Come April, employees in most offices make aggressive tax-saving plans to increase their take-home pay. By Feb/March of the next year, they fret over drastic cuts in their take-home pay as they hadn’t put their money where they should have.
Not everyone seeks the services of an auditor or a financial advisor. That’s the space Figital Technologies, a startup from IIT Madras Research Park, hopes to occupy with its financial wellness platform De’Tax.
“An employee’s financial stress impacts the organization’s productivity and leads to absenteeism and attrition,” says Veeraraghavan N, co-founder & CEO, Figital Technologies. Figital set out to create a platform on the premise that irrespective of their salary, what matters to employees is increasing take-home pay. Though there are several deductions and exemptions for salaried taxpayers, many are not aware of these and that’s where Figital comes in.
“The current education system does not teach money management. Employees who earn less often get into debt trap and people who make good money often make wrong decisions such as investing in crypto. So, financial discipline or financial wellness is a concern for all,” says SampathKumar M, co-founder and COO, Figital Technologies. An MBA gold medallist from Pondicherry University, he landed a high paying job in a multinational bank, but ended up mismanaging his money for four years. If that’s the case with a banker, even techies are clueless about financial management, he adds.
Figital Technologies has created a platform through which it helps employees manage their taxes, expenses, savings and protection fund (insurance), investment and retirement planning. It is a digital concierge for employees. “We call it a ‘knowing-doing’ gap. Everyone knows that they have to save money, but they don’t do it,” says SampathKumar.
“Today’s employee will know more about crypto currency but not much about the old and new tax regimes,” adds Veeraraghavan, who did better managing his money, having exited an earlier startup profitably. “Just by moving 10% of their gross salary to ‘Ncash’, a product developed by the company, employees can save 8%-10% in tax, depending on tax bracket,” says Veeraraghavan.
The platform focuses financial pillars such as — tax planning, where savings are automated; protection or preparing them for a contingency, both medical and life; retirement planning as 9/10 people are clueless on this; savings and investments; and finally emergency funds. When the first three are sponsored by employers, employees will have enough room to plan for the rest.
“We encourage employers to offer group life policy, where in case of an eventuality an employee’s family gets three to five times of overall CTC to tide over the crisis. Not many corporates focus on this. The cost is 1/10th of a retail policy,” says Veeraraghavan. Figital Technologies ties up with companies, which in turn roll it out to their employees.
The company has so far managed to tie up with 73 companies including Sundaram Mutual Fund, which supported Figital from its early stage. This is an employer-sponsored benefit for the employees. This is a Gen AI-based platform and is fully automated. “On an average, an employee’s take-home pay goes up by 8%-10% by tying up with our platform, without compromising on their lifestyle,” says SampathKumar. And it is a single digital concierge for all services.
Figital Technologies at present serves about 5,000 employees through 73 companies. It claims to have given 150 crore worth of benefit to employees through tax savings, insurance, investments and protection policies since its launch in Jan 2023. It aims to reach out to 10 lakh users in the next 5-7 years, with 300-400 employees per organization.