Poonawalla Fincorp Ties with KrazyBee To Enter Digital Consumption Loans Space

Poonawalla Fincorp Limited (Formerly Magma Fincorp Limited), has entered digital consumption loans space through a tie up with KrazyBee. Under this partnership Poonawalla Fincorp will offer small ticket personal loans to individuals. Poonawalla Fincorp focusses on consumer and small business finance as a part of its stated strategy.

This partnership is a step towards building strong partnership with partners who have demonstrated distribution at scale, risk management capabilities along with their technology prowess. The partnership provides complete end to end digital consumer loans across the country. The credit underwriting for these loans is done through a scorecard which enables right customer selection at scale, while the complete digital process helps democratize the process of taking loan. The partnership has seen a lot of traction within a month of its launch and the company intends to do more than 1000 crores of disbursement under this partnership in the current financial year.

KrazyBee Services Private Limited is a non-deposit taking Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) registered with the Reserve Bank of India. KrazyBee along with KreditBee which is its technology platform and India’s largest consumption based personal loan platform commands more than 20% market share of NBFC – Fintech disbursement in India.

Speaking on this tie-up, CA Abhay Bhutada, Managing Director, Poonawalla Fincorp said, “We are glad to partner with KrazyBee for new business opportunities and connecting with prospective customers through KreditBee’s digital platform. We are a digital-first, technology-led lender, and this partnership with KrazyBee is a natural fit to our business strategy. The partnership brings together two lenders who are obsessed with customer satisfaction and want to offer the best of customer experience to all their customers by leveraging technology."

Mr. Madhusudan E, CEO, KrazyBee commented, “Our technology strength empowers our partners to provide seamless disbursement services. Partnering with a Digital first partner like Poonawalla Fincorp helps us offer a wider range of products and services to our customers and also enables us to meet the ever-growing demand for digitally enabled loans.”

KreditBee and KrazyBee are supported by strong equity investors such as Premji Invest, ICICI Bank and Mirae Asset and has also raised debt from multiple partners such as HSBC, Bank of Baroda & Kotak Mahindra.

About Poonawalla Fincorp

Poonawalla Fincorp Limited (Formerly known as Magma Fincorp Limited) is a Cyrus Poonawalla group promoted non-deposit taking systemically important non-banking finance company (ND-SI-NBFC), registered with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The Company started operations nearly three decades back and is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange in India (NSE). Consequent to the capital raise of Rs 3,456 Crore in May’21, the Company is now part of the Cyrus Poonawalla Group with majority stake owned by Rising Sun Holdings Private Limited, a company owned and controlled by Mr. Adar Poonawalla.

The Company’s new identity “P” stands for Passion, Principles, Purpose, People and Possibilities. Poonawalla Fincorp Limited (“PFL”) has a widespread coverage with 279 branches across 21 States. The Company has AUM of ₹15,228 crore and employs more than 7,000 people. The Company’s financial services offerings include pre-owned car finance, personal loans, loan to professionals, business loans, SME LAP, affordable home loans and general insurance.

About Cyrus Poonawalla Group

The Cyrus Poonawalla Group of Companies, headquartered in Pune, are a diversified group with business interests that include Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology, Financial Services, Clean Energy, Hospitality & Realty and Aviation. Serum Institute of India Private Limited, the group’s flagship company, is the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines, supplying to Indian as well as global markets.

Microlending Startup KrazyBee Raises $8 mn In Series A

Bengaluru-based online instalment store for young adults, KrazyBee, has raised a whopping $8 million (around Rs 51.7 crore) in its Series A funding round, according to a media report.

The firm, which is operated by Bengaluru-based Finovation Tech Solutions Pvt. Ltd, saw its latest funding round being led by Shunwei Capital and popular Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Technologies. The round, which was a mix of equity and debt, also witnessed the participation of RK Group and E-city Ventures, which is part of Essel Group.

Founded in 2015 by Wan Hong and Madhusudan E, KrazyBee has till date raised a total funding of $13 million. Last year, the firm raised a $2 million seed funding round from Chinese micro-lending platform for young adults, Fenqile, and venture capital firm, YeahMobi. It then raised a pre-Series A funding round of $3 million VC firm Plum Ventures and its existing investors.

Currently operating in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Mysore, Vellore, Mumbai, Chennai, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Nashik and Manipal, the startup plans to use the capital raised to expand further to other cities, strengthen its risk model and algorithm, cater to new market segments and focus on product diversification.

Commenting on his company’s latest investment, Shirley Mao, investment director at Xiaomi Technologies, said, “The Indian demography has a large population of urban young adults that spends a lot online and offline. For such an enormous ecosystem, the need for urgent personal finance for purchase requirements is underserved. A focus on tech-based credit evaluation and compliant sourcing of funds can help capture and penetrate this market.”

KrazyBee’s mission is to be the convenient connecting bridge between the college-going youth of this country, and their wonderful dreams and aspirations. Its prime focus is to be the source of hassle-free financing for college students to pursue their passion, who are certainly creditworthy but don’t have any convenient options in the market to support them currently.

KrazyBee offers flexible installment-based purchases to young professionals and college students with no credit history or credit cards. It allows e-commerce purchase, cash credit, two-wheeler credit, college semester/tuition fee credit, among others.

(Image: YourStory)

Student Micro-loan Platform KrazyBee Gets $2M in Seed Funding from Chinese Firms

Bangalore-based Finovation Tech Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which owns and operates student micro-loan platform KrazyBee.com, has raised $2 million in seed funding from two Chinese firms - mobile ad network Yeahmobi and micro-loan/e-commerce player Fenqile.

The startup currently operates in Bangalore and planning to use the funds to expand its services to other cities. The funds will also be used to launch an Android app, besides improving its risk evaluation model.

Founded in 2015 by Wan Hong and Madhusudan E, KrazyBee offers flexible installment-based purchases exclusively to college students with no credit history or credit cards. The startup wants to focus on the student segment and will be building a merit based credit score system and the proprietary credit score will be used to asses a student’s capability to repay the installments.

"Our mission is to be the convenient connecting bridge between the college going youth of this country, and their wonderful dreams and aspirations. Our prime focus is to be the source of hassle-free financing for college students to pursue their passion, who are certainly creditworthy but don’t have any convenient options in the market to support them currently," the startup mentioned on its website.

The company sells electronics items such as smart phones, cameras and mobile accessories as well as apparel such as branded clothes, shoes and watches to college students on flexible equated monthly installment (EMI) plans. A nominal interest is charged per transaction. It has tied up with eCommerce players such as Flipkart, Paytm, Amazon and Snapdeal and offer their products to students on EMI.

The firm claims that over 10,000 students have registered on its platform in the last one month. Nearly 21% of all the orders placed on Flipkart in 2015 were by students in the 18-22 years age group, as per Madhusudan.

China's mobile ad network Yeahmobi is also looking forward to make more investments in the Indian market. Chinese Fenqile is a micro-loan site that allows users to borrow small sums of money to buy things on affordable short- and long-term payment plans.