P2P Lender Rupeecircle launches Affordable Credit Products for Rural Tamil Nadu

Digital lending marketplace RupeeCircle has set up a segment-wise model of credit disbursement through its P2P platform. Deserving Individuals and families belonging to certain communities who were hitherto declined loans from banks and NBFCs due to lack of sufficient credit history or lack of a proper bank account can now avail loans on the P2P platform.

By disbursing loans to individuals and families living in rural areas of Kulasekaram, Thiruvattur, Thipparappu and surrounding areas of Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu, RupeeCircle has commenced the process. The target community here are the daily wage earners working in Rubber Estates and cashew factories, and farmers.

Speaking on this new initiative Ajit Kumar, Founder and CEO, RupeeCircle, said “Our market research threw light on the fact that by reaching out to communities we stood a better chance of not only disbursing loans to credit worthy individuals but also subsume the concept of P2P lending and borrowing. And this is very important because people need to be aware that there are other (and better) alternatives to credit than banks and moneylenders."

“There are several communities in rural as well as urban India who are under-banked and fail to get their loans approved due to lack of sufficient credit history. In their need of the hour they turn to local moneylenders who levy exorbitant rate of interest”, said Nikhil Prabhakar, IIM (Ahmedabad) alumnus and Head of Marketing & Products at RupeeCircle. “Making credit accessible by leveraging Peer-to-Peer lending solutions will not only bring an individual under the ambit of the organised banking sector but gradually the benefits will percolate to the whole community."

RupeeCircle, licensed by RBI (NBFC-P2P), has disbursed more than INR 50 million over the last few months to under-banked individuals. Thousands of individuals have registered over the last few months and the default rate has been at a constant decline (currently at an impressive 0.89%), which not only signifies the trust of lenders but the robustness of its proprietary credit underwriting algorithm. This outreach to under-banked communities will fortify the efforts of financial inclusion in a country where unsecured credit is hard to get.

For Presenting Hyperloop Concept to Elon Musk, IIT Madras Student Team gets P2P Firm RupeeCircle as Sponsor

P2P lending firm RupeeCircle has recently associated itself with Avishkar Hyperloop, a student team of IIT Madras, as a financial partner. Avishkar Hyperloop is a dynamic team of engineers and designers who have been shortlisted for the final round of SpaceX Hyperloop Pod competition 2019 to be held in Los Angeles, California in July 2019. With this association RupeeCircle will sponsor the student group’s mission to beat 20 other finalists in the competition.

Ajit Kumar, Founder & CEO , RupeeCircle

RupeeCircle Founder and CEO, Mr. Ajit Kumar said, “We aim to be at the forefront of technology that would impact the global business landscape and would continue promoting initiatives that can benefit the masses. At this outset, it is a privilege to be a part of this talented and innovative group of people and support them in innovative solutions. As a start-up we are aware of the hurdles that innovators face on their quest to success, and that’s the reason why RupeeCircle decided to team up with Avishkar and support them in the monetary aspect of their mission".

Speaking on the competition and collaboration with RupeeCircle, Mr. Pranit Mehta, an IIT Madras graduate, Head - Avishkar Hyperloop Business Team, said, “We are thrilled to be the finalists at SpaceX Hyperloop Pod competition and look forward to compete with the best minds in the world at the event. We are also thankful to RupeeCircle who came forward and decided to sponsor us."

[caption id="attachment_131113" align="aligncenter" width="800"] The Avishkar Hyperloop Team[/caption]

Avishkar Hyperloopis comprised of a group of enterprising engineers, designers and business think tanks who work together at the Centre For Innovation (CFI) – a student innovation lab at IIT Madras – with the goal of designing and developing a new mode of transport, the Hyperloop. The concept of Hyperloop was floated by Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, and has the potential to revolutionize the transportation industry. The competition itself is sponsored by SpaceX to create awareness and bring the best minds in the world together to work on the concept. Avishkar Hyperloop team from IIT Madras has cleared the Preliminary Design Briefing among hundreds of participants across the globe and are preparing for the final round to be held in Los Angeles, California.

RupeeCircle, RBI licensed (NBFC-P2P) and backed by Mahindra Finance, is the fastest growing and most trusted P2P lending company in India. It was recently chosen to be an official part of Bharat Inclusion Initiative – an inclusion drive of CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad.RupeeCircledisburses loans after stringent credit underwriting process on its proprietary algorithm that measures about 2000+ data points of the borrower, including financial, social and work profiles.

Mahindra-backed P2P Lending Startup RupeeCircle Expands its Base to Chennai Within 2 Years Of Operation

RupeeCircle, the Mahindra Finance backed P2P Lending company, announced the opening of its new office in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The office, located at General Muthia Street in Sowcarpet, will be the foothold of RupeeCircle in South India and will give a boost to its financial inclusion initiative in the region.

Over the last 4-5 years the Government of Tamil Nadu has been successful in opening bank accounts for the multitude under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY, a financial inclusion programme of the Central Govt.). RupeeCircle plans to further financially include the unbanked and underbanked masses by making credit accessible with ease. The branch will employ around 10 employees initially and focus largely on digital loan processing and collections. The core operations of the organization (including products, services and support) will continue to be driven by its Mumbai team.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Ajit Kumar, Founder & CEO – RupeeCircle, said, “We are excited at the official opening of our new office in Chennai, which was chosen as a strategic location due to two reasons. Firstly, it is the hub of auto ancillary industries which will help us reach out to the blue-collared salaried workers who are still under-banked or may not have access to credit from traditional banks due to lack of traditional credit footprints. Secondly, a lot of our lenders are from Chennai which will give us an operational advantage. Our research also suggests that the default ratio in South India is comparatively less”.

