Offering will enable India’s 40 million SMB owners to answer the fundamental question of what their business is worth

Award winning business valuation service will be delivered through partnership with Asia’s largest franchise solution company, Franchise India

BizEquity, the leading global provider of online business valuation knowledge and performance big data, today announces it is launching its services in India, the world’s fastest growing tech hub. The move follows BizEquity’s Singapore launch in 2015, and marks the next stage of its expansion in the Asia-Pacific region.

BizEquity’s tailored valuation service will help India’s 40 million SME owners understand the true value of their business. The service will also enable India’s financial institutions, such as wealth managers and professional advisors including accountants, to white-label BizEquity’s valuation platform and use the detailed report it produces as a prospect and lead generating tool.

The launch sees BizEquity partner with Asia’s largest franchise solution company, Franchise India Brands Limited (Franchise India), which will support BizEquity’s dedicated team in India to deliver its award winning valuation service to the country’s small business owners and financial institutions.  BizEquity’s platform will also play a key role in Franchise India’s recently launched market place for selling and buying businesses, Business Exchange.

BizEquity’s dedicated cloud-based platform harnesses sophisticated algorithms and big data knowledge to provide business owners, and the financial institutions and wealth managers that advise them, with real-time insight into the fundamental question of what their business is worth, and how their businesses are performing at a fraction of the typical cost – less than 1/30th – and typical time – 4 – 6 weeks – it takes for traditional business valuations.

With 67% of businesses under-financed and 50% under-insured, and with many proprietors planning retirement based on the sale of their business, access to real-time business valuation knowledge is crucial for business owners. Despite its importance, only 2% of businesses carry out an annual valuation because this crucial valuation data has traditionally been inaccessible to the majority of business owners due to lengthy time and high costs involved.

BizEquity is successfully democratising this important knowledge for Indian business owners, enabling them to use these insights to optimise their ability to capitalize on a range of opportunities, such as securing investment from third-parties at the best price, negotiating an appropriate level of debt for expansion or move into new markets, or successfully negotiating a merger or sale.

BizEquity’s India launch comes at a time when changes in regulatory framework, demographic and technologies are enabling the growth of fintech. The fintech industry in India is predicted to grow two fold by 2020, with global brands lending their weight. This drive brings a lease of life and convenience to smaller businesses, which historically have struggled to benefit from national and global growth opportunities due to a traditionally poor technology infrastructure and network.

According to a report by NASSCOM, India was ranked the third largest tech start-up ecosystem with more than 100 accelerators, 200 active angels, 150 VCs and over 4,200 start-ups operating in the region. With India’s advancements in innovation, technology and entrepreneurship, the country presents a favourable environment for BizEquity to introduce its cloud based big data service to democratize business valuations.

GauravMarya, Chairman, Franchise India commented:

“At 48 million, India has the second largest number of SMEs in the world that employ nearly 40% of India’s workforce and contribute 17% to the Indian GDP. Despite this significant contribution, SME ‘s do not get registered and nearly 95% of SME’s do not know their business value. This is largely because Indian SME owner-operator don’t plan for a long-term exit strategy, unlike the Start-up ecosystem in India. Getting financing also becomes a big challenge and SME’s remain under-capitalized, which is why knowing the true value of your business really matters

Franchise India is very excited to partner with BizEquity to enable the Indian SME business ecosystem to know their true value that could help their business in  succession planning, selling the business, preparing to go public, partnering up, acquiring other businesses, looking to get investors, or ensuring that the business will support a retirement lifestyle.”

Michael M. Carter, CEO of BizEquity, commented:

“Our mission is to value every business in the world and we are delighted to continue our progression into Asia, through the launch of our dedicated valuation service tailored to the Indian market place. With SMEs accounting for over 97 percent of all enterprises across APEC economies, and representing over half of the workforce, not only is the market opportunity vast, but there is also a tremendous opportunity to help small business owners in the region by democratising the business valuation knowledge so fundamental to their success.”

Naman Shah, BizEquity’s APAC Market Director, commented:

“Following our successes in Singapore, our move into India,the world’s fastest growing tech hub – is a natural next step in our growth strategy that will enable us to help the country’s financial institutions enhance their service offering and prospect better as well as serve thousands of SMEs by providing them with real-time insight into their true business value.”

Globally the business valuation industry is set for accelerated growth and the market opportunity is significant with 98% of the 200 million businesses worldwide failing to undertake and annual business valuation.

BizEquity has already valued over 30 million businesses globally. Its award winning business valuation service has been adopted by over 190 financial institutions which are harnessing the sophisticated algorithms and big data knowledge to better gauge the risk profile of their clients. This allows them to assess, for example, whether these businesses are underinsured or underfinanced, and enables them to enhance their services by providing the most up to date valuation data on their businesses.

BizEquity was founded in 2010 by Michael M. Carter, a former venture capitalist, who conceived the idea with the support of a leading financial institution and leaders in the accounting, finance, venture capital, and technology sectors. The company has legendary US software investor Peter Musser and former COO and CFO of AICPA (America’s biggest association of accountants) Clarence Davies as its two co-Chairmen.

More information about the service can be viewed at: https://www.bizequity.com. There will also be a dedicated ‘5-pack’ product targeted at Chartered accountants and accountants, enabling them to purchase five valuations at a time at an accessible price point.