Thread by @artijourno

This story is about Minance and its founder Anurag Bhatia - and all it was doing in the name of a fintech startup.
Few more tidbits 👇prime.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/76048321/…

Minance did not have an IA licence until Feb 2019. "But, Anurag used to tell investment managers that if somebody asks, tell them we have the licence," an employee said.

By 2018 end, Minance was "close to a 40-member team and new systems being bought, new salespersons joining got brand new MacBook Pro and investment managers got MacBook Air." In 2019 Jan, moved to a new office space close to Rs 3 lakh monthly rental from Rs 1 lakh/rental.

This was the time when Bhatia was looking to raise funding. [In 2019, several media profiled Minance, wrote about Rs 100-cr fundraise plans.] Last year, he told his employees over WA msg that Kunal Shah is keen to invest in Minance by showing a photo of him with Shah in an event.

Minance, last year, claimed in its PR pitch that it had 3000 investors and managed Rs 300 cr. In May 2019, as clients were transferred from Angel Broking to IIFL, in the process, it lost many clients. "The no. reduced to less than 1000 investors and AUM fell to Rs 30-40 crore."

Currently, the company has no sub-broking partnership and no office. In February, Minance used Instagram influencers to promote its product [instagram.com/p/B9B_1IbJX7d/…]
In April, Minance got its news out on the unlisted stocks, starting Minance Private Market.

All the employees did admit that Bhatia really treated his staff well. The company had quarterly parties, sponsored trips to Goa etc. 'We never validated a lot of his claims. To be honest, we all trusted him,' employees claim.

“He never had to convince anyone. It was all about trust. The image that Anurag has cultivated over the years –that would give enough confidence to any person to blindly invest money with him,” all the investors and employees unanimously agreed.