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As people look for alternatives beyond their day jobs, they are quick to stumble upon freelancing. Freelancing is now emerging as a viable career option. Gone are the days when it was merely seen as a source of side income. However, this path isn't void of difficulties. One such obstacle is a slow payment gateway. A freelancer's will to take up projects dies down when payments aren't received on time!
This is where Refrens comes into picture. It aides freelancers by providing an optimal mechanism for payments gateway.
Refrens - Company Highlights
- Startup Name-Refrens
- Headquarters-Bengaluru
- Founders-Naman Sarawagi and Mohit Jain
- Sector-Fintech
- Founded-2019
- Parent Organization-Refrens Internet Pvt. Ltd.
Refrens - About
Refrens provides a payment gateway system for freelancers to send and receive payments comfortably, which offers free invoicing, payments, and expense management system. It was founded by Naman Sarawagi and Mohit Jain in 2019.
The platform currently has 12,000 businesses and freelancers using the system, which is growing at 10 percent every week.
Refrens - Vision And Mission
Refrens wants to create the easiest way for freelancers to collect payments and collaborate with other freelancers. Refrens provides a payment gateway system for freelancers to send and receive payments comfortably.
Refrens - Industry Details
The freelancing industry, better known as the 'Gig Economy', has since immense recognition and growth over the last decade. There are around 20 million people working as full-time freelancers in India. This number stands at more than 6 million in the USA; such is the influence of freelancing.
On the other hand, the payment gateway service is also witnessing rapid adoption in India. Since this is the digital era and everything's online, the technologies and tools powering the internet need to be efficient and flawless. This includes payment gateways as well. The existing payment mechanisms have tremendous scope for improvement which Refrens is working on.
Refrens - Founders And Team
Refrens was founded by Naman Sarawagi and Mohit Jain in 2019.
Naman Sarawagi, Co-founder of Refrens
Naman Sarawagi is the product and marketing manager at Refrens. Moreover, he is the founder of FindYogi.com. Naman has previously been a product manager at Freecharge and ZipDial.
With a penchant for investing in the right places, Naman has put his money in Daily Ninja and Holidify. Daily Ninja is a startup providing subscription based delivery of daily products whereas Holidify is a holiday planning website.
Mohit Jain, Co-founder of Refrens
Mohit Jain handles Refren's technical division. He was the CTO at Findyogi.com. Mohit has been a tech consultant at various startups.
Findyogi.com is a website that compares the prices of the product across different e-commerce websites out there. The company was acquired by Way2News in 2016.
Refrens - The Idea And Launch
I met a lot of good freelancers during my course of growing multiple startups but finding them and interacting with them was tough. It looked like a good market to solve problems for - Naman Sarawagi, Co-founder of Refrens.
The duo scrutinized industry reports on the market size and the tools used by freelancers and other professionals for payments. They launched a raw product in a closed group. With the feedback received, they started improvising on the product.
Their initial product wasn’t well-received by the audience. It called for excessive change in user habits. After incorporating the responses received by some freelancers in the product's second iteration, Refrens' offering was quick in getting accepted by the freelancing community. People found the tool simple and slick.
Refrens - Product And Services
Refrens is a simple invoicing and payments collection system. Once the user has processed their first invoice through Refrens, the intuitive system gets the user hooked onto it through the numerous features the platform offers. For freelancers, it becomes easy to enable options like adding payment methods, offering discounts, etc. for their clients via Refrens.
Refrens - Payment gateway system
Refrens is an invoicing and payments service provider. The company's core segment revolves around B2B freelancers. The Refrens team strongly believes in freelancing as the future of work. As a result, this domain needs significant enhancements and advancements to be successful.
Refrens was launched to solve the delay and inefficiency freelancers face when collecting payments from different customers. It is possible to create an invoice within 30 seconds on Refrens.
Refrens- Name, Logo, And Tagline
Refrens is a play on the reference. The team believe that the freelancers get business from reference of past clients so it is an important part of their growth.
Refrens - Business Model
Refrens plans to monetize the platform through its optional payment gateway facilities and by selling custom financial services.
Refrens - Funding and Investors
On May 2020, Refrens raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a group of angel investors including Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Founder of Paytm) and Anupam Mittal (Founder of Shaadi.com).
The investment round also saw participation from The Collective fund, Mumbai-based early-stage fund Firstcheque, Amiya Pathak of Ezcred, Gireesh Subramaniam of Freshworks, Sujayath Ali, and Navaneetha Krishnan - Founders of Voonik.com, Amit Lakhotia of Park+, Ajeet Khurana - CEO of Zebpay, Founders and senior management of Kaleyra, Founders of DailyNinja, Springworks, and few others.
The startup said it will use the funds for expanding reach of the platform and adding freelancer friendly financial services.
Refrens - Customer Acquisition
Both the founders had a closed group of friends who were the first 10 users. They later announced the product on a couple of forums and freelancing groups. The platform currently has 12,000 businesses and freelancers using the system, which is growing at 10 percent every week.
Refrens - Challenges
"Convincing freelancers about a new tool is difficult and time taking to do 1-on-1. We are now growing from our customer base.", said Mohit Jain, co-founder of Refrens.
Naman says that social media has stopped working when it comes to attracting customers. They tried a couple of hacks around Facebook groups and pages but weren't successful in driving mass attention.
Refrens - Future Plans
The company is just a few months old and has a little over 500 users.
Please note that we publish profile of companies of at least 8 months old startup. However, an exception was made in this case because of the team, vision, and its product.
Over the next few months we will expand our capabilities around accepting multiple currencies through multiple payment instruments. Over the next 2 years, we want to be the leading platform serving freelancers in india. We will be going deeper in their workflow and more useful features to collaborate - Naman
Refrens - FAQs
What is Refrens?
Refrens has created the easiest way for freelancers to collect payments and collaborate with other freelancers. It provides a payment gateway for freelancers to send and receive payments comfortably, which offers free invoicing, payments, and expense management system.
What is the Pricing Plan of Refrens?
Refrens is Free Forever. You can create invoices, quotations and can manage your expenses anytime. You can access any of these for lifetime for free. But you only pay a small fee if you wish to receive payments online.
Who are the Founders of Refrens?
Refrens was founded by Naman Sarawagi and Mohit Jain in 2019.
What is the state of Refrens Funding?
On May 2020, Refrens raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a group of angel investors including Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Founder of Paytm) and Anupam Mittal (Founder of Shaadi.com).
How does Refrens make money?
For every online payment done through Refrens, it keep a small payment gateway fee.
How many transactions can you make on Refrens?
Unlimited. There is no limit for the transaction you make. You can create unlimited invoices and record transactions. All absolutely free.
