If you thought the gig economic system only influences startups, assume again. Nearly seventy two% of all gig tasks were in large corporates and expert provider firms in 2018-19 in comparison with 52% two years lower back, says the Professional Gig Economy 2018-19 Report Card’ via gig platform Flexing It. Also, it is expected that the Indian ‘freelancers’ marketplace size could develop to a whopping $20-30 Bn through 2025.
With this type of big possibility, comes the demanding situations. Companies which includes PayPal and Payoneer are already operating to ease the problems around payment collection and mastering structures such as Udemy, Freelancer, UpWork are maintaining the plate full for freelancers in terms of ability improvement. Yet, freelancers of the burgeoning Indian gig economy still face problems which includes dealing with and tracking payments, planning their price range and greater.
But tech solutions for gig economic system employees also are growing via the day way to innovation in fintech and B2B software program. Just like organization SaaS changed how corporations used technology to refine their procedures, gig financial system structures are targetting this developing elegance of freelance employees.
In July 2019, FindYogi (received via Way2News in 2016) founder Naman Sarawagi thru this hole was the right opportunity to step into the arena of entrepreneurship again with Refrens. Refrens became envisioned as a platform for enterprise provider companies to music, accumulate and manage bills faster and in a credible way.
“After wrapping up FindYogi, I had a couple of investments that I started giving time to which includes Daily Ninja, Holidify and so forth. Between that, I also start digging up freelance consulting assignments. At that factor, I realised the rigors on each ends — for freelancers and the companies seeking them.”
He become joined in his endeavour via former FingYogi CTO Mohit Jain. The platform works with freelancers and small organizations in the field of B2B services including software program improvement, design, advertising and PR, money owed and finance, coworking areas, housework companies and many others.
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“There are a couple of possibilities, right from workflow software, monetary offerings to a market. With Refrens, we are bringing some revolutionary ways of collecting payments thru popularity management,” he introduced.
Refrens Invoicing Software: How It Works?
Refrens basically offers a loose web-primarily based SaaS answer that helps users in making and managing invoices with timely reminders and a integrated low-cost elective fee gateway. “A lot of freelancers nevertheless manage charge information on excel sheets, convert them to PDFs to ship invoices to clients, and now and again they do no longer even hold a file of invoices,” brought Sarawagi, about what exactly Refrens is trying to resolve.
Freelancers are already the use of Refrens for dollar invoicing, he stated. At present, the startup covers 37 currencies throughout a hundred countries and uses Cashfree as a charge gateway for home transactions. For on line payments, it expenses a nominal charge of 1.Sixty five% on all debit cards or UPI transactions and a 2.3% on credit score cards, charge gateways and netbanking.
Besides assisting freelancers control their invoices and payment records, Refrens works to assist enterprise partners filter out profiles and keep away from spam programs. “Freelancers create all kind of profiles, despite the fact that they may be now not absolutely catering to that class,“ Sarawagi stated.
Since the invoicing feature is unfastened for freelancers, there are some questions on the monetisation component for Refrens. But Sarawagi is not overly involved for the time being. The long-time period enterprise dreams require developing a high-frequency product which can have interaction the users on a normal basis, he said. “Invoicing is as a consequence helping us in creating a sturdy foundation.”
The Ultimate Goal: Building A Value Chain Through Referrals
The push towards monetisation might come as the Refrens community earns adulthood. Going in advance, Refrens aims to create a network of groups that help each different to acquire extra clients, like a marketplace community. Sarawagi defined that the market community is greater like a commercial enterprise community set up on a marketplace, which acts as a social network on the supply facet.
For example, if an character hires a wedding manager, they bring about in all varieties of contacts for the decorator, fashion designer, and operate on a commission-primarily based version. Similarly, maximum B2B carrier companies get new business thru referrals from existing clients or different carrier carriers within the value chain.
“HoneyBook, a US-based $70 Mn funded organisation does the identical issue within the wedding category. Word of mouth prevails constantly, and we're looking to use a comparable concept to offer ability ends in providers in the near future,” he brought.
Once those referrals begin coming in, Refrens can begin running on a commission-based model. It is hoping to create a network of around one million freelancers by means of the quit of 2020, that can assist the employer to capture almost 50% of the Indian market within the next 5-6 years.
It further targets to build custom economic products for freelancers to assist them control their budget for precise sectors. The startup is in talks with coverage companies and banks, while also seeking to collaborate with new-age fintech startups for those offerings.
Sarawagi also instructed CFT that Refrens would be launching international bills thru ACH quickly. “We are innovating around collecting bills quicker from clients who typically pay past due date or default. Also, we are able to be looking at advertising out of doors India in approximately two years.”
Harnessing The $a hundred and fifty Bn Freelancing Opportunity In India
In today’s time, the time period ‘gig economy’ isn't alien to the Indian marketplace anymore. Factors which includes net penetration, fast digitisation, and development in IT offerings have transformed the dynamics for the labour market across the globe. On one hand, it has presented freedom for Gen-Z workers from mundane 9-6 jobs and also offers both small and large companies the strength to capitalise on expertise internationally.
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Yet for brand spanking new-age startups like Refrens, innovation is the most important mission. “Building a -sided market is tough, to start with. There had been startups in this space that overpromised but in no way introduced. So we located it difficult to persuade human beings that we are any specific,” said Sarawagi approximately the undertaking of convincing companies to companion up for Refrens’ freelance community
But Sarawagi added that the possibility is much larger than the dangers concerned. India is expected to have 20 Mn white-collar freelancers by 2022 with an industry turnover upwards of $a hundred and fifty Bn yearly in India on my own. Being the youngest kingdom inside the world in phrases of the body of workers, and grappling with task advent and unemployment troubles for the past yr, India can without a doubt come to be a hotbed of innovation for gig economy people.
For long, gig economic system employees were shortchanged by way of the dearth of the right gear and services to manage their daily work, and this is ripe for innovation and disruption, given the large market possibility for sectors including ecommerce, logistics, foodtech and hyperlocal services.
