CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with San Banerjee, Co-Founder & CEO, ADDA.
1. With what mission and objectives was the company set up? Tell us about your journey since inception?
Ever since I was 10 years old I have lived in apartment communities. Right from cities like Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai to Madison, Baton Rouge, Chicago. It amazed me how close knit these residential communities are and how they impact not just the residents, but the local businesses, the staff as well as the local governance. I realised that these communities can also create a positive impact on the government. However, these residential communities often felt like inefficient and disconnected islands.
ADDA was born with an aim to make these residential societies connected – connecting neighbors, committee members, community staff – for better collaboration, empowering a convenient and secure living experience.
Also, we wanted to provide a tool in the hands of the Committee members, so that they can manage the Community easily. We have immense respect for the Owners who volunteer to become Committee members, spending their scarce personal time in placing operational processes, evaluating expense decisions, executing projects for common welfare without looking for selfish gains. Some of them learn altogether new skill e.g., accounting to do this! While they receive loud applauses, they also receive louder doubts that often make their job look thankless.
We believe in their courage, and their drive to build that dream neighborhood!
It is for these Apartment Residents and the Managing Committees that we built ADDA – so that they can run their Apartment Community – elegantly weaving together every aspect of Communication, Facility Management, Security, Accounting.
We started in Bangalore, and very soon we grew across 80+ cities in India. In 2013 we introduced the ADDA app, then later ADDA Gatekeeper for the privacy conscious Housing Societies. ADDABooks an Accounting tool tailor made for Housing Societies was launched in 2021. In parallel, we expanded our presence overseas – into Dubai, and many countries in the Middle East region, Singapore, Mauritius. Last year we established our presence in the USA, where multiple residential communities are being powered byADDA.
Keeping today’s busy global citizens in mind, we have made our App completely Ad-Free, to ensure that financial data and society information does not get missed by Residents/Owners.
Today we have 2.1 Million users around the world. Around One lakh crore of housing society dues-related invoices are raised at ADDA each year. Every month, 120 crores of maintenance dues are paid via our app. Over 20,000 neighbourhood surveys, 4 million visitor check-ins, and over 4,000,00,000 neighbourhood interactions are powered by the Community App annually.
2. When it comes to embracing and utilizing new technology in residential facility management, how do you keep ahead of the curve? Explain the role of automation, data analytics and AI, if any
Since ADDA was founded with a vision to enable the housing societies with technology, we have always made sure that we are one step ahead when it comes to introducing new tech. When we launched ERP based administration system for housing society, people had never heard of it. As our network spread, we realised the need for ADDA mobile app which had a unique home services marketplace – ADDA Discover. The Gatekeeper software ensured privacy and safety of residents. Thus, ADDA was not just a basic communication app but a comprehensive community management & accounting ecosystem.
For Committee members/Community Staff, ADDA strives to innovate and find ways which can save more time, by automating manual operations, which can help them focus more on Resident Experience & other Important Projects. For example with ADDA, maintenance bill generation for Community members gets reduced to 5 mins. This activity takes hours & days if done manually. Live reports & balance sheets in ADDA, reduces time for Audit of a Community to hours from what typically takes days and even months at times.
ADDA offers a number of sophisticated features, such as a Community Helpdesk with AI capabilities, customisable forms with integrated payments (you can compare it with Google Forms with Google Pay integrated with it), tracking of community guidelines and violations, a P2P expense management process, and more.
For developers ADDA has special dashboards which bring metrics across all developer’s properties in a one view. Using classification algorithms, ADDA’s dashboards mines thousands of data points across one / multiple Communities and highlight areas that need action. These early prediction of an anomaly around Community processes via pattern mapping, helps Community Managers with focussed actions points which can be used to deliver Owner/resident delight.
