Kuldeep Parashar is a native of Tundla, a Tier 4 city in Uttar Pradesh. He is on a mission to change the pension landscape in India. Tundla is famous for its railway station, Aloo Tikki, and Heeralaal Ki Kulfi but Parashar is confident that it will soon gain recognition for something he created—PensionBox, a new-age pension startup.
PensionBox is a cloud-based, AI-enabled platform that offers personalized pension plans tailored to individual needs. It allows customers to create customized plans and monitor their savings.
The platform stands out as India’s first digital pension platform. It aims to empower millions to plan, save, invest, and track their retirement savings with complete flexibility.
The pension and retirement planning sector in India is still in its nascent stages, with low awareness and engagement among the general public.
This innovative approach addresses a critical gap in India’s pension landscape. Despite the government’s efforts to promote the National Pension System (NPS), adoption remains low, especially among the private sector workforce.
According to Mercer’s Global Pension Index 2022, only 6 percent of India’s working population is covered by private pension, primarily because a majority of the working class is in the unorganized sector.
Kuldeep Parashar is an alumnus of the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) in Dehradun. He holds several certifications, including Certified Retirement Adviser and Certified ScrumMaster.
He began his career in the financial services industry, working at Fidelity Investments as a Business Analyst focused on retirement plans and defined contribution 401(k) programs. This experience gave him valuable insights into the pension and retirement planning sector.
What sets PensionBox apart is its focus on digitization and personalization. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Parashar explained the company’s data-driven approach: “We do build nudges based on data. For example, I can compare my retirement versus my peer’s retirement look like or ideal retirement looks like. And if I increase my savings by 5-8 percent, or 10 percent? How would I improve it? So it is more data-driven”.
In July 2021, Kuldeep, along with his brother Shivam Parashar, founded PensionBox. They both left their high-paying jobs what Kuldeep calls, “The Great Resignation.” He says it was not easy but their parents were very supportive of their decision to start Pensionbox.
PensionBox was born out of a recognition of the need for better retirement planning tools in India. Kuldeep observed that many parents invest heavily in their children’s future, with the expectation that their children will support them in retirement.
They started working from their hometown which was great on the financial side but also came with a lot of cons. There was a lack of connectivity and many banks refused to open their current account for months as their fintech was from a small town. Covid 2nd wave made everything worse but they stood their ground for a complete year.
And finally, on Dec 04, 2021, they raised their first pre-seed funding round of $160.0K. The total funding raised including the seed funding raised in November 2022 is $659K.
It’s worth mentioning that Kuldeep Parashar was featured on Amazon Prime’s Mission StartAb as one of India’s top 5 startup founders.
Parashar recognizes that transforming India’s pension landscape is not a task that startups can accomplish alone. He advocates for a collaborative approach between the government and private sector innovators. “It could be the state plus the startups combining together and building up a solution,” Parashar told CNBC-TV18. “So I don’t want them to build a solution alone. Build it with us. So if you want to distribute it, let’s figure it out. You give us a case, we build up something a plugin to you and then we’ll figure it out”.
Kuldeep’s advice to young minds is rooted in practicality and personal responsibility. He emphasizes the importance of listening to one’s situation, family, and responsibilities over societal pressures.
He says, “World will tell you a lot of stuff and put pressure on you to grow in finance or don’t spend & invest everything you have or buy that iPhone you don’t need, drink alcohol for no reason and 1000 more things but you listen to your situation, family and responsibilities first.”
Parashar has proved that it doesn’t matter where you start until you don’t accept defeat. Execution is what matters and the Parashar brothers proved it in one year after leaving their job that they were more than capable of executing what they dreamt of. He has advice for young entrepreneurs:
“Don’t be afraid to knock on the doors, It’s old school & it works!”
