Exclusive Interview with Kaushal Sampat, Co-Founder, Rubix Data Sciences

Credit risk management is an approach wherein you identify address and manage an organization's risk. It gives an enterprise-wide perspective and a practical approach that requires an experienced outlook. Since companies do not always have the requisite resources or expertise in this respect, they require expert help for risk analysis and prediction. Rubix Data Sciences, with its advanced predictive technologies, has emerged as a champion in credit risk analysis. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Kaushal Sampat, Co-Founder, of Rubix Data Sciences.

1. Kindly brief us about Rubix Data Sciences, its specialization, the services that the company offers, your Mission statement, objectives, and journey since the inception of the company.

Rubix Data Sciences Pvt. Ltd. helps you take prudent credit risks, build a robust supply chain and monitor compliance for your business partners in India and around the world. We help you collect payments in time from your debtors, helping generate predictable cash flows.

Set up by highly experienced risk professionals, Rubix has been awarded the Certificate of Recognition at the IMC Digital Technology Awards 2020 for its Rubix ARMS^TM platform and at the IMC Digital Technology Awards 2021, for its Rubix Early Warning Signal (EWS) Platform. In recognition of its information security management system, we have received the ISO 27001:2013 accreditation from LRQA.

Rubix has been appointed as India's first Validation Agent for the Legal Entity Identifier by the Legal Entity Identifier India Ltd, the Local Operating Unit, accredited by the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF), Switzerland.

The Rubix ARMS^TM and Rubix EWS platforms and their suite of reports, products, and services are based on our extensive database of structured and unstructured data aggregated from 120+ sources, customized predictive analytics, and proprietary technology. Through our solutions, we provide deep insights to credit, risk, supply chain, and compliance professionals in banks, credit insurance companies, fintech, and corporates, facilitating quicker and more effective decision-making.

2. Brief us about the proactive Founder/CEO of the company and his/her contributions to the company and the industry.

Rubix Data Sciences has been founded by 4 highly experienced professionals in the Risk Information and Analytics domain. The founders are:

Kaushal Sampat – Founder

Mohan Ramaswamy – Co-Founder & CEO

Samir Modi – Co-Founder & CFO

Dr. Vishnu Ramachandran – Co-Founder & CTO/ CPO

The founders collectively hold an experience of 90+ years in the risk domain, having held CXO-level positions in risk information and analytics companies, credit rating agencies, credit bureaus, and legal information companies. The founding team has the cross-border experience, having held senior management positions both in India and overseas.

The non-executive Chairman of the Board is Mr. Mohan Tanksale, former Chairman and Managing Director of the Central Bank of India and former CEO of the Indian Banks' Association. Mr. Tanksale is one of India's most experienced and erudite bankers, and he guides the Founders and the Management Team.

Technology is a key differentiator for us, and we are fortunate to have Mr. Samiran Ghosh as a Senior Advisor in this domain. A highly experienced technology professional, Mr. Ghosh is recognized as an expert in Artificial Intelligence. He has worked with companies such as TCS, IBM, Microsoft, etc., in a variety of senior roles and is also a Forbes Technology Council member. He co-hosts one of India's most keenly followed technology podcasts called '3 Techies Banter'.

3. Please brief us about the products/services/solutions you provide to your customers and how they get value out of it. How is your company helping customers deliver relevant business outcomes through the adoption of the company's technology innovations?

Given the unprecedented volatility in geopolitics, trade, and financial markets, the credit, supplier, and compliance risk of B2B counterparties is a key challenge for businesses in today's times.

Rubix seeks to help assess and monitor counterparty risk at all stages of the credit lifecycle:

– Onboarding

– Credit Decisioning

– Risk Monitoring

– B2B Collection

Rubix is an AI Platform for automating B2B credit risk lifecycle management. Its key use cases are in credit, supplier, and compliance risk management.

We provide actionable and impactful risk intelligence, primarily on SMEs (including proprietorships and partnerships) that are otherwise unaddressed. By helping assess the risk of SMEs, we help the flow of trade credit to those businesses that need it the most. We provide deep risk insights, leveraging alternate data, including social media data. We embed SaaS/DaaS automation in credit risk management.

