Pickright Technologies help you save, plan, invest and manage with a single click: Archana Elapavuluri, Founder

Archana Elapavuluri, Founder of Pickright Technologies, in an interview with The Hans India, says we call ourselves a unified platform for all types of investments. Pickright is effortless, easy, and efficient in managing money and helping people invest smart and wise with AI/ML-based algorithms in curated portfolios.

Pickright is a digital platform that manages, automates, and invests in autopilot mode across different direct and alternate instruments irrespective of the size of the investment via its application and website.

Please introduce Pickright Technologies to our readers.

Pickright Technologies is a Wealth Tech Startup and SEBI Registered Investment Advisor which uses deeptech, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine language (ML) module to create smart portfolios using user Personalization by learning about users based on past parameters and future behaviour patterns and enabling and advising the user to choose the right eligible investment instruments. In addition, it manages, automates, and invests in autopilot mode across different direct and alternate instruments irrespective of the size of the investment via its application and website.

Pickright Technologies is your financial assistant in the pocket to help you save, plan, invest and manage with a single click.

Pickright says it is a fintech marketplace platform for stock market investors and stock market advisors. Please explain this.

We all need a platform that is effortless, easy, and efficient in managing money and helping people to invest smart and wise with the use of AI/ML-based algorithms in curated portfolios. We call ourselves your financial assistant in your pocket. Enabling you to Save, Plan and Invest by leveraging technology.

Like every other working professional and being a woman, I also wanted to invest my money right from the day I started earning; there were hardly any platforms that provided, and it was always challenging to choose the right type of investment. Even today, the scenario is the same for most of the population on which asset class they should invest in based on their risk profiling. The only way available is to check with friends and family, which never results in good returns. Getting advice from professionals is intimidating as the investable amount is small, but now the financial assistance is just in your pockets.

When there are some easy investment avenues, why should people invest through Pickright? How is it different from other smart investment platforms?

Our focus is to get young people to start investing and learn how to create additional income from investments by providing all types of investment irrespective of investment size, under one roof.

Its services include:

● Complete diversified ready-made portfolios called Investpacks consisting of different asset classes like MF, Equities, ETFs, and Gold, and we are introducing an array of investment products very shortly.

● Rebalancing, managing, and monitoring at periodic intervals.

● Customized hyper-personalized portfolios for everyone

● Ready-made portfolios for Women for their investment journey

● Ready-made Portfolios for Students for their investment journey

● Smart advisory to execution across asset classes

How innovative platforms like Pickright provide investors with greater flexibility when compared with mutual funds. What is the return one can expect from Pickright?

One unified platform for all types of investments is direct or alternate investments. Understand that investing is a long-term game, and diversification is its core. New age wealth management startups help individuals beat market volatility and still fetch them good returns by smartly diversifying based on users' financial health, goals, and investment capacity. For a user, Pickright is the window for his/her first step towards wealth growing journey and subsequent as well. One platform for wealth management. Pickright is a smart and intelligent advisory platform working towards monitoring, analyzing, and managing users' portfolios that continue to provide the best returns.

It was established in 2019 and is new in the industry; what challenges did you face during the Pandemic?

Ours being a digital platform, Pandemic did well; we got a good user base during this period. Trading accounts multiplied during this period as well. A few challenges we faced for the launch were adjusting to a remote working environment and getting the tech. Also, meeting potential advisors and investors. We got adjusted now, and it's business as usual.

Have you observed growth in the number of youngsters aged between 20 - and 30/35 using the platform?

Our target user age group is between 23 - 40 years old, and we focus on and encourage them to start their investing journey. We have especially seen growth in this segment and what makes us happy is we have seen a significant number of participants from women. This makes us extremely happy and proud that we have started our first step towards bringing financial awareness to women as well. What we suggest for this age group is

● Find the right platform where youth can get their risk analysis done

● New age platforms offer personalized portfolios and suggestions and complete financial planning on how to build a corpus, what type of insurance should be taken, and how should one build their investment journey

● Always start small. Every journey starts with the first step. Irrespective of the investment size, start investing.

● Talk to a financial advisor and Plan your financial journey based on goals.

How many users have invested through Pickright till now?

We have more than 50K users on the platform. In addition, we have around 10000 users invested via Pickright and currently enjoying returns with their investment capital protected.

Any advice to the people trying their hand first time in the stock market?

Investing is easy; Investing right is not. Caution is needed when young or inexperienced users start investing. Understand that investing is a long-term game, and diversification is its core. New age wealth management startups actually help individuals to beat market volatility and still fetch them good returns by smartly diversifying. Knowing where you are investing and why you are investing is very important. Follow rebalancing, tracking, and monitoring of your portfolio. Trading is very different from investing. Never invest in speculations, rumours, and tips. Always invest in companies where there are strong fundamentals. Never panic. For the last 30 years, the Sensex has moved in only the north direction. And all great companies gave fabulous returns.

Either do your own research or come to Pickright, where our system creates a personalized portfolio and helps you diversify your investments and create a better financial future.

Can Pickright help a layman or a new stock trader to trade well?

As said before, trading is a different game altogether; it's a full-time job. Every trader needs to be knowledgeable in fundamentals and research patterns. Never ever trade on speculation. What Pickright can help invest in fundamentally strong products, be it Equities, MF, ETFs, and other asset classes.

The innovative Trading advisory platform we are building will be launched later this year which will help new stock traders or laymen to know the fundamentals of trading and how to handle their trading portfolio.

What is the Pickright mission? Where do you see it after 10 years?

Leverage technology and bring financial planning and investing for the masses. Pickright should be your own Financial assistant in your pocket, enabling you to save, plan, invest and manage your finances for a better future.

Share Pickright Technologies' journey and challenges with us?

Naman and I boot-strapped to create the first MVP of the product with a trading advisory. We learned on the way that traders and investors are different. So we needed to focus on one sector, and we choose to create a self-directed smart investment platform to help the masses to create a financial journey for themselves. From raising our first cheque to getting our paid customers, every step was difficult and came with learnings. Now, we do have a lot of learning in this domain and pivot whenever needed, but we do it with a lot of energy and excitement as what we are building will differentiate people's lives.

Can users also use this platform to buy Bonds and Insurance?

We will be expanding to these verticals in the next quarter. We want Pickright to be a unified platform for all investments for all of us, irrespective of the size of the investment. One platform for financial wealth management.