Company Overview

Zolve is a cross border fintech (Neobank) that enables fair access to financial products for migrants in the US.

• Founded in 2020
• Series-A ($55 Million total funds raised)
• Raised $100 Million venture debt in 2023 for international expansion
• 400,000+ International users
• Facilitated transactions over $600 Million

Product(s) Overview

Wish to avoid the hefty Forex fees? Wish to build your credit score from day-1 in the US?

All these questions and don't know what to do? Well there's a product just the right one for you.

Zolve helps you prepare for your financial life in the US, right from Day 1!

Zolve offers a variety of credit card products that DO NOT require an SSN and can be applied from India using your passport or ITIN details.

• The process of applying for a card can be done over the mobile app is few simple steps that takes less than 5 minutes.
• The credit cards can be accessed virtually the moment you land in the US. The physical card is mailed to your US address.
• Zolve reports your credit history (based on your name and DOB) to all 3 major credit bureaus in the US - TransUnion, Experian and Equifax.

** A forex card alternative that behaves like a credit card **

Source: Zolve.com

In addition to the credit card offerings, Zolve also offers a US Checking Account (current account) the is FDIC insured on deposits upto $250,000 (a standard security feature offered by all major US banks)

Source: Zolve.com

Zolve also offers:

• Low-cost international transfers
• Insurance products through partnerships
• Loan offerings through partnerships
• US SIM cards through partnerships

Source: Zolve.com

For the case of this project. I will be focusing on credit cards as the product for the following reasons:

1. They are the gateway product to bring in new users into Zolve's ecosystem
2. The ICPs/market for the credit cards is the largest based on the frequency of the use case

Who is it for?

Zolve is a cross border fintech that enables fair access to financial products for global citizens!

They offer products to Indians flying to the US:

• Student residing in the US with a valid student visa
• Student about to move to US
• Working Professional residing in the US with a valid work visa
• Working Professional about to move to US

*Plans to expand to other geographies is currently being explored by the company.

Is Zolve ready for user acquisition?

Yes, Zolve has crossed the PMF stage:

• Grew 5X between Aug-Dec 2021, from 2000 to 10000 user, all through word of mouth (as per the CEO of Zolve)
• 400,000 users in the last 3 years
• $600 Mn of transactions
• 12 month customer retention rate >86% (as per the company)
• 4.2 rating on App store & 4 rating on Play Store (need to improve their scores)
• YouTube videos (non-sponsored) sharing honest reviews on value prop

Ideal Customer Profile

The ICPs are broken into 4 major categories based on the combination of:

1. Type of user (Student, parent, professional) and
2. Purpose of moving to the US ( Education or Work)

ICP 1 (Student + Parent for education) : Sneha is a 4th year student at an private engineering college in Hyderabad. She is looking to pursue a masters degree in the US after her graduation. She has a pretty hands off approach to the application process and relies on consultants to navigate through all the steps. She also relies on her parents to figure out the finances of her time abroad (education, living expenses etc.)

ICP 2 (Student for education): Tanvi is a recent graduate from a top tier engineering college. She is currently interning for a start-up, in Mumbai, while applying to US universities for her masters. She is a curious person and does a ton of research on what her options her before making any decision. She is handling her application process by herself and is also working along side her father to decide the best option to finance her education.

ICP 3 (Working Professional for education): Rishabh is a working professional with 4 years of experience at a big 4 consulting firm in Delhi, NCR. He has applied to top MBA programs in the US and is waiting to hear back. He has taken help of consultants for her college applications but did his own research on MBA financing options. He connected with a lot of alumni and networked at events in his city to understand the program fit and cost of education. He is considering international lenders to apply for an education loan.

ICP 4 (Working Professional for work): Satish is a working professional with 5+ years of experience in a IT firm in Banglore. He recently accepted a position in the US with his current employer and will be moving soon. He reached out to colleagues in the US and took their advice on flights, apartment search and public transport in the US. He is exploring ways to manage his finances in the US and also how to keep track of his savings and investments in India.

