Indians usually fall prey to wrong and unregulated financial schemes due to ignorance about savings and investing. Due to this, most of the investments are made without minding long-term financial planning. Lack of investment awareness and unavailability of financial advisors have further darkened the path, as not even 10 percent of the Indians are insured. However, with deepening internet penetration, proliferation of online channels and regulatory push, Indian financial advisor business is taking baby steps towards evolving the way it has progressed in developed countries.

Advisorkhoj.com, a one-stop unbiased Investment Awareness website, has taken the first step towards bridging this gap in 2013 by educating investors through its blog, research & queries and finally helping them to make the transaction with the financial advisor who may be available in their neighbourhood. The Bangalore-based company has pioneered the concept of aggregating all stakeholders (investors, advisors and companies) onto one place where manufacturers and financial advisors can promote themselves, and investors can judge/choose them based on the awareness they acquire from Advisorkhoj platform.

Building Its Own Destiny

Though the portal was soft launched in the end of 2012, it struggled till the second quarter of 2013 devoid of a proper technology vendor. The company that sourced its first employee and raised angel funds through its own network rebuilt Advisorkhoj with its own tech team, which adapts to the industry dynamics. "We started the business with our personal investment, for which we made some sacrifices in our personal lives. We do not regret it for a minute," remarks Pradip Chakrabarty, Founder & CEO, Advisorkhoj.com. Vesting keen importance on recruiting 'right people', initially the company invested on hiring and developing right talents for priority areas namely technology, content and marketing, instead of exploring diverse business areas.

Today, the company can boast of having one of the best content in its domain, which has endowed Advisorkhoj with six asset management companies as clients for whom it does content on investment awareness. Advertisement being one of its main revenue sources, the company currently has 12 clients apart from Google Ads and offers digital marketing services for 12 Asset Management Companies. Advisorkhoj provides investors a comprehensive set of resources to execute on their investment decision through its network of nearly 40,000 financial advisors spread across 1,200 locations apart from online channels. The uniquely built Mutual Fund Research section is easily understandable and meaningful even to the first time Investors. It receives a large number of queries from very basic things to complex scenarios everyday and promptly replies to them. Advisorkhoj allows one to download any application forms & scheme brochures, and also connects to respective companies and their financial advisors. Investors can do their retirement and future goal planning using its tools and calculators.