Edfin Consultancy- offering financial consulting to startups and SMEs
It has been said and written about enough that hiring good talent is no cakewalk. And there are many reasons behind this persistent problem. One of the factors contributing to it being the large gap between what is taught in universities/colleges and the industry requirements. Murtuza Rohawala saw these shortcomings in the education space and how it makes the transition from a college to a professional life very hard.
An alumnus of NMIMS, Mumbai and having worked for 10 years in the investment & finance industry with Axis Bank, Morgan Stanley and ENAM Securities, Murtuza quit his promising investment banking career to start Edfin Consultancy in Kolkata. Edfin Consultancy is a niche finance boutique firm which has two verticals - professional education (Ed) and financial services (Fin).
Talking about what made him quit his white collar job and start up Edfin, he says, “There are gaping holes in the education space, where we provide theoretical knowledge but when one moves to the actual work place, the skills required are missing.” Talking from his personal experience he adds, “After completing my MBA, when I started off as an Analyst at an investment bank I had no clue how to make a financial model or even use excel.”
Edfin’s financial services intend to help start-ups or SMEs who cannot afford professional services of investment bankers and business consultants. They assist companies in designing collaterals for making business plans, excel financial models of the business forecast, raising equity capital, presentations, information memorandums etc. Murtuza elaborates, “We work very closely with some established SMEs to help them create presentable outputs for franchise plans, corporate presentations to potential partners, customized research and project reports. We have worked with many kinds of start-ups in India like tech, media, financial software startups etc. looking to raise finances, mature businesses wanting to create business plans and professional collaterals. We have also begun to attract clients from overseas this quarter.” There are other startups like iXCFO that provide such services but the space is big enough for players to co-exist.
The professional education or corporate training offers courses in advanced Microsoft Excel, financial modeling, impact presentations, KYC and AML Workshops etc. They equip the employees and aspiring job candidates with the skill sets that their jobs entail. They have trained participants from a number of leading companies such as PWC, SREI, Accenture, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank etc.
The team of 7, mostly gets it clients through their networks, forums, tie ups with CAs or VCs who refer half cooked idea bearers to Edfin. For professional education, companies approach them to train their staff or individuals directly apply to build upon and improve their office literacy, says Murtuza. Their portfolio includes workshops at IIM Kolkata and multiple courses at EIILM, Praxis, ISB&M, BIBS and Future Business School.
Like most of the new ventures, Edfin endured rough weather too. It was completely bootstrapped and a large share of Murtuza’s savings were invested. He struggled to find clients in a city with no leanings towards finance, which was a far cry from his experiences in Mumbai, the finance hub of the country. Nevertheless, his venture broke even in six months and now he is targeting at creating an integrated financial services KPO.
Website : Edfin Consultancy