Akshay Loya

First principles | 0 → 1 | Fintech | 2 startup attempts | AI-pilled

Based inBengaluru, India
01 · How I think

My thoughts/theses on a few problem spaces

01Intelligence layer for MSME lendingLenders now have seamless access to a lot more data, but face challenges in converting it into intelligence. My thoughts on what's missing, and how a scalable solution can transform data from across sources into the specific actionable intelligence that each lender needs.
In progress
02Credit on UPICredit cards are a Tier 1 merchant x Tier 1 customer product. RuPay cards are mainly a merchant-expansion play on top. But to truly break the 50-60M penetration barrier credit cards have faced in India, you need a market-expansion play. My views on why credit cards are structurally ill-placed to do that, and why Credit-on-UPI is the right product for it.Yet to publish
03AI-led Wealth AdvisoryContextual Wealth Advisory has so far existed only for UHNIs. Because economics. Others depend on generic internet gyaan, friends & family, or worse, their MFDs/ Bank RMs for advice. My thoughts on why AI-led Wealth Advisory is going to change that, and do what robo-advisory failed to.Yet to publish
04Formalizing informal salary advanceBorrower left out of formal credit → depends on informal loans → repay behaviour not captured → continues to be left out of formal credit. My breakdown of what the governing tension here is that makes it so difficult to break this loop, and what might dissolve itYet to publish
05Flexible repaymentEMI assumes borrowers have equated-ish monthly cash flows. Most people dont. Yet there is a dearth of flexible repay options. My strip-down of the not-so-obvious reasons behind this, and what needs to change to allow lenders to look beyond EMIsYet to publish
Yet to publish: putting it together into an article
02 · What I Built

My personal projects

01Wealth AtlasA wealth app that aggregates investments across my family's accounts, with real-time market value, CGT + advance tax computations/ harvesting, and XIRR analysis, sliceable across asset classes, instruments and owners. Plan on adding composite benchmarks, liability optimisation, goal-based rebalancing, etc.Live · privateProduct page to come
02ShotgunA trading bot that lands orders on the exchange within 5 ms of a stock auction opening, putting them near the front of the queue on ESM2 stocks locked at their upper circuit, where sellers are scarce and only the first few buyers get filled. The opening instant drifts day to day, so the bot is aiming at a moving target.Live · private