Grow is a leading Enterprise Fintech company, serving consumers directly and through partnerships with top global financial institutions. By leveraging technology and data to reinvent the banking experience, Grow makes personal finances understandable and anxiety-free. Grow’s technology is powering a new generation of data-driven banking products and services, including digital personal loans, instant customer onboarding and account opening, advanced data analytics, and real-time compliance and identification tools. Founded by Kevin Sandhu in 2014 and headquartered in Vancouver, BC. The platform launched in earnest in October of that same year. A year and a half later, Grow has grown (pun intended), raising one of Canada’s largest seed rounds, won TechVibes Startup of the Year, launched one of FinTech’s most innovative products, and announced a first of its kind partnership with two of Canada’s leading financial institutions, Conexus Credit Union and Westoba Credit Union. Over to its founder and CEO Kevin Sandhu.

 

What made you start Grow? What’s the story behind the start-up?

Driven by the vision of alleviating Canadians’ financial anxiety and improving their financial health, I started Grow in 2014. I saw an opportunity of using cutting-edge software and deep data analytics to deliver to Canadians a world class banking experience that a lack of innovation within the Canadian banking system had failed to deliver. I left my career in private equity to build that world class banking experience, investing the majority of my savings into Grow.

 

There are quite a few Fintech companies in Canada that offer loans–both personal and business.  What makes Grow different, and growth in what area of your life, financial stability? Credit ability?  Security?

Fintech has been a hot topic over the past few years, and with good reason. The combination of changing consumer demands along with a rapidly evolving competitive landscape has ushered in a new era for the banking sector. Customers are demanding greater convenience, more transparency and are expecting more options when building their financial lives. Increasingly, consumers are getting those demands filled by innovative financial services providers and Fintech companies alike.  Having said that we are seeing a growing number of partnerships between traditional financial institutions and Fintech companies, which is great to see! When you combine the member centric and innovative culture of a credit union with the technology expertise a Fintech company, the member ultimately benefits. With an increasing number of Fintech companies offering an increasing number of products and services, we’re excited to see more of this sort of collaboration and Canadians will continue to benefit from unprecedented speed of innovation in financial services

 

Your website suggests that thousands of people have been helped out–can you give us an example, without of course naming names given the fact that this is confidential information

Sure. To keep the confidentiality we’ll call her Sarah. Sarah is a mother and nurse working in Ontario. She’s well educated and has a good credit score. Her car fails on her one day and she pays thousands of dollars for the repair with her credit card. After a few months of paying off her balance on her credit card, she finds an ad for Grow and we offer her a much lower rate and she saves thousands of dollars in high interest fees. She didn’t incur those charges because she wasn’t financially responsible — she usually pays off her credit card every month and has a great credit score — but life happens and cars breakdown and we want to provide a product that will be there for her and provide her the service and convenience she deserves.

 

Other than personal and business loans, are there any other areas of growth in this space?

The banking industry is ripe for innovation. The industry as a whole has gone from a position of astounding innovation driven by the need to run the business as efficiently as possible – to one of complacency where technological issues and innovations available have not been addressed in almost three decades. With big financial institutions realizing that there is a significant business opportunity that lies ahead of them through technological advancement we will finally begin to see greater adoption of technologies that will ultimately allow for a better customer experience all around.

 

You probably have to manage people who are a lot more senior than you are (not necessarily in age, but in experience as well). How do you do this?

The truth be told we have a flat organizational structure at Grow where the best idea is the one that is acted on. That level of comfort that you achieve with your team enables the understanding that no matter your seniority your voice will be heard and your opinion will be considered – everyone has an opportunity to contribute as much as they can. Active listening is the mantra.

 

Talk to us about being a serial entrepreneur at 11. They say that as kids we definitely have a gut feel about our true calling. Would you say the same thing about having a vision about Grow in your past?  

Definitely. Although not exactly Grow, I’ve always had a vision to marry my interest in finance with my drive for entrepreneurship.

 

Grow has instituted an informal policy of employees taking 10% of their time for personal development and self-directed projects.  This seems like a great initiative and is certainly appreciated more in Europe than in North America. 

Thinking about a diverse set of problems allows you to be better at critical and creative problem solving. Thanks to a cultural shift in how companies think about work and its’ people, more and more organizations are adopting a similar policy.

 

This has also resulted in the creation of Grow’s next product which will be released in the second quarter of 2016, which already has 4 Canadian financial institutions committed. Would you like to give us a breaking news heads-up on this?

We can’t make a comment on that right now but in future announcements for products we’ll make sure you guys are in the loop.

 

You serve as a mentor for university students in British Columbia, giving speeches at local schools aimed at inspiring and aiding their entrepreneurial quests.  Would you also act as an angel investor for ideas that are extraordinary, tangible and profit-making enterprises?

Right now obviously the main focus is working on building Grow, but a key part of startup culture is to give back to your community and share knowledge. I try to do that as often as I can. What does a day off look like to you?

Running a startup doesn’t get me as much time off as one would hope, but when I do, I spend time with my son and wife. I recently had the pleasure to take the plunge and buy a motorcycle, and I’m addicted. Vancouver is gorgeous in the summer and there’s no better way to experience the city than riding on a bike. I’m an avid road biker so this was a natural evolution for me. Other than that I enjoy cooking, reading, and writing.

 

Jude Paul Fernandes / jude@thesouthasiannews.com