Major Takeaways:

• All type of users are facing problems around transaction/forex fees, ATM fees and vendors not accepting forex cards
• Indian students/professionals are not aware about the importance of credit building in the US
• SSN (Social Security Number) is only issued to students once they get a part-time job offer in the US i.e, they start working on campus or become a course TA/RA in their University
• SSN is required by all major credit card issuers in the US**
• Parents can be a major blocker in the purchase process of credit cards
• Children subscribe to the negative sentiment established in their families by their parents
• Users >25 years ( ICP 3 & 4) are looking for bank accounts that offer zero minimums and no hidden fees
• User <25 years are happy with the current accounts offered by major banks in the US and usually get their account set up in less than 7 days after landing in the US
• Word of mouth plays a huge role in decision making for students trying to decide the forex card and/or bank account to use in the US

ICP Prioritization

Above listed four ICPs are evaluated based on Adoption curve, Frequency of use, Appetite to pay, TAM and Distribution potential. All factors are scored based on High (5), Medium (4-3) and Low (1-2) and the total score is calculated (maximum 25) to identify top 2 ICPs.

From the above table, it is clear that ICP 2 and ICP 3 are the our top ICPs to target through the acquisition channels we will be picking later.

ICP Characteristics:

1. 20-30 year old from a Tier-1 city in India
2. Is proactive in doing their research about study abroad and follows YT study abroad influencers for guidance and hacks
3. Understands the benefits of using a credit cards (or) has experience using credit cards
4. Understands the value of building a credit score in the US
5. Doesn't have a credit history in India
6. Has no SSN in the US ( doesn't have a part-time job as a student)

User Journey

• User comes to know about Zolve credit card via YouTube influencer
• User downloads the app and signs up
• User is contacted by a sales agent and/or views emails from Zolve
• User decides to apply for the Credit card via the Mobile App
• User is approved a credit card within minutes and is happy about receiving $5000 credit limit [AHA Moment]
• User receives the virtual card details via the app and connects his card to his mobile device via Apple pay or Google pay
• User arrives in the US and starts paying for purchases stress free with the tap and go features [AHA Moment]
• User tracks their spends and also view the rewards (coins) they collected from the purchases
• User is happy about building their credit score in the US

Market research

I looked at competition in the market. Every substitute solution that solves for the pain points mentioned by my ICPs is directly or in-directly competing with Zolve's credit card.

Core pain points:

1. No transaction fee or forex fee
2. No SSN required
3. Ability to build a credit score

Substitute Competition in India:

1. Forex cards issued by major banks (HDFC, ICICI, AXIS, SBI....): Majority of international students (from India) carry $300-$1000 in their forex cards to the US
2. Niyo Global Forex Card for Students: A Zero Forex card targeted at international Students
3. Cash: Most student also carry cash for backup incase the forex card transactions fail

Direct Competition in USA:

1. Nova Credit (hello.novacredit.com/cards): Offers AmEx cards to international applicants with and Indian credit history (no SSN required)

Source: hello.novacredit.com

1. Deserve Edu Mastercard: The only other card that offers a un-secured credit offering without an SSN

Insights:

1. Users who had the Zolve card also carried forex card and cash.
2. AmEx Everyday cash (through NovaCredit) is the only direct competitor to Zolve's use case. Deserve has paused it's product for now as they are pivoting to a new business model.
3. AmEx offers much higher bonus and cash back rewards but can only be applied by users with credit history in India
4. Nova Credit is ranked better in SERP for important keywords like "Credit card without SSN" and "Credit card for international students"

Source: Semrush

Google Search Analysis:

Used Semrush to understand the performance of zolve.com with organic and paid traffic.

1. Very negligible paid traffic.
2. The organic traffic is split between US (60%) and India (40%)
3. The website is ranked 1st for all brand related searches

Source: Semrush

4. Last year the top-3 channels driving traffic were Direct, Organic and Referral

Source: Semrush

Social Media Channels:

YouTube Use Case Videos:

Source: YouTube search

Searching for "Zolve credit card" on YT got me to multiple short form and long form content published by influencers and content creators in the last year. The views for the content range from 5K to 47K.

