organisation with innovative software solutions that put customers at the centre of everything. By servicing the top Indian corporates in Banking & Finance, we have showcased our potential in the industry and inspired our competitors to contribute to the industry with their unique and innovative solutions.
Our resilient architecture enables the early adoption of technologies into the future. This helps us stay prepared for any changes and anomalies that can take place in the fintech sector. Adding to this, our frameworks are built to enable a faster Go-To-Market.
Prateek: Cybersecurity is a critical concern in the financial sector. How does Celusion ensure that its software solutions comply with the necessary security standards and regulatory requirements to safeguard sensitive financial data?
Praveen Paulose: Cybersecurity is a crucial aspect of finance. It entails everything to do with safeguarding all the sensitive information about an individual’s money. Because of the scope of personal data that fintech companies deal with daily, companies and individuals are highly susceptible to fraudulent activities. Cybercrimes, data theft, and hacking are but a few such unpleasant activities that breach an individual’s financial information.
To solve this, companies have increasingly looked to keep their shields against all sorts of malpractice that can compromise one’s cybersecurity. As an industry, the finance sector thrives on trust, and no company can risk having that compromised by any breach or attack on customers.
As a company, we adopt a proactive approach to cyber security to ensure the safety of all our customers. We achieve this with continuous monitoring, timely updates, and quick responses to identified threads.
Moreover, we comply with data protection regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and India’s Personal Data Protection Bill. This gives us a high level of control over the processing and storage of personal data in a highly reliable way and one that consumers can trust for their safety.
Prateek: With the rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in the financial industry, how is Celusion leveraging these technologies to develop cutting-edge software solutions for your clients? Can you share some successful use cases?
Praveen Paulose: At Celusion, we leverage technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to incorporate automation into our services. This automation is seen in our three primary offerings: verification checks, webcam IPV, and regulatory compliance. System verification methods such as OTP are automated to verify customers’ details, such as email and phone. This allows for verification checks that are fast and accurate. Automation also assists webcam IPV wherein verifications are via tools such as Face Match. This allows in-person verification to be done anywhere and at any time. For regulatory compliance, files are uploaded to KRA/ CKYC registries as per regulatory guidelines. Additionally, files are exported for internal and external systems like Exchanges/ Depository participants.
The teams at Celusion incorporate Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning into the software solutions to drive automation, improve efficiency, and deliver more personalized and intelligent financial services. In addition, tools such as predictive analysis, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and reinforcement learning are used to enhance the company’s fintech offerings.
Every technological tool is leveraged to make customer onboarding possible within minutes and devoid of all the hassles that one would dread to experience within this industry. If technology cannot offer convenience first and foremost, then there is hardly any use in leveraging it.
Prateek: As the demand for fintech software increases, scalability becomes essential. How does Celusion tackle scalability challenges to accommodate the growth of its clients and adapt to their evolving needs?
Praveen Paulose: Celusion continuously optimizes software to improve performance and efficiency. This is achieved using load balancing, caching, and other optimization techniques. This enables our company to ensure that our software can effortlessly handle increased workloads and user demands.
Some of the major clients that we have put on the trajectory to significant growth include Adani Capital, Andromeda, Sharekhan by BNP PARIBAS, PNB Housing Finance Limited, ICICI Home Finance, Svatantrata, Yes Securities, Religare, and Kotak Securities.
We work closely with our clients to understand their personalized needs. This enables us to create roadmaps according to their unique scalability needs for the future. These roadmaps accommodate fintech software scaling, regular updates, enhancements, and capacity planning.
Prateek: As India moves towards a digital-first economy, customer experience has become a crucial differentiator for financial institutions. How does Celusion incorporate user-centric design principles into its software development process to enhance customer experience?
Praveen Paulose: As part of our software development process, we prioritize customer research and feedback as integral to our functioning. We gather valuable customer insights from users via numerous channels. These channels include surveys, interviews, and usability testing. The amalgamation of data acquired from these channels enables us to understand consumer needs, preferences, and pain points. This information is integral for optimizing customer experiences based on a rich repository of collected data.
We adopt user-centric design principles that are rooted in the three pillars of simplicity, intuitiveness, and accessibility. The software has a clear user interface (UI), logical navigation, and consistent design elements. This makes it more intuitive for customers to interact with the software, incentivizing them to carry out more tasks on the software.
Prateek: Inclusivity and accessibility are vital considerations for financial services. How does Celusion ensure that its software solutions cater to diverse user groups and meet accessibility standards?
Praveen Paulose: In the fintech industry, finance companies must ensure that people from different backgrounds, demographics, regions, and more can avail of their services. Any barriers must not restrict these services. This, in turn, helps companies and the industry thrive by empowering more individuals to avail the financial assistance they need and want.
Inclusivity and accessibility are at the heart of Celusion’s operations. This is reflected in our inclusive design principles, which ensure that our software solutions cater to diverse user groups that encompass people from different socio-economic backgrounds, among many other differentiating factors. Accordingly, the software is designed to be adaptable, customizable, and reflective of the diverse needs of its users.
The staff at Celusion is trained thoroughly in inclusive design and accessibility principles. The company ensures that these two key attributes are considered during every stage of the software development process.
At Celusion, we also conduct many internal initiatives, workshops, and training sessions to raise awareness of the overall understanding of inclusivity and accessibility.
Prateek: Looking ahead, what do you envision for the future of the fintech and financial software development industry in India? What trends do you anticipate, and how is Celusion gearing up to capitalize on those opportunities?
Praveen Paulose: One of the key trends in the fintech industry that doesn’t look to subside anytime soon is digitization and its impact on the companies and the financial sector at large. Companies will look to continue leveraging the use of different technological tools to improve their products & services for catering to a wide range of customers. This includes their existing consumer bases and new target demographics that are untapped.
In addition to digitization, newer trends are set to take shape based on technology’s ever-evolving nature. Tools such as Artificial Intelligence have already started to pick up steam and be incorporated into the functioning of many fintech companies that are now benefiting from increased automation.
The first step to anticipating new developments is thoroughly studying the current landscape. This allows us a broader understanding of the different grievances consumers face, the conveniences they are looking for, and the many benefits of fintech services that they may still need to learn what they want.
At Celusion, our teams are geared up in preparation for the newest developments in emerging technology that can meet the needs of future generations of customers. In doing so, we can expand our offerings to increase the integration of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning into our financial services. We leverage these technologies to develop increasingly automated and personalized fintech software solutions.
We are continuously committed to innovation and adaptation to stay ahead of industry trends and anticipate future developments. This includes investing in research work for newer technologies and developing solutions that incorporate learnings from the research.
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