'First Income to First Kid': Aditya Birla Capital makes a splash with new digital platform 'ABCD'

Aditya Birla Capital Digital Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aditya Birla Capital Limited, has launched its digital platform 'ABCD,' targeted as a consumer-first and digital-first interoperable D2C platform.

Offering close to two dozen financial services products ranging from payments, investments, lending to insurance, the platform provides an opportunity for cross-selling and upselling, while also targeting a new customer base of 'First Income to First Kid.' 

The ambitious target set for the next three years is 30 million new customers.

The platform, which is the culmination of 114,000 plus development hours, involves 36,000 designers, and integrates over 1,000 APIs and 5,000 screens, was announced by Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of Aditya Birla Group here today.

Vishakha Mulye, CEO of Aditya Birla Capital Limited, highlighted the platform's ability to acquire customers at scale and serve them holistically by offering solutions covering protection, investment, lending, and payments. The one stop shop approach of capturing all the needs of customers. Mulye was previously with second largest private bank , ICICI Bank , where she was heading the wholesale banking. 

The ABCD D2C platform boasts a comprehensive portfolio of 22 Aditya Birla Group products and services, including payment facilities such as UPI, bill payment, and online recharges, alongside financial services like loans, insurance, and investments, complemented by comprehensive personal finance tracking tools like 'My Track.'

Under the Aditya Birla Group umbrella, the platform benefits from a triple A-rated NBFC, the fourth largest in the industry, a fast-0 growing growing HFC, the largest non-bank AMC, and life and health insurance offerings.

While not adopting a marketplace model currently, the platform leverages strategic partnerships to offer additional services like digital gold and deposits.

The foundation of the new platform rests on four key pillars: people, technology (on cloud), analytics (structured and unstructured data), and marketing (targeting 'First Income to First Kid').

In addition to its own stack of products, including Portfolio Consolidator, Spend Analyzer, and Digital Health Assessment, the platform offers payment solutions to address diverse customer needs through a single platform. 

On a question on subscription-based device strategy for soundboxes and EDC machines on the payments side, which the competorors Bajaj Finance and Jio Financial are rolling out, Pankaj Gadgil, MD & CEO of Aditya Birla Housing Finance Limited and Head of Digital Platforms at Aditya Birla Capital, emphasized the continuous evolution of the payments suite going forward.