As the world increasingly moves into innovative digital payments, cybersecure and trusted transactions are of big concern, and startups working on solutions like Blockchain are surfacing. It is understood that Blockchain technology has the potential to reduce cyber risks by offering identity authentication through a visible ledger.
Chandigarh-based uTrade Solutions — a fintech company that provides online and mobile trading platforms for retail brokers; algorithmic trading software for institutions and proprietary traders along with comprehensive risk management solutions — is probably the first startup in India to tap Blockchain.
Founders Kunal Nandwani, Ashish Grover, Harwinder Sidhu, and Mayank Mathur teamed together in 2011 to setup uTrade Solutions. The idea behind their venture was to enable smarter trading by specializing in low latency algorithmic trading platforms.
In an interaction with Kunal Nandwani, Co-Founder and CEO of uTrade solutions, shares the USP of the company. Here’s how Nandwani and his team is taking strides in the fin-tech space.
Getting started
Kunal Nandwani carries a work experience from London, where he worked for large banking institutions like Lehman Brothers, Nomura and BNP Paribas. Post the downturn, when things were not going easy in London, Nandwani decided to come back to India. “I was doing investment banking in London, which suddenly changed and slowed dramatically after 2008 Lehman crisis. My desire to keep growing pushed me towards entrepreneurship. India made sense as it offered a large market access, potentially big growth, relatively cost-efficient setup, and the comfort of being at home in India.”
It all started, says Nandwani, during meetings with stock brokers and bankers in India. Those meetings helped Nandwani observe that the trading platforms in India were technologically outdated, slow, over-priced, and a legacy architecture that had no scope to change in the future. Such insights set a firm ground for his entrepreneurial debut. Around July 2011, Nandwani with his co-founders Harwinder Sidhu, Ashish Grover, and Mayank Mathur, brought forth a combination of their expertise in software knowledge and investment banking. The ideas fell in place and the company was incorporated in 2011.
Mobile is central
uTrade is in the business of developing enterprise software products. The company’s automated technologies enable market participants to trade more efficiently. uTrade’s target clients include brokers, banks, exchanges, and other financial institutions. “Our core product, uTrade, helps people trade in financial markets. Whether they are retail investor, trader, or an institutional fund manager, they can trade using mobile, using algorithms, and…