TeamLease Regtech: Curing India’s 'Regulatory Cholesterol' with Cloud-Based Compliance Automation
"Of India's 63 million enterprises, only one million are formal. We have created an ecosystem that incentivizes staying small, turning potential giants into economic dwarfs through acute regulatory cholesterol." This blunt assessment by Rishi Agrawal, CEO and co-founder of TeamLease Regtech, highlights the invisible barrier to India's logical destiny as an economic superpower. By building a cloud-native, multi-tenant SaaS platform, Agrawal is on a mission to simplify the complex web of over 1,536 laws and 69,233 compliances that govern Indian businesses.
Founded originally as Avantis Regtech in 2013 and later becoming a strategic part of the TeamLease Group, the company has transformed how 1,500+ legal entities manage their statutory obligations. From IIT and IIM roots to a decaded-long stint in international banking, Rishi Agrawal's journey is a masterclass in identifying a "binding constraint" and solving it with world-class technology. By moving compliance from "hope as a strategy" to digital control, TeamLease Regtech is curing the cholesterol that slows down the nation’s growth.
The Mission: Ease of Doing Business for Bharat
India’s regulatory landscape is notoriously dense. Agrawal notes that for 75 years, the country has had land and labor, but only in the last 15 years has capital become abundant. The missing fourth factor of production—entrepreneurship—is what regulatory cholesterol kills. "Staying on the right side of the law while creating jobs has never been easy," says Agrawal. "We want to ensure that more people can take to entrepreneurship without fearing the notices and penalties of non-compliance."
The traditional method—paper-based, people-dependent, and decentralized—is ripe for failure. In a multi-locational business, even the sharpest minds will eventually miss a deadline. By providing a platform that tracks, alerts, and validates compliance in real-time, TeamLease Regtech ensures that corporate governance becomes a premium asset, reducing the cost of debt capital and attracting international investors.
The Regtech Automation Journey
- Data Discovery: Creating a digital repository of every license, registration, return, and remittance required across 28 states and 8 union territories.
- Multi-Tenant SaaS: Building a cloud-based architecture that removes the need for local data centers and costly version management.
- Mobile-First alerts: Providing real-time notifications to CXOs and local managers to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
- Sovereign Grade Trust: Moving from "ad hoc" paper management to a system of truth that can be certified to boards and investors.
The 3 Categories of Compliance Customers
Agrawal segments the Indian market into three distinct buckets, each with different needs. He identifies the "Sweet Spot" for Regtech as the middle and upper tiers of formalization:
Category 1: The Informal Players. These run small companies that often fly under the radar. Their compliance burden is minimal, and they don't yet need a digital solution.
Category 2: Small Growing Firms. Having crossed the 20-employee threshold, these firms lean on labor consultants and Chartered Accountants. They are beginning to feel the friction of manual tracking.
Category 3: The 30,000 Giants. These are the complex, multi-state, multi-entity organizations. For them, staying compliant is non-trivial. "The moment you go from one city to multiple states, the compliances simply go through the roof," says Agrawal. These are the companies moving towards "Compliance 2.0"—a cashless, presenceless, and paperless future.
TeamLease Regtech by the Numbers
- 1,500+: Legal entities currently utilizing the platform across India.
- 5 Million+: Compliance documents managed centrally through the system.
- 3,500+: Annual regulatory updates tracked in real-time.
- 2,200+: Regulatory websites monitored for changes in law.
- 61.5%: Strategic stake acquired by TeamLease Services to fuel global expansion.
The "Team of Rivals": Converging Tech and Domain
One of the core reasons for TeamLease Regtech's success was the partnership between its co-founders. Rishi Agrawal brought the IIT/IIM tech perspective, while his co-founder **Sandeep** (a Chartered Accountant) brought the domain expertise. This convergence allowed them to build a solution that wasn't just "cool tech" but was grounded in the reality of Indian law.
The journey wasn't without its "heart-stopping" moments. Agrawal recalls at least five occasions in 2015-16 when they were days away from telling their staff they couldn't make payroll. "Emotionally, it was draining. We thought we had run out of steam. But every time, a 'hidden hand of God' would show up with help from unexpected sources, and we’d get the oxygen to keep moving."
— Rishi Agrawal, CEO, TeamLease Regtech
Leadership and the "Fire in the Belly"
For Agrawal, entrepreneurship is defined by fearlessness and the willingness to risk personal savings for a future solution. He attributes his resilience to "Fire in the Belly"—a deep-seated need to solve problems that require guts and deep thinking. He believes that results in India are now following a 10-20 year long game, and anyone looking for "instant gratification" should avoid the startup path.
Rishi’s Wisdom for Future Entrepreneurs
- Find Your Allied Investors: Avoid investors who only care about a 10x exit. Find partners like TeamLease who believe in the mission and are playing the long game for the country.
- Patience is a Virtue: 9 out of 10 people won't give you a meeting initially. The 10th will ask for the software for free. You must have the patience to survive this phase.
- Solve the "Gutsy" Problems: Look beyond the obvious. The biggest value is created in areas that other people find "too difficult" or "boring," like regulatory compliance.
- Fire in the Belly: If you aren't willing to risk your own time and savings, you shouldn't ask others to join you.
The Future: A Paperless Indian Destiny
With the strategic backing of the TeamLease Group, Rishi Agrawal is now focused on taking RegTech beyond India's borders. The mission remains consistent: achieving a cashless, presenceless, and paperless compliance ecosystem. As the Indian government continues to rationalize and decriminalize business laws, TeamLease Regtech is positioning itself as the primary partner for any entity looking to scale with integrity.
"We are just scratching the surface," Agrawal concludes. "When you build a business worth value, it’s not just for the shareholders—it’s for the country. If we solve the compliance problem, the entire ecosystem prospers."
Key Takeaways
For Business Leaders: Governance is not a cost; it's an investment. Well-governed companies raise debt at lower costs and attract better global partnerships.
For Policy Makers: Rationalizing and digitizing compliance is the single most effective way to encourage MSMEs to cross the "informal to formal" threshold.
For Aspiring Founders: Don't look for shortcuts. Sustainable businesses take a decade to build. Find a problem that is good for the country, and the wealth will follow naturally.
About the Guest
Rishi Agrawal is the CEO and Co-founder of TeamLease Regtech. An IIT and IIM Calcutta alumnus, he is a pioneer in the Indian RegTech industry. After a successful 12-year career with the Bank of New York Mellon in the US and India, he co-founded Avantis Regtech to solve India's regulatory complexity. He is a frequent collaborator with governments on ease-of-doing-business initiatives and a leading voice for digital transformation in compliance.