Young investors look for fintech apps with Netflix, Tinder, and Uber-like experience: Angel One's Prabhakar

Prabhakar Tiwari, chief growth officer, Angel One

Fintech company Angel One (formerly Angel Broking) has recently launched a campaign called #SuperIsHere. It is positioned as an AI-powered campaign that aims to encourage and empower people to leverage the power of data and technology in their wealth-creation journey with the Angel One Super App.

In a conversation with Storyboard18, Prabhakar Tiwari, chief growth officer, Angel One, talks about the genesis of the campaign, leveraging artificial intelligence and what young investors are demanding from fintech apps.

Edited excerpts.

Q. Tell us more about your SuperApp campaign and the objective behind its launch?

The #SuperIsHere has been highly anticipated. While we are a market leader in the FinTech segment, we faced challenges in conveying our tech superiority and new credentials to a large audience due to their previous experience with us, as the ‘Angel Broking’ platform in our earlier avatar, for an extended period.

In the year 2021, we underwent rebranding primarily to enhance our brand appeal among Gen Z and young millennials. The focus was on a name change and to create a new brand world to resonate better with this new-age audience. Additionally, the rebranding aimed to pave the way for introducing new products and services under the umbrella brand name 'Angel One.'

Nevertheless, for the last few years, our primary emphasis has been on introducing a Super App that embodies our product philosophy centred around speed, security, and reliability. This Super App will serve as the cornerstone for delivering diverse and curated customer journeys across various asset classes.

Unlike many of our competitors, who still manage both old and new apps, we stand out as one of the few companies of our size to achieve 100 percent customer migration to the new app within a quarter. Now that the migration is complete and the initial challenges have been resolved, we are excited to launch the new campaign to showcase and promote the SuperApp.

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On a monthly basis, we attract nearly half a million new customers, making us a market leader in acquisition market share, active client market share, and trading volume market share. Our goal is not only to appeal to those interested in trading and mutual fund investment but also to pique the curiosity of individuals who are not yet considering share market investment. The objective is to generate interest around the app and Angel One, encouraging them to conduct research, discover more, and eventually download our SuperApp.

Q. Who are you targeting through this campaign?

Our customer base predominantly consists of Gen Z and young millennials, with approximately 90 percent of them aged below 30. Moreover, nearly 90 percent of them belong to Tier II, III, and IV cities, and a significant majority—around 85–90 percent—are first-time entrants to the financial market. Our primary audience belongs to suburban India, with a keen interest in investing in the share markets.

Q. Apart from TV, what else is being done to promote the campaign?

The SuperApp campaign is being executed on a substantial scale, incorporating numerous innovations in collaboration with partners such as Google, Meta, GroupM, and Leo Burnett. Our TV media strategy involves prominent business news channels and Hindi news channels. Additionally, we've formed alliances with OTT platforms and youth content platforms like TVF (The Viral Fever). To further activate audiences in tier II and III towns, we plan to conduct mall activations featuring anamorphic outdoor videos with QR codes for app downloads. In FY24, our marketing spends have undergone a substantial increase, allocating 6–10 times more resources compared to FY23. This significant boost will be evident in the SuperApp campaign's execution and impact.

Q. Do you also have investor awareness initiatives?

Following the COVID pandemic, we experienced a significant influx of customers who were unfamiliar with the workings of the market. To address this, we introduced Smart Money, a comprehensive educational initiative that surpassed the traditional knowledge blogs offered by other players. In addition to knowledge blogs, we provided podcasts and video films, catering to diverse learning preferences. We tailored the content for different segments of investors, intenders, and traders based on their personas, accompanied by quizzes and certifications. Despite its success, we recognised the need for increased investor awareness. Consequently, we integrated Smart Money into our App journey, ensuring personalised educational support for our clients.

Additionally, we introduced a fresh content approach on social media known as "Tejabhai",  a Mumbaiya character specially designed to demystify share market jargon for consumers. Recently, we launched a series of "Jagruk Tejabhai" videos, focusing on cyber security and fraud detection topics. In this series, "Jagruk Tejabhai" engages viewers with easy-to-understand language, providing in-depth insights into fraud detection and prevention, all while encouraging sound financial habits and decision-making.

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Furthermore, we have consistently undertaken numerous webinars and on-ground investor outreach programs as part of our ongoing investor education efforts over the years.

Q. What are your thoughts on Finfluencers?

Finfluencers possess the capacity to connect and resonate with a vast audience of digital users. They also excel at tailoring content to diverse vernacular languages and various entertainment styles. As a result, finfluencers play a significant role in simplifying intricate financial subjects for the average investor, particularly in the post-Covid world. In this manner, they have greatly enriched the financial ecosystem by delivering immense value.

Nevertheless, as with any unregulated domain, certain elements fuel unwarranted excitement and engage in unethical or even unlawful practises. Such activities necessitate vigilant monitoring and the implementation of protective measures. Finfluencers play a significant role in the ecosystem and will continue to play such a role in the future too, but we must find ways to raise awareness among average viewers and investors about the financial motivations of most finfluencers and the potential risks of engaging with a few who might be involved in scams. Creating such awareness is vital to ensuring that average investors are not misled or deceived.

Q. How do you see new tech like Generative AI?

Our industry is poised to fully harness the potential of generative AI. In fact, certain aspects of our new SuperApp campaign utilise generative AI to enhance promotions by creating images, generating copy, and producing long-format content. We have extensively personalised our organic journeys using this technology.

In my opinion, AI and ML models are not a novel concept in our industry; we have long trained such tools with both supervised and unsupervised learning, enabling data-driven decision-making. However, GenAI, represented by large language models, stands as a remarkable tool that empowers creative individuals to enhance productivity and explore dimensions previously inaccessible to humans.

Q. Can you share some interesting consumer trends with us?

The first major trend revolves around the newfound openness of people to explore and experiment with new asset classes. Unlike their conservative predecessors (parents and grandparents), the younger generation of investors is more adventurous, and they seek fintech apps that match the user experience they enjoy with platforms like Netflix, Tinder, or Uber.

The second trend is that rural millennials have surpassed their urban counterparts in embracing technology, due to their limited access to resources and retail outlets, compared to those in metropolitan areas and Tier I cities; which are overwhelmed and saturated in various aspects. As a result, suburban and rural youth heavily rely on low-cost smartphones with internet connectivity as their primary gateway to fashion, education, financial literacy, shopping, and the third trend involves the growing preference for voice interfaces among many consumers over traditional typing. To capitalise on this, we are incorporating a significant increase in podcasts and recorded vernacular content on our platforms.

Also read: Mumbai is Asia's third largest fintech hub; ranks 12th globally for fintech companies

Q. What are your targets for FY24?

At present, our marketing goal is to achieve a twofold increase in the top two box scores for brand consideration. Additionally, we are actively seeking aggressive market share gains to increase our incremental monthly acquisition market share. Moreover, we are determined to achieve a 5X increase in our organic business compared to FY23.