Insights:

• Content was available in English, Hindi & Telugu
• Only half of the videos nailed their messaging around the core value proposition - "Credit card without SSN"
• More content needed, primarily focused on educating the viewers on the importance of building a credit score in the US.
• Some content focused on bank account which isn't that big of a problem for international students in the US (as most get their bank account set up in less than 7 days of landing in the US)
• Found at least one video where the creator was stating out false statements as facts

Linkedin Posts:

Source: Linkedin Search

Was able to only find 5-6 Linkedin posts from the past 6 months. The content published was from a mix of influencers and users. The engagement with the content wasn't huge with most post receiving less the 20 likes. Linkedin isn't driving significant traffic to Zolve's website as per Semrush which also confirms the subpar engagement with the channel.

Market Sizing Calculations

Calculated TAM/SAM/SOM using a combination of external research and top-down approach

Assumptions:

1. Only considered Indian users for now (Zolve is trying to market to other international students/Migrants in the US)
2. All numbers are from 2022/2023 academic year
3. As per external research 30% Indian international students going to the US are from Hyderabad. I used that stat to derive numbers for all other Tier-1 cities in the US
4. Assumed 90% of students fall in the age range of 23-28 years
5. Assumed that 15% of students have had experience using a credit card before and and additional 5% are willing to buy a credit card because they are aware of the US credit score system
6. Assumed there is a 5% YoY growth of Indian students traveling to the US, in the next 3 years
7. Assumed 2% for interchrage fee that Zolve charges from vendors to process the card
8. A student is expected to only use the Zolve card for purchases for the first 6 months. From months 6-12 they are expected to use Zolve for half of the purchases.
9. Average monthly spend of an international student in the US is $800 for a month (excluding rent)
10. 1 USD = 80 INR

Before we get to the number of users, let's look at the revenue from a single user per year:

• Revenue per user for 1 year = (2% X 6 X $ 800) + (2% X 6 X $ 400) + = $144/year

TAM (Total Addressable Market)

TAM = # of Indian students in the US 2022/2023 = 268,923 x $144 = $38.72 Million/year

SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market)

Percentage of International students from Hyderabad = 30%

Percentage of international students from other Tier-1 cities (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Banglore) = 30%

Percentage of students in the age range of 23-28 = 90%

SAM = 60% X 90% X 268,923 = 145,218 X $144 = $20.91 Million/year

SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market)

There is only one direct competition who is about the same size as Zolve. They also can only serve user with a credit history in India. For the age range we are looking into, the chances of a student with a previous credit history is low and hence we can assume to get a bigger piece of the market, say 3 in 4 students (75%)

SOM = 75% X 145,218 X $144 = $15.86 Million/year

The number of students going to the US was steadily increasing pre-pandemic. Assuming there is a 5% YoY growth.

The market size for the next 3 years = 15.86 + (1.05 X 15.86) + (1.05^2 X15.86) = ~$50 Million

Channel Selection & Experiments

After talking to users and potential users of the product. And researching the market, product and current channels. I am convinced to say that Zolve is somewhere between PMF and early scaling stage.

• The users who've used Zolve's credit card are happy about the product but aren't excited about referring it to others
• Zolve is pretty early in their influencer marketing journey
• Zolve uses events like University meet ups chats and Scholarship drives to build brand awareness and educate new users about their products/ value proposition
• The users who got the credit card weren't using the free US bank account offered by Zolve

Source: Linkedin search

Current Channel(s) Audit

The channels currently used by Zolve with their impact scores. Higher the score indicates that the channel is efficient in bringing new users to the product :

1. Offline events (6/10)
2. Scholarship Program (6/10)
3. Social Media (Influencer marketing) - YouTube & Linkedin (8/10)
4. Referrals (5/10)
5. SEO (3/10)

Channels that can be improved:

1. SEO : The website isn't listed in top 10 results for multiple keywords that Novacredit is optimizing for specifically
2. Referrals: None of my users mentioned they onboarded through referrals. The most common flow was YouTube -> Download app -> Emails & Phone calls -> Applied for the card

Channels that aren't being utilized:

1. Content Loops: There is scope for building a content loop for users to share their AHA moment on platforms like Linkedin (where most of the study abroad aspirants network with alumni)
2. Product Integrations: There is potential for integrations with online study abroad platforms like Yocket.in or YMgrad.com
3. Paid Ads: A quicker way to get displayed above the competition in the SERP (for the high conversion keywords)

Channel Prioritization

Current channel overview shows that Zolve isn't focusing on referrals, Paid search and Socials. Although organic has the highest percentage; taking a deeper look shows that the majority of keywords that Zolve is fetching traffic from are "brand" related. There is scope for improvement in keywords that fall under "use case" and "competition".

