BENGALURU:Breaking away from traditional modes of savings in the bank and exploring new age investments such as the mutual funds can get tricky without the right kind of financial advisor. Most often than not, finding an advisor who you can trust or fits your budget is an ordeal which deters you from making the investment itself.
What if you could shop for mutual funds online like you shopped for clothes or home appliances? Providing a D-I-Y platform for zero commission mutual funds, Clearfunds, a technology-driven financial advisor which recently started its operations, comes with an assurance of low cost investment advises.
“We are the Amazon of mutual funds,” is how Kunal Bajaj, CEO and co-founder of Clearfunds describes their initiative.
One can basically shop for mutual funds on this website, add it to their cart before checking out. Once you log on to their website, Clearfunds has a detailed list of all the mutual funds from where you can choose. The company does not believe in biased advises and hence they provide you with a list from Morning Star’s ratings too. However, that is just a suggestion and the customer is free to choose what they like, Bajaj says.
Clearfunds’ USP is elimination of the commission. While your agent/ financial advisor makes a one percent commission annually on your investment, doing the same task online, all by yourself, saves you this amount. One percent might seem like a small amount, but if you calculate it in the longer run, it sums up to a significant portion of your savings, he points out.
It’s light on the pocket too as they charge a fee of Rs 200 when you buy a mutual fund/ make an additional purchase/set up an SIP. There is one thing to be kept in mind though: At this point, Clearfunds does not believe in handholding. Since the process is automated, one may not get to physically connect with a financial advisor. Nonetheless, they have a customer service which will assist in any doubts or clarifications required.
Bajaj explains,“There are two types of customers - one set that does not want too much of interference - they want to pick and choose their own funds. Another, which requires some guidance. At the moment, Clearfunds caters more to the D-I-Y customers.” They are working on a feature to provide assistance for customised needs which will be up shortly.
The other co-founders are Sarosh Irani, COO and co-founder, Jaideep Tibrewala, CTO and co-founder. Since all three come from financial services background, they were able to launch the startup with their own funds. They are looking to raise half a million dollars in the next phase, according to Bajaj.