Tell us how you founded Algoredge?

We co-founded Algoredge in 2019 primarily to solve business problems by leveraging the potential of artificial intelligence. We first focused on how we can help financial institutions to mitigate risk and reduce losses. This led us to develop our proprietary risk decisioning engine using AI which we launched as Mintpay: Sri Lanka’s first ‘buy now, pay later’ payment facility in the fourth quarter of 2020 – the year of the pandemic. But two years ago, things were quite different. When we first unveiled our idea for Mintpay, most said this concept won’t work in Sri Lanka given the astronomical rise in NPLs and that Sri Lanka was not ready for ‘buy now, pay later’.

What is Mintpay and how does it work?

Globally, the ‘buy now, pay later’ payment method is changing the way people pay. Similarly, Mintpay is a ‘buy now, pay later’ payment option we launched in Sri Lanka that allows our consumers to buy what they want and pay later in three interest-free instalments over two months. There are no holds on the attached debit or credit card. As for consumers, this is a great way to manage their cashflows whilst enjoying the flexibility. The merchants can convert more customers, increase basket size, and drive sales, all while reducing the burden of collecting cash on delivery. Mintpay deploys an AI-based decisioning engine developed by Algoredge to score consumers’ repayment ability, thereby mitigating fraud. In the meantime, banks can discover a growing segment of creditworthy consumers too. So, at this point, Mintpay is maybe proving to be just what Sri Lanka needs.

How has Mintpay performed since the beta launch six months ago?

Dauntless, we continued to improve the technology. We made mistakes fast so that we can learn quickly and move on; and that process was critical. Since the beta launch, we’ve made significant progress. We now have a month-on-month growth rate of 150% in terms of new sign-ups as well as sales. We have onboarded many leading brands; we recently announced our partnership with Spa Ceylon and more such announcements are coming your way! We are truly privileged to be working with some of the leading brands in the country that are always ready to embrace innovation. Our recent partnership with Seylan Bank has propelled Mintpay to new heights. What is more, the AI-based decisioning engine helps us keep the default rate below 1%: 0.8% to be exact! This is an enviable NPL ratio. We were able to prove our hypothesis that AI can improve decision making more accurately at a fraction of the speed. It was a big moment for us.

What is the big vision you have for Mintpay and Algoredge?

We are in 2021 and it still takes banks several days to approve a credit card or a small loan. Algoredge is building capabilities to achieve credit approvals in a matter of seconds, and this includes the mandatory KYC and stringent due diligence banks need to perform. This is what we specialise in: we are solving the problem of delivering credit to those who are creditworthy faster.

‘Buy now, pay later’ is a popular concept globally and even PayPal has a similar option. We have shown that Sri Lanka is ready for it too! Mintpay demonstrates that our algorithm works, and we are tapping into a growing consumer base of tech-savvy young millennials and zoomers (Gen-Z) who may not be able to apply for a credit card or small bank loans because the traditional credit evaluation processes cannot identify their creditworthiness.

Mintpay is maybe proving to be just what Sri Lanka needs

What were the early challenges?

We were both working at a leading corporate in Sri Lanka, so leaving to start our business venture was never an easy choice. Growing up and schooling together—we even graduated in Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering from the same university—we understood each other’s strengths and weaknesses which helped us bootstrap Algoredge and develop Mintpay. Initially, we got a lot of T pushback for Mintpay which was considerable because Sri Lanka’s banking NPLs are among the highest in the world.

What advice do you have for anyone aspiring to become a startup founder?

A start-up is a marathon, not a sprint. There will be times you will feel overwhelmed and would even want to give up. But always remember that you will never know the outcome unless you try it.