Source: Similarweb

Here is a prioritization matrix to evaluate all channels and decide on the top 2-3 channels to focus on for experimentation:

Using the above prioritization matrix, I have selected SEO, Referrals and Paid Ads as the top 3 channels to design experiments for new user acquisition.

Reasoning to choose channels:

• Zolve is still in the early stages of scaling and trust is huge factor for new users to adopt the product. WOM is a major factor for building trust in the community and designing a strong referral program boosts word of mouth.

• The current offline initiatives like University meetups can result in user search intent. But with poor search result performance for keywords based on use cases and topic, Zolve has a opportunity to better it's SEO performance.

• Currently paid ads are only explored on YouTube via study-abroad influencers. Paid Ads in Google search presents as an another opportunity for Zolve to educate high search intent customers about the value of credit cards and credit score in the US

Referrals

Current Flow:

Zolve currently offers a referral rewards program to it's users. The flow is as follows:

1. User has to log into the app and go to the rewards screen
2. User need to open the Referrals tab and click on the "Refer now" button
3. The app give the option to share a message via WhatsApp
4. Once the user selects the receiver, they hit send to share the referral invite
5. The referral is sent as a WhatsApp message (see below)

Source: Zolve iOS App

Issues identified:

• Referral program isn't designed to capture the user at the "happy moment" of experiencing the product
• The user isn't reminded of the brag worthy features of using the product
• No exponentially high reward
• No gamification in to rewards to keep the user referring more users (No milestones with increasing rewards)
• Whatsapp messaging doesn't focus on the core value proposition and needs updates with text layout and design

Recommended Referral Flow:

First step is to identify the brag worthy features of using Zolve's credit card:

• Being able to apply for a US credit card from India: Getting approved of a card is an exciting moment for the user because they now have a credit card (virtual) that they can start using the moment they land in the US.
• Making the first purchase in the US: It's a special moment to make a first purchase in the US and capturing the user at that happy moment is another way to nudge the user for a referral. This moment must also be used for asking for a review (validation for referral intent).

Next step is figuring out the incentive, effort and social risk to the user for sharing the referral:

• Incentive: The app already offers $10 to the user for every successful referral. I app also has a platform currency called "coins" that have the following conversion 1 coin = 1 cent. Incentives could be awarded in coins that users can reuse on the platform. The coin rewards can also be made incremental with bigger rewards for milestones like 5, 10, 15 referrals.

Since the revenue per user is calculated to be $144/year on an average. We have the capacity to offer additional rewards to gamify and increase the average referrals per person.

• • 5 successful referrals = 5000 coins ($50) in addition to $10
  • 10 successful referrals = 5000 coins in addition to $10
  • And so on for every 5th referrals we offer additional 5000 coins

• Effort: No major updates need to be made to the flow as the referral link is pretty easy to locate in the app with "Rewards button" available in the navigation bar.

• Social risk attached: In case of financial products; being perceived as "manipulative" or "fraudulent" can be considered as the main social risks. For Zolve users this is minimal as the user will be only referring the product to other international students who are looking for a credit card in addition to Forex cards as an option to make purchases in the US.

Platform Currency

As mentioned earlier, the platform currency that Zolve uses is "Coins". It is a standard currency in the credit card products across the world. The users can check the numbers of coins they accumulated through purchases in the points tab within the rewards section (see below).

Source: Zolve iOS App

Happy Flow(s) and referral placement

1. When the user signs up -> completes their application process -> waits for the approval -> Receives the confirmation of credit card approval

Here the user is excited about getting approved a credit card (in India) and offering a way to share the news has high potential for spreading the word out.

2. When the user makes their first purchase -> Sending out a notification to review the app -> If 4 stars or above received -> We show the referral to the user

Since the user might be caught up with work when making their first purchase in the US. Send out a notification 2 hours later asking them to leave a review.

