Overseas travel for personal or professional reasons, Globe-trotting, Medical tourism, and other form of travel that involve two or more countries also require currencies that are acceptable in them.
All these activities require the use of foreign exchange such as Dollars, Euros, Pounds or exchange in a currency considered strong and universally acceptable. This needs a foreign exchange market where foreign currencies are traded.
Moreover, different countries have different exchange rates, sometimes they might be high as well. Thus to get best exchange rates and easy exchanges at a reasonable price one needs exchange aggregator platforms. The platforms operate through a single interface offering high quality service and transparency. A prominent name among the online aggregators and marketplace of forex services in India is ExTravelMoney.
It is an aggregator and marketplace of forex services provided by RBI approved Foreign Exchange Companies & Banks in India.
ExtTravelMoney.com effectively brings the hyper-local e-commerce model to the foreign exchange & remittance market, by creating India’s largest ‘forex search engine’.
It helps people such as students and travellers going abroad or foreign travellers in India, to book forex services online at super low rates, directly from banks and money changers.
The services offered by ExTravelMoney are:
- Buying Foreign Currency
- Selling Foreign Currency
- Buying Forex Card
- Money Transfer Abroad
IS: What unique facilities and services are provided by your organization?
There are a few things that set us apart. We are looking to provide a platform where customers can make an informed decision on forex by comparing various factors like exchange rate, the price quoted for the service, reviews of the forex store and its proximity to the customer.
Unique features of ExTravelMoney;
Forex Comparison- Customers can compare exchange rates of forex services offered by forex centres near them on the basis of exchange rates, location and customer ratings. The best forex service can then be booked online.
Marketplace Model- Our online platform is designed as an open marketplace. That is, when customers search for forex services, only those money changers offering the best exchange rates and service get chosen more often by customers. This directly results in competition between money changers to grab customers and thus competitive exchange rates are offered by them.
Best Forex Rates- We have a special agreement with money changers to provide forex services at wholesale exchange for customers booking forex through ExTravelMoney.
Maximum Forex Stores- ExTravelMoney has tie-ups with 25+ money changers including RBL Bank, Axis Bank, Thomas Cook, Muthoot Forex, UAE Exchange, Cox & Kings, and Orient Exchange. Currently, we have more than 8000+ forex stores spread across many towns and cities in India.
IS: State about the awards and accreditations your firm has achieved and most the memorable and remarkable moments of your life.
Achievements
Selected for NASSCOM 10K StartUp programme – 2016
Winner CISAT- Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Startup Award (FinTech) – 2016
Finalists of India FinTech Awards, 2016
Winner, “IT Startup of the Year” category, KMA-NASSCOM IT Awards 2017
Winner “Best Emerging Startup in Kerala- 2018” by Project Management Institute of Kerala (PMI Kerala).
IS: How do you overcome the risks associated with the organization?
Logistics– When a customer books a forex service through our platform, our customer care executives first check with the respective money changer to confirm if they have stock of the required currency. This increases the time taken to process an order.
Regulatory Framework– The online forex booking platform of ExTravelMoney simplifies this process to a great deal and helps customers book forex services easily. We are constantly upgrading our IT solution to make it more user-friendly and give value addition to forex customers visiting our portal. We are making the process of booking forex simpler by making it a lot easier to navigate the government regulations through our online platform.
Automation of the forex booking process– Booking a forex service in India is still not perfectly online. In ExTravelMoney a forex order requires intervention from our customer support agents who help customers book the forex order in accordance with Reserve Bank of India rules.
We are trying to automate this part of the process through the use of intelligent bots and IT automation solutions.
IS: How do you envision the outreach of the firm globally in terms of growth and future expansion?
We are looking to expand the platform further by adding more money changers and increasing the total number of forex stores to 10,000 and above in 2020. We want to be the one-stop-shop for forex, and this is a step in that direction.
In the future, we are also looking to expand into markets abroad within a span of 2 years to facilitate low-cost forex in other countries too. We are targeting Southeast Asia first where we have a major customer base in the form of a huge volume of students and travellers going abroad. Within 5 years, we hope to establish operations in the Middle East, Europe and the US. Eventually. We wish to facilitate low-cost forex services for people all over the world.
IS: What is your advice to the budding and emerging entrepreneurs?
Ideas by themselves aren’t enough to succeed when running a startup.
One needs to properly study the potential of the idea. Need dedicated and disciplined execution of the idea. And even after all this failure is possible.
If people start Startups only if they have a guarantee of success, then nobody will open a company based on a new idea. To run a startup company, one needs the spirit of entrepreneurship.
The spirit which already accepts failure as a possible outcome and works towards success from that point.
IS: What problems does your startup solve and how?
ExTravelMoney.com helps travellers find the nearest RBI authorized money changers at the click of a button and helps them make the best choice on forex services based on the exchange rates offered, customer ratings, proximity etc.
The marketplace model of the online forex platform ensures that there is a competition between money changers to grab customers.
ExTravelMoney acts transparently by showing all the applicable charges on a forex transaction beforehand itself. The exchange rates are confirmed with the customer both verbally and nonverbally. This keeps the transaction transparent and thus instils trust among customers. Also, the exchange rates shown in the platform are very competitive and benefit the customers as their cost of purchasing forex drops down.
The customer service through ExTravelMoney is top-notch, setting a new bar on making the forex service booking process much smoother and simpler. One can freeze the rate of the forex transaction and can conduct forex transactions from the comfort of their home through the online platform. Home delivery of forex is also available for currency exchange and Travel Card services.
At ExTravelMoney, our customer service agents guide the customers through each part of the forex booking process. They disseminate adequate information to customers regarding the forex service they’ve booked and the Reserve Bank of India rules pertaining to it.
About the Leader
George Zachariah, CEO has 15+ years of banking experience with a consistent history of leadership, driving sales and successful operational management in retail foreign exchange and remittance space. He has worked with Reliance Capital, Centurion Bank of Punjab, after which he founded Finex Forex.
