Finology: Want to Start Investing Intelligently ?

• 10 July 2020 | 2093 Views | By Abhinav Mishra

Private equity investment in India is on the rise over the last few years. It is expected to grow by up to 20 percent in 2020. Venture capital investments and private equity had soared 18 percent and at the end of November 2019 stands at $44.2 billion, compared to the entire 2018.

A lot of companies are emerging in financial space and providing different financial services to the customers. One such company is Finology. It was started by Pranjal Kamra, an alumnus of the National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) in June 2017. Pranjal was joined by his childhood friend Priya Jain as the co-founder soon after inception.

Three years into the business and today they are generating revenue of Rs 2.2 crores, almost twice the revenue generated in FY19. The penetration of the Indian equity market until last year was just about 2.5 percent of the population which is way less than the global average of 40 percent. Two main factors are responsible for this: prevalent mis-selling and lack of overall awareness among people. The founders aim at changing this.

A major part of Finology’s revenue comes from its YouTube channel. The startup even acquired its first set of clients or investors from YouTube. At present, the platform has more than two lakh registered users, along with 20,000 premium or paying customers. The YouTube channel has more than 15 lakh subscribers. 

What is Finology?

Finology is the ultimate one-stop solution for its customer’s financial dilemmas. Be it stocks, mutual funds, insurance, or Gold, Finology provides its customers ethical, honest and unbiased advice in helping them realize their financial goals. Finology started with the goal of making investment simple & rewarding for its users/customers. They offer workshops, free courses, excel tools, advisory & research services, and much more.

There are many companies in the market today that offer financial services. Finology has below advantages over others:

Deep Scan Process – The company recommends any stock after it has passed their in-house deep scan test wherein they check if the company has following characteristics – Discount to intrinsic value(D), Efficiency of business operations (E), Ethical Conduct (E), Pricing Power (P), Scalability (S), Competitive landscape(industry projection) (C), Appropriate Safety Net (A) and No Biases (N). These 8 steps ensure that every recommendation that is made by them is good for its customers.

Value investing Philosophy – Value investing is the philosophy behind legends like Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffet. The company exclusively follows the principles of value investing to help users and customers build a low risk, high return portfolio.

Strong Moat companies – Finology hunt for companies with a strong and durable competitive advantage to enable multiyear compounding of their stock picks. This enables customers to generate immense wealth using the power of compounding.

Zero Commission Policy – Their advice is 100% unbiased and independent. They don’t accept any commission or remuneration to recommend any particular scrip. Therefore, customers can be sure that the company always have their customer’s interest in mind.

How to Use Finology?

You can sign-up to the website/app at no cost by providing your name, email, and mobile number. You will have to verify your account by confirming a one-time password. Before getting to the dashboard, you will have to create a password for your account.

User dashboard will have below sections:

Invest – The section offers a free financial plan to the users based on the information provided. The information collected to create a financial plan are age, income, life insurance, health insurance, saving, investing, current investment, and emergency fund. Based on the input provided, the tool will suggest the area of improvement and will also recommend a paid plan you should opt for. Users can subscribe to the plan by paying the plan fees.

Academy – This section offers courses created Finology. The courses are drafted by experts, designed for easy learning and user will have 24*7 access to the course. Users can get 2 courses for free by just signing up on the platform. The courses are not just related to stocks and investing but cover much more. Some of the courses are Academy of value investing, academy of mutual funds, Indian Penal Code, International Law, etc. Some courses are just for a few hundred while some courses cost almost Rs 10000.

Agreements – This is useful for users who want to create some legal documents. Finology offers an Online DIY Document maker.

Legal Services – What is Finology legal?: This functionality is still not active, but it is expected to be a highly complied form of legal advisory forum or a personal legal advice that would be available almost all the time. However, the YouTube channel has had live streams on this topic, which are useful.

Services offered by Finology

Finology Ventures Pvt. Ltd. is a SEBI Registered investment advisor, all the plans and recommendations are prepared by qualified experts. They are offering below services:

Ticker – is a newly introduced free stock research tool that works as an equity research assistant. There is a premium version of Ticker known as TickerPlus. Ticker provides all the details about the stocks. There is also Ticker Bundle which gives users access to below bundles and many more.

• Emerging Bluechips – quality midcaps stocks that exhibit the higher growth potential
• Value trap – sub-standard undervalued stocks
• Growth bubble – disguised as attractive but actual over-priced

Ticker plus offers valuation techniques, assorted bundles & ratios, and exclusive access to special features. Users can subscribe to the monthly plan at Rs 399. The quarterly plans come at Rs 999 and the yearly plan comes at Rs 1999. Users can try this service for free for 14 days.