When the user clicks on the notification, they are taken to the app home screen where they are asked to leave a rating. Any rating over 4 should take the user to the referral tab in the rewards section. [Delighted customer + Validation = High referral intent]

3. Fixing the messaging in the referral invite

Recommended changes:

• • Include an image with the invite. Can be an image of the card with Zolve branding.
  • The headline should focus on the value proposition of the card and not the bank account.
  • The referral bonus needs to pop, highlight the text by making it bold
  • NO SSN needed has to be included in the messaging
  • Focus on the card benefits and remove anything that isn't related to the card product

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Domain Overview

First I looked at the domain overview of Zolve's website and compared it with their main competitor ie., Nova credit.

• Zolve has a lower Authority score as well as lower organic total number organic visitors to the website (in the last 6 months)

Source: Semrush

• Zolve has all branded keywords in it's top 5 where as Nova credit has use case based keywords such as "Credit card without SSN" and "How to confirm 221g submitted"

Source: Semrush

• Nova credit has backlink with sites with higher domain authority such as washigtonpost.com, wired.com, fortune.com etc. But zolve has none!

Source: Semrush

I tried to reach out digital marketing experts as I am not familiar with SEO and have no experiecen in performance marketing. On sharing my thoughts that I listed above, I was told to focus on building the backlinking capabilities of Zolve's website i.e increase the domain authority score.

One way to improve domain authority score is by getting listed in other websites with higher scores. Using the link building tool in Semrush, I listed out the keywords I believe have high search intent and searched for domain prospects (for backlink building).

Keywords used:

List of domains to reach out to:

1. usatoday.com
2. moneyunder30.com
3. businesswire.com
4. thepointsguy.com
5. nerdwallet.com

The above is not exhaustive. There are many more websites that must me explored for collaboration and backlinking.

Paid Ads

CAC: LTV Ratio Calculation

Considering Zolve currently spends $20 ($10 to the referrer and $10 to the new user) and to acquire a customer through referrals, I am taking that number as the upper ceiling for CAC (customer acquisition cost)

CAC = $20

LTV = AOV per year X average number of years

Earlier in my research I calculated the yearly revenue from a new user to be ~$144 and assuming the user will be using the card for 2 years (on average) before moving on to cards that they can apply using an SSN (assuming they get a part-time job in 2 years which is very likely in the US)

LTV = $144 X 2 = $288

CAC : LTV ration = 20 : 288 = 1 : 144

The ratio is excellent assuming the CAC to be $20. Realistically if the CAC increases by 2X or 3X we can still pursue paid ads as a viable channel.

Ad Channel Selection

Channel Selection:

1. YouTube Ads
2. Google Ads

YouTube Ads

The majority of social media marketing is done through influencer marketing on YouTube short and long-form content. This can be verified with 80% of website traffic coming from YouTube (see below) in the last quarter of 2023.

Most of the students that I spoke to mentioned YouTube as one of their top Apps for recreation as well as information. YT is often a top choice for our users to research on study abroad related topics.

Target Viewer Profile:

• Age: 22-28 years
• Gender: M/F
• Location: Tier-1 cities in India
• Searching for: GRE/IELTS/TOEFL prep, Essay writing tips, study abroad resources, university rankings, university tours, cheap airline tickets, best forex cards, education loans.
• Interests: Movies, tech and gadgets, cars, investment advice, fashion, cricket and other sports, International news
• Behavioral identifiers: Curious, likes online learning, follows up news, prefers value over luxury, loves traveling

Objective: Educate a prospetive user on the value proposition of Zolve's credit card

1. Card made for students planning to go to the US for education
2. No SSN required
3. Apply in India and get approved up to $5000

Creative: (Static Ad)

The same design and structure could also be used for an overlay ad on the video

Google Ads

I recommend using google ads for a portion of ICPs who have already moved to the US and have experienced the popularity of credit cards in the US. They are also more likely to look for a credit card to start building a credit score.

Campaign details:

• Location: US
• Devices: iOS and Andriod
• Keywords: I suggest bidding for long tail keywords that have high transaction intent. With such keywords the volume is low because the user is searching for a specific topic where they need more information to make a decision (like which card to apply for). Here are the list of keywords
• • Credit cards without SSN
  • Credit cards for students
  • Best cards for building my credit score
  • Best cards for international students
  • Nova credit card (competition)
  • Discover credit card (competition)

Creative: (Static Ad)

Desktop browser:

Mobile web browser:

Thank you AP for a joyful one week!

Rishi Ulapu (GX18)