We’ll use multimodal AI applications for testing, content generation, and customer service: INDmoney CTO

Gurgaon-based INDmoney started as a wealth management app in 2019, helping users track their investments and expenses and set financial goals by using machine learning. But soon, it expanded its offerings to allow users to make those investments and expenses on the app itself and at zero commission. In an interaction with TechCircle, Dhruv Pathak, co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO) of the wealth management platform, highlights the critical importance of technology in ensuring the seamless operation of the platform's frontend, backend, and various other processes. He also discusses how the startup, which has amassed over 10 million or 1 crore users, uses technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to enable the firm to recommend its members to invest in the right mutual funds, bonds stocks, and more. Edited excerpts.

What technologies excite you most for your organization and sector?
We're enthusiastic about various AI initiatives as AI remains a significant topic across nearly all sectors. AI improves our user experience by utilizing sophisticated semantic search capabilities, delivering scalable market insights and sentiment analysis, and assisting in Know Your Customer (KYC) processes and document parsing. Additionally, it enhances developer productivity through the use of copilots and AI-powered Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), while we are also testing automated quality control and testing solutions.

Is your company's tech budget growing this year compared to previous years?
At INDmoney, we pursue technological advancements while managing fixed costs. Although tech costs increase with our customer base, this rise is mitigated by underlying efficiencies. We assess whether to build or buy tools based on their capabilities, industry feedback, and our commitment to data privacy and compliance. Our budget also includes continuous investment in cybersecurity and observability for all systems, enhancing our monitoring capabilities. We allocate funds for AI pursuits, including paid models and self-hosted AI, and prioritize the use of AI copilots and IDEs to improve team productivity.

What technology areas will you focus on this year and why?
We invest heavily in AI initiatives, including paid models and self-hosted solutions, to meet our needs. Our focus on AI copilots and AI-enhanced IDEs streamlines processes and boosts efficiency. This commitment to AI integration fosters innovation, enabling our team to concentrate on strategic tasks and maximize productivity and output quality, positioning us at the forefront of technological advancements
In addition to our AI initiatives, our key focus areas include optimizing Low Latency Components. We have improved our systems for fast trading, real-time price tick streaming aligned with exchanges, price alerts, and automated trade chart analysis.
We have also developed efficient trader tools with optimised backends and frontends, enhancing networking and performance monitoring for diverse users, and reducing latency and errors. We continue to maintain high standards in cybersecurity and data privacy while aligning with regulatory requirements.

What is your tech team like in terms of size and capabilities? Are you planning to expand or upskill?
Our tech team consists of 100 skilled polyglot engineers supporting our super-app. We've standardised our technology stack across platforms, allowing for rapid evolution and minimal tech debt. Our primary stack includes Golang, Python, PostgreSQL, Redis, MemoryDb, ElasticSearch, ReactJS, Swift, Kotlin, and Dart. Our engineers are dedicated to upskilling in areas like low-latency engineering, hybrid platform design, and enhanced app networking. We expect to maintain a stable team size over the next year.

How is technology driving innovation and improving your business?
Our in-house price tick streaming enables pro traders to make quick, informed decisions. We also provide extensive market insights and patterns through generative AI and data science, enriching the decision-making process for users. Our improved semantic search helps users find relevant content based on query meaning, leading to significantly better engagement metrics.

Can you highlight any technological development in recent months that has enhanced your revenue or CX?
Our company focuses on solving customer challenges through proactive feedback and testing. By understanding user needs, we enhance their experience with effective solutions. We recently launched a dividends calendar for easier investment tracking and introduced automated trading pattern detection to help users make informed decisions. To improve liquidity, we now offer instant money withdrawals, and our advanced charting tools assist professional traders in analyzing multiple data points simultaneously.
Our commitment to quality is reflected in our apps, which boast over 4.6 ratings on both the Play Store and App Store, with over 10 million downloads and around 370,000 reviews. We are dedicated to continuous innovation and delivering exceptional value to our customers.

What are your tech plans for the coming months?
We aim to consistently provide a fast and reliable user experience, focusing on optimizing our back ends, API gateways, hybrid clouds, databases, and frontends. We plan to bring certain tech components in-house to gain more control over scaling, latency, and SLAs, reducing reliance on SaaS solutions. As the AI ecosystem advances, we will increase automation with generative AI to streamline processes and explore multimodal AI applications for testing, content generation, and customer service. A multimodal system takes input in multiple forms of data, such as text, video, and images.