Super Funds – The best investment depends on goals, needs, present & expected cash flows as well as the appetite for risk. When it comes to investment decisions, there cannot be a one-size-fits-all solution. This is where Finology comes in. Their tech-enabled system and a team of experts select what is right for its customers. Under this service, they design a balanced and strong portfolio, so that client’s money grows without hiccups. The cost of this service is Rs 3999.

After the client subscribes to this plan, Finology conducts a scientific risk profiling to help determine what is exactly right for the client. Super funds do not recommend just any fund but with a combination of machine and human intelligence, they help build a perfect mutual fund portfolio. The features of this service are:

• Personalized Mutual Fund Recommendations
• Best Tax Saving Funds
• Diversified Mutual Fund Portfolio
• Prudent Asset Allocation
• Direct Plans
• Regular Performance Review
• Risk Mitigation

Masterplan – It is for those who are looking to achieve one of these – Wish to buy your dream house? Saving for children’s education? Worried about your Retirement Corpus? Current investments not good enough?

Masterplan gives an expertly created and customized financial plan that suits the current and future financial requirements of the Finology’s customers. It is a 3 in 1 solution that gives unbiased, commission-free advice on Mutual funds, insurance, and existing investments. They create a plan that is best for the wealth of the customer. Users can subscribe to this plan for Rs 9999. Customers get below features under Masterplan:

Detailed risk profiling: Detailed risk profiling is done by an in-house expert team to minimize the risk of investment and maximize profits for customers.

Customized wealth planning: Finology plan mutual fund investment, health, and life insurance advice by customizing them to customer’s specific needs. They gauge customer’s financial priorities and design a plan to help them achieve those priorities.

Tax planning: They make sure that all the basic elements of the master plan are designed in such a manner that they work together in the most tax-efficient manner.

Retirement planning: Retirement planning is done by them to ensure customers gain total financial independence post-retirement. The profits generated and the savings created are allocated in such a way that they have enough money with them in their old age.

Life and Health Insurance suggestions – They provide the best options to the customers.

Best Mutual Funds for you: Out of thousands of mutual fund schemes available, they select only the most suited scheme that matches the risk ability and financial goals of customers.

Freshpick – Freshpick is a stock related service that provides expert-backed, transparent, and unbiased stock recommendations to play a small but vital role in the wealth creation journey of Finology customers. DeepScan filtration process helps eliminate potentially dangerous stocks which are then further scrutinized to ensure that every stock recommendation that they make has the potential to create sustainable wealth for customers. Customers will get 6 quality stock recommendations based on value investing with maximum buy price for each recommendation. They will also get periodic updates and timely sell alerts. The cost of this plan is Rs 4999.

IdeaBag – This is also a stock-based service which is similar to Freshpick. Instead of 6 stocks, customers get 25 stock recommendations. They also get an asset allocation guide, brief reasoning behind recommending the stock, and research reports. This service can be subscribed at Rs 12999.

Finbox

All the services are clubbed in this mega service. In this service, Finology provides 4 expert solutions under 1 subscription. After opting for this plan, customers

• won’t need a broker for stock recommendations
• won’t need a commission-based insurance agent
• won’t need regular plans from mutual fund agent
• won’t even need CA for tax and retirement planning

Finbox is a comprehensive investment planning service that is customized to help customers achieve their long term financial goals. When they subscribe to a holistic financial plan such as Finbox, then, they end up receiving a piece of integrated advice for all the above-mentioned services, which create a synergy and prove beneficial in all ways.

• Solid stocks
• Strong Mutual funds
• Reliable insurance plans
• Best tax saving & retirement plans

The cost of this service is Rs 24999.

Before you subscribe to any services, it is recommended you understand the features of the service since Finology does not provide refunds. As soon as you subscribe, you get access to the complete benefits, and these benefits are irrevocable in nature hence issuing a refund is not possible.

Some of the drawbacks of Finology:

• Most of the services provided by Finology are paid. For a new investor, it is difficult to understand what kind of return they will get by subscribing to the paid services and how much they should invest to get good returns. Since there is no trial period, users will definitely give a second thought before they subscribe to any plan.
• The website has a lot of information on it and at times it gets confusing understanding the flow. 

Overall, this is a good platform for those who are looking for financial guidance. However, users need to do their research before choosing any paid plan. How to be your own Financial Advisor?