The Rubix ARMS^TM and Rubix EWS platforms provide dynamic credit risk decisions using AI and predictive analytics. Rubix provides technology-driven API and platform-based solutions, ensuring rapid information flow to companies, banks, and credit insurance companies about changes in the risk profile of their counterparties, borrowers, and policyholders. We provide risk scores on business entities, both in India and overseas, ensuring that you have a standard credit risk assessment model to assess the risk of your counterparties globally.

Recently, we have been appointed as India's first Validation Agent for the Legal Entity Identifier by the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) and Legal Entity Identifier India Ltd (LEIL), a 100% subsidiary of The Clearing Corporation of India Ltd. By helping Indian businesses obtain the Legal Entity Identifier (a unique 20-digit alphanumeric code that identifies a business), we will help these businesses (particularly SMEs) get recognition and standing in the global marketplace.

4. What is your biggest USP that differentiates the company from competitors?

Rubix is primarily a technology and analytics-driven company founded on three key pillars:

Data: Rubix can combine structured and unstructured data about business entities from 120+ data sources. We ingest vast amounts of data to discern risk trends in business entities.

Analytics: Risk analytics is at the core of our DNA. We have built proprietary Risk Scoring models across 256+ sectors and sub-sectors of the economy. These risk scoring models are deployed in our Rubix ARMS^TM platform to provide Risk Scores about customers, dealers, distributors, franchisees, suppliers, and vendors in India and overseas.

Technology: These proprietary risk scoring models are embedded into the back-end of the Rubix ARMS^TM platform and can be customized to meet your specific need in a matter of minutes. Data is gathered digitally, and risk scoring is automated, ensuring speed and neutrality in risk decisioning. As stated above, the risk scores and related information are delivered via APIs embedded into customer credit workflows. The risk scores and information can also be accessed 24/7 through our Rubix ARMS^TM and Rubix EWS platforms.

5. Kindly mention some of the major challenges the company has faced till now.

Rubix has been growing rapidly since its inception.

From a team of 5 people, we have grown to 85 people, and our greatest challenge is to ensure we stay true to our six values as we grow larger:

– Credibility

– Innovation

– Collaboration

– Agility

– Thoughtfulness

– Integrity

Similarly, in terms of customers, we have been fortunate to win the trust of over 500 customers in India and overseas. They include:

• Mid-sized and large corporates that want to assess the risk of business entities that constitute their supply and distribution chains
• Public and private sector banks that need to ascertain the credit risk of their borrowers, particularly in trade credit and SME finance
• Credit insurance companies that want to underwrite trade credit risk after ascertaining the risk profile of business entities.

We recognize that these customers like working with Rubix not just due to our technology and risk analytics prowess but also because of our responsiveness to their needs. We need to maintain this proactive approach, speed, and agility as we grow larger.

6. How do you see the company and the industry in the future ahead?

The sky is the limit for this industry. We believe that formal credit risk assessment of counterparties in India and the developing world is a nascent industry. As companies grow, trade credit will grow. Companies will need to assess new partners and, at the same time, monitor the risk of existing partners. Similarly, as the penetration of bank credit for trade finance and credit insurance increases, the need for risk analytics and technology will be felt even more deeply.

As an example, the COVID-19 pandemic threw supply and distribution chains into a tizzy. Businesses went bankrupt or faced serious financial challenges the world over, and the need for risk decisioning tools only increased during this time, contrary to initial expectations.

So, we are extremely upbeat about the future of this industry.

7. Which industry verticals are you currently focusing on? And what is your go-to-market strategy for the same?

We are sector agnostic in customer acquisition strategy and approach. As mentioned earlier, we have built risk scoring models in 256+ sectors and sub-sectors. We have customers across a wide array of industries, including BFSI, industrial products, e-commerce, supply chain, agrochemicals, specialty chemicals, gems, jewelry, etc.

We use a combination of customer acquisition processes, including digital marketing, inside sales, and a consultative sales force for driving sales. Needless to say, the aggregate data we have on the evolving credit and supplier risk scenario in various sectors provides our team with continuous insights on where to focus their attention.

Equally, our customer success team helps ensure that our customers receive any support that they need to use Rubix for assessing and mitigating the risk of their counterparties.