On our behalf, Latoya Mistral Ferns interviewed Mr Sachin Castelino, the Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer of In-Solutions Global Ltd. Through the interview, we learned about ISG and the journey of Sachin Castelino. We got to know how he started learning business right from school and when he joined ISG.
Sachin Castelino has excellent and innovative ideas that he will be working on for the next 3 years, which he discussed during the interview. In ISG, he aims to strengthen trust, transparency, and technology, leading to better business results in both the long and short term.
ISG is a Fintech Service Provider and payments facilitator operating across India, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. The company has a social media presence on LinkedIn.
Learn more about the journey of Sachin Castelino with ISG and his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.
What has your journey as a second-generation entrepreneur been like within ISG?
ISG is a pioneering Indian Fintech founded by my family in 2004. The company entered the UAE market in 2007 and has expanded globally ever since. Based on our proprietary technology stack, Genius, our service offering includes real-time acquirer and issuer payment processing for banks, fintech, TPPs, governments, and education providers.
I started to learn the business whilst still at school, and after graduating in Electric and Electronic Engineering from the University of Western Australia, I joined ISG full-time. Initially, I rotated jobs every year and was mentored by academic researchers, senior bankers, and payments innovators to help me understand the industry and the different business disciplines. It was trial by fire, with excellence expected as quid pro quo.
In 2011, when payment gateways were still nascent, I was working within product development to innovate responses to industry-wide challenges. EMV and two-factor authentication were being developed to help secure online e-commerce transactions. Both required a significant amount of research and testing to ensure the customer experience and success rates were not unduly impacted.
At this time, Souq.com (now Amazon) was six years old and rapidly building its presence across the Arab world. No one could have anticipated how mainstream digital marketplaces and payments would become. Now 52% of retail revenue is generated via e-commerce platforms, with more small and medium-sized businesses also going online. One of the key drivers, other than technology, has been consumer behaviour. In a recent survey by Visa, for its Back to Business Study, 68% of UAE customers said they had abandoned a purchase in a physical store solely because digital payments were not accepted, even higher than the 41% of consumers globally.
My ventures into international business began in 2015. We were heavily focused on credit card, card schemes, and ATM reconciliation as a company. Picking up on the trend for Regtech, I invested in updating the product to include the audit of customer fees, bank accounts and general ledgers of all types. This helped bring transparency, trust and measurability across multiple systems and a single source of truth. The gamble paid off with multiple clients and two large processors purchasing and implementing the new technology within MENA.
Having convinced the board of my capabilities to travel, work and build the ISG brand and product, I was asked to lead development in the Asia Pacific. The first major opportunity came off the back of the work we do for HDFC, the largest acquirer in India. It required gaining an in-depth knowledge of how the different international and domestic card schemes perform clearing and settlement, which was both daunting and exciting. In parallel, alternative modes of payment, or AltMOPs, such as wallets, EMI and BNPL, were being introduced, opening up new channels for consumers to transact.
We quickly realised that to serve multiple markets efficiently, we needed to leverage the new cloud offerings whilst still adhering to local data and card scheme regulations. I propositioned the board with an investment plan to create a cloud-based offering for Payments-as-a-Service (PaaS). With compliance and security being key differentiators for the company, it took several months and many late-night video calls to convince the board of the strength of this offering. I achieved it through a combination of rogue thinking and working closely with industry partners and regulatory experts. The final blueprint utilised new technologies, incorporating an API mediation layer to communicate internally across micro-services as well as externally with third party service providers for AML, KYC and credit risk underwriting.
Looking back on this period, I would say I had taken my passion for technology and combined it with new skills I had developed in how to build and sell value propositions, becoming a Marketing Technologist. This led me to incubate new concepts and service offerings within the company, and this has been my single greatest achievement to date. Taking the company and its products through incremental change and a transformational journey has been a thrilling experience and has prepared me for my new role as Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer (CSTO).
What are you hoping to achieve in your new role as CSTO?
My mandate is to define and crowdsource strategies for the next three years. I will look to run a high discipline, common language-style strategy office, using common lexicons and metrics to enable the organisation to understand, adapt and move forward quickly, keeping up with and setting the pace for change within the industry. In addition, I will continue to lead the company’s transformation, including its culture, which, as we expand, both domestically with our direct to merchant offerings and internationally, needs to embrace market nuances and different organisational personas.
I want to continue innovating for ISG’s existing loyal customer base, the biggest contributor to our success. That means searching for and understanding their pain points. When we have the right solution that addresses these points and clearly articulates the envisioned gains, it will help strengthen our banking fintech partnerships.
I also want to strengthen the tripod of transparency, trust and technology that is an essential part of ISG’s DNA and extend that through to our customers. Several regulators have laid out the frameworks for data privacy and secure customer authentication (SCA), including GDPR under PSD2 and the draft Data Protection Bill in India. Using these frameworks and embedding data privacy and SCA in both our platform and operational processes will enable our clients to serve their customers more efficiently and effectively while contributing to their growth and business value. A win-win outcome!
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs looking to start up a new business?
Your success hinges on understanding what services your target customer is looking for that resolve their pain points. It will be those services they value most and are willing to pay for, which in turn will enable you to turn a profit. Do not be married to your first idea. Avoiding failure is directly correlated to being able to revise your offering based on market intelligence.
Connect with Sachin Castelino on LinkedIn.