[Tech50] This Raipur startup uses technology to help small businesses with financial and business management functions


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While working at Target Corporation a few years ago, Yash Raj Agarwal realized that SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and startups had difficulty managing invoices, filing taxes and keeping track of ‘other compliances, especially early on when information was lacking. the resources and manpower to do these things.

Additionally, miscalculations or inaccuracies in accounting can be significantly overwhelming for a startup.

“I realized there was an urgent need for modern accounting and bookkeeping systems. So when the GST rollout took place in 2017, I thought it was the right opportunity to move in that direction and so I started GimBooks, ”says Yash, 32, a Symbiosis alumnus. Center of Management Studies, Pune. , and Alliance University.

GimBooks is Yash’s second entrepreneurial company and he has a total of seven years of industry experience. The startup is also one of YourStory’s Tech50 2021 companies.

what does it do

From a simple invoice creation app in early 2017 to solving various other issues for startups and SMBs and becoming a complete accounting, bookkeeping, lending and digital business management focused platform. on SMEs, GimBooks has come a long way in the past few years and has 25 people on its roll.

Today, it is a mobile accounting, lending and payments platform for small and medium-sized businesses. Its USP (single point of sale) resides in the interface and functionality of its application, which is personalized according to the sector (domain) of a particular customer. It also allows SMEs to integrate their banking and payment transactions into their accounts.

On the app, customers can create, share, and manage documents, daily purchases, inventories, and more. SMEs can also collect their payments from buyers via payment links, apply for loans, deposit their GSTRs, etc.

Funding and operation

GimBooks raised a funding round of $ 315,000 from First Check Ventures and Y Combinator. The Raipur-based startup says it offers bookkeeping, bookkeeping, loans, banking, and a “complete” digital business management platform tailored to the needs of SMEs and entrepreneurs.

Through its flagship mobile app and integrated website, GimBooks enables its users to digitally create GST compliant invoices, waybills, purchase orders, challans, and also helps them access loans, manage inventory and expenses, track various business documents such as sale and purchase reports, notify customers of payment reminders, and more.

The mission

Notably, GimBooks also offers a domain-specific “Do-It-Yourself” accounting solution, in which invoices and other documents can be personalized according to the sector to which the user belongs.

“We are on a mission to become the most popular mobile business management platform for Indian traders, grocery store owners, retailers, distributors and many other small and medium businesses in various regions of India. Yash says.

The mobile-first platform offers a range of features, including creation and management of GST invoices, electronic invoices, quotes, purchase orders and various other documents required in daily business. In addition, it helps to integrate banking operations and payments with the company’s accounting.

The economic model

The platform operates on a freemium model and has over 12,500 paying users. It follows a model based on a “six months for life” subscription and commission based on loan disbursements. The startup also plans to start charging commissions on collecting payments. Currently, its main sources of income are commissions on transactions and loans, and subscriptions.

GimBooks says that thanks to its platform, the startup has managed to cut payment collection times in half for most SMEs.

Although its backend is based on Django, the startup also uses MySQL, Java and Firebase for notifications and crash analysis.

The road ahead

A Google-KPMG study finds that digitally enabled SMEs have about twice the revenue growth projections compared to offline SMEs. It is therefore not surprising that the segment has several startups, including KhataBook, Namaste Credit, Ok Credit and many more. GimBooks counts Vyapar and MyBillBooks among its competitors.

The startup is launching invoice financing on its app, leveraging the data it has collected so far to analyze customer creditworthiness. According to GimBooks, no other accounting platform has been able to offer instant invoice-based loan approvals.

His future projects include:

“Open banking” by introducing “integrated and connected banks” in the application, for which it has already partnered with ICICI Bank. “We are also in discussions with a few other banks for similar integrations,” Yash adds.

Then there are the “transactions” for which the startup is introducing a “collections” feature on the app (users can collect their invoice payments from their customers by sending instant payment links from within the app).

“We are also introducing payments from which merchants will make payments to their suppliers, employees, etc. transactions.”

And finally, “Lead generation and B2B commerce” for which GimBooks is developing a portal for B2B (business-to-business) and B2B commerce (business-to-business) lead generation.

“We already have over 250,000 monthly active users on our platform to engage in other productive activities such as lead generation and commerce. Although our product is still only aimed at SMEs in India, GimBooks is planning a global launch in November. We are also in late stage talks with a few international investors to close a pre-Series A round by the end of this year, ”said Yash. According to him, the startup is currently valued at $ 16 million with an annual recurring income (ARR) of $ 0.5 million. The startup aims to have 500,000 paying customers with an ARPU (average income per unit) of $ 200.

GimBooks is a YourStory Tech50 startup for 2021.

Edited by Ramarko Sengupta
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