Rapid digitization has enabled India to deal with the age-old ‘inclusion crisis’, extending formal financial services to the large underserved and non-banked section of the population. According to a report by Research & Markets, digital lenders may capture nearly half of the total lending market and disburse loans worth $350 billion by 2023. This would mean that lending will become the sector with the highest digital penetration in India, emerging as a perfect case study for successful digital financial inclusion over the past half a decade. MSME digital lending is taking the centre stage with massive opportunities and well-developed digital infrastructure. Here are some of the fastest-growing ‘Fintech’ platforms in India, which are fixing India’s financial inclusion problem and becoming the enablers for the micro-entrepreneurs & MSMEs.
Eko
Eko, one of the fastest-growing fintech platforms in India, empowers a generation of ambitious entrepreneurs to improve their financial health and access to the global economy. Eko helps small entrepreneurs discover earning opportunities, tools for digitization and first-time access to credit – each tailored to meet their needs. Since 2007, Eko has built a tech platform which at its peak processed Rs 2500 Crore across 70 million transactions in a month. Eko has serviced over 35 million customers through a network of over 2.5 Lakh sellers, growing 20% month-on-month. These sellers help the brands sell their digital products and services and assist their customers in fulfilling their transactions.
Now, Eko has forayed into the lending ecosystem by creating the ‘first time credit’ module for ambitious sellers. Eko strives to help them overcome such challenges by collaborating with NBFCs and P2P lending organizations. By dispensing $1bn of loans with flexible repayments infrastructure the company wants to provide affordable capital and AI-backed services to MSMEs, allowing them to instil digital transformation within their operations. The fintech platform uses the ‘micro-credit approach’ in its services and designs them to fulfil the same. Its daily repayment infrastructure capability allows sellers to repay loans daily in part or full. They can use this credit to boost their business and serve more customers using Eko’s platform or outside of it. Their proprietary underwriting model based on transactions done on Eko’s platform, another notable feature, offers credit to sellers and customers who lack a CIBIL score and are not a part of the formal credit system. The model also uses demographic, and engagement data of the sellers to drive efficient results.
Indifi
Indifi Technologies is a Gurgaon-based lending platform, enabling debt financing for small businesses. It aims to substantially improve the experience for borrowers regarding credit access as well as the speed and convenience of the loan process. Driven by the idea of expanding access to MSME financing in India, Indifi has emerged as an enabler for start-ups and small businesses seeking seamless access to funding. Indifi expands the envelope of formal lending by designing the right-fit credit products for MSMEs, improving the standard of risk assessment, and leveraging the supply chain linkages of MSMEs. Indifi has recently partnered with Facebook to offer loans to small businesses. The company already provides zero collateral loans to small businesses in the country, but the partnership with Facebook gives it the chance to reach more borrowers in the country. Indifi uses digital processes to do know-your-customer (KYC) checks and verification of companies. The company has a non-banking financial entity (NBFC) of its own, it also partners with private banks to provide loans to SMBs.
Capital Float
Capital Float is India’s leading Buy Now Pay Later and credit platform serving a mix of salaried & self-employed individuals. From offering innovative checkout credit solutions for consumers to financing the business and personal needs of individuals, we are leading the charge in addressing the country’s enormous credit problem. Powered by rigorous innovation and technological advancements, and with the acquisition of India’s leading Personal Finance Management App – Walnut in 2018, we’re proud to be recognized as a trailblazer in India’s Fintech revolution. We passionately serve our customers with cutting-edge financial products and strive to help them #BreakLimits. Due to decades of informal lending, a large majority of customers don’t have the necessary formal documentation to be eligible for credit. If they do have the prerequisite documentation, they are often battling the challenges posed by the structural bureaucracy of lending in India. – Meanwhile, owing to the gargantuan geographic landscape of the country, several formal lenders are unable to cater to the financial needs of customers in tier 2 and tier 3 towns.