ADDA has integrations with 35+ software/hardware partners (including 9 payment gateways in India, UAE, USA, etc.). These integrations helps provide a convenient and connected living experience to residents. We are also continuous working on innovations. For example – one project which is being worked on in our incubation centres are AI enabled Vendor Invoices. This feature Automatically reads details from vendor invoices to help create Accounting Entries in ADDA. Another one is Meeting Summariser which would record Committee/Community meetings and using AI summarise them and save in ADDA for future reference.
3. What is your biggest USP that differentiates the company from competitors? Share details about your zero ad and zero spam policy?
The biggest differentiator for ADDA is the fact that we are Ad-free and we have a zero spam policy. There has been a surge in cyber crimes in the past few years and steps like these will ensure security and privacy of users. Ad Platform based community apps inadvertently end up risking the committee members, as they become prone to legal cases being filed by them by the residents who become victims.
In business for last 15 years, ADDA has focused exclusively on Housing Society Management and Accounting Software. Simplifying housing society finances through its housing society accounting platform. ADDA Books, is one of ADDA’s primary focus areas. For the majority of society treasurers and over 200 expert Housing Society Accounting Services Providers in India, who frequently only collaborate with societies utilising ADDA Books, it is a preferred solution.
4. How have you revolutionized the Indian/US/UAE markets and what are your future plans?
Not only in India, but even in advanced markets like USA, we have found that there is lack of a comprehensive Community Management & Accounting product, which combines a robust backend product for the Community Managers & Accountants, and a Delightful App for Owners/Residents. This is why we call ADDA – The Accounting Dynamo + Delightful App (A.D.D.A). This winning combination has brought about a revolution in Community Management & Living Experience in every geography we have entered.
ADDA is a globally trusted brand with presence across India, USA, UAE and the Middle East, Singapore, Mauritius, etc. Several iconic global communities, including the tallest residential building in Dubai (Princess Tower), an island residential community where the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia lives, luxury residential communities in Mauritius and Singapore, and property management firms such as Knight Frank Singapore, use ADDA. ADDA has a portfolio of marquee clients in India, including DLF, Seawoods Estates, Rustomjee, Oberoi, Prestige, Sobha, Brigade, Embassy Group, AIPL Developers, and others, as well as some of the world’s best property management and Owners Association Management firms overseas, including Knight Frank Singapore, Kingfield OAMS, Stratum, The Sustainable City, and Pam Golding. We also serve residential communities where IAS, IPS officers, active residential regiments of Armed Forces/Battalions as well as 2024 World Cup winning members of Indian cricket team live.
5. What are the key challenges in the market? What are the current trends?
In the India market, some alarming market trends have been started by some housing society softwares. One trend is to offer freebies and allied benefits to Apartment Owners Associations to get their product adopted. This is actually equivalent to bribing.
Some players are selling their products to the Association for Free and then inundating the residents with Ads on one hand and withdrawing essential features from the Community Apps – features which are required for a seamless community living experience on the other hand, and then bypassing the Association and charging residents directly for use of their software.
Very few companies, in India is focussed on creating a completely secure system where users are not worried about security of their data. Residents/Owners of Residential Communities outside India however, take their data privacy extremely seriously.
Currently, thankfully, the demand for a Ad-free serious ERP tool is rising. At ADDA, we ensure that there is no privacy intrusion, and our user’s cyber security is intact. Whether ADDA is developing solutions for a Senior Citizen home like Ananya Nana Nani Homes or helping manage an island community which is abode for the royal family of Saudi Arabia, we ensure complete security, privacy and streamlining of finances – which is at the core of ADDA’s brand ethos.
6. At what stage is the residential facility management market in India?
The housing society management segment in India is expected to reach at least $4 billion by 2030. However, it must be noted that it is not a well-organised and managed segment. The market is in a transition where Owners Associations are realising the need for a Ad-free serious ERP tool. Popularity of Ad based Community Tools are going down. Associations are preferring softwares with clean business model, like ADDA, whose 100% business is Software Subscription.
Even most developers are now opting for Clean Apps like ADDA – which they are handing down to their customers. They do not want to associate their brand with Community Apps which has risks of Cybercrime.
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