Talking about the products and revenue estimates from the new location Ajit Kumar said, “We will be promoting all our existing products in the Chennai marketplace and will be entering into tie-ups with companies to provide salary advances and short term loans. And we expect around 20% of our annual disbursements from southern region. We have always envisioned a pan India presence and our latest office is just the beginning of our expansion strategy."

RupeeCircle was recently chosen to be an official part of Bharat Inclusion Initiative – an inclusion drive of IIM Ahmedabad's Centre for Incubation & Entrepreneurship. This is yet another feather in the cap of the organization that was founded in 2016 but has grown to be the most trusted P2P lending marketplace in India.

The startup received Rs 4 crore (around $588,000) in seed funding from Mahindra Finance, a non-banking financial company (NBFC) under Mahindra Group. Rupeecircle has achieved this feat by managing to keep loan defaults below 1.7% by using a proprietary algorithm that measures about 2000+ data points of the borrower. RupeeCircle is also licensed by the RBI (NBFC-P2P) and is a part of Oracle Global Startup Ecosystem.

It may also be recalled that in last month, London-based Welendus, a consumer P2P lending platform, has announced that it preparing to enter the competitive Indian market of P2P lending. Welendus made the announcement after raising funding from Unicorn Ascension Fund, a joint cross-border fund by Mumbai-based Unicorn India Ventures and Ascension Ventures, a London-based early-stage venture fund.

Online P2P Lending Startup RupeeCircle Raises ₹4 Crore from Mahindra Finance

Mumbai-based online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending startup RupeeCircle will receive Rs 4 crore (around $588,000) in seed funding from Mahindra Finance, which is a non-banking financial company (NBFC) under Mahindra Group. With this investment, Mahindra Finance will pick up 13% shareholding in the startup, according to the regulatory filings, reported VCCircle.

Founded in 2016 by Ajit Kumar, Abhishek Gandhi, Ashish Mehta and Piyush Saurabh, RupeeCircle (formerly Bank2Grow) is a new P2P lending company that aims to move the shift to a bank-less world by connecting people who need a loan with people who have money to lend.

RupeeCircle has also applied for a P2P licence from the Reserve Bank of India, Ajit Kumar, co-founder and chief executive of RupeeCircle, said in a statement.

The startup has an in-house underwriting team which does the credit analysis of each of the borrowers. RupeeCircle has also developed a proprietary Credit Score Model which incorporates a number of parameters such as credit history, financial and other behavioural patterns of the borrower.

RBI had issued norms for P2O startups in the country last year in October. According to the norms, such firms will come under the non-banking finance companies. These firms need to obtain an NBFC-P2P license to operate and have a net fund worth not less than ₹2 crores or as specified by the RBI, and they can only operate as intermediaries between the lenders and the borrowers.

About Mahindra Finance, in July 2017, it had also invested Rs 10 crore in an another NBFC Aye Finance by purchasing part of its portfolio, under a securitization deal. Last month, Aye Finance has raised $21.5M in a funding led by Google’s CapitalG.

As per the Reserve Bank of India, Peer to Peer Lending (aka P2P Lending) is a form of crowd-funding used to raise loans which are paid back with interest. Currently, Indian P2P has more than 30 players, and the market size is slated to cross US$4-5 billion by 2023. The VC activity in the sector is also high with around USD 221 Mn flowing in the last two years. Naturally, RBI issued final guidelines in Oct’17 for P2P Lending in order to better regulated and also make it trustworthy.

In last couple of years, startups in P2P lending sector are consistently raising funds. Few startup in P2P lending segment include Delhi-based Faircent, Delhi-based Peerlend.in, Mumbai-based Finzy, Bengaluru-based Cashkumar, Monexo Fintech, BigWin Infotech, along with OML Technologies, among many others.

In April, Mumbai based PaisaDukan.com, an another P2P Lending marketplace raised US$650K of seed funding round followed by $225K of second seed funding through angel investment, in May this year.

In March, US-based digital payment company Wibmo Inc acquired Gurgaon-based mobile peer-to-peer (P2P) payment solution startup Mypoolin in a cash and stock deal valued above $1 million.

Prior to this, Faircent, touted as India's largest P2P lending company, raised Rs. 25 crore in a high-profile funding round led by Incofin Investment Management with participation from its existing investors.

Online P2P Lending Startup RupeeCircle Raises ₹4 Crore from Mahindra Finance

Mumbai-based online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending startup RupeeCircle will receive Rs 4 crore (around $588,000) in seed funding from Mahindra Finance, which is a non-banking financial company (NBFC) under Mahindra Group. With this investment, Mahindra Finance will pick up 13% shareholding in the startup, according to the regulatory filings, reported VCCircle.

Founded in 2016 by Ajit Kumar, Abhishek Gandhi, Ashish Mehta and Piyush Saurabh, RupeeCircle (formerly Bank2Grow) is a new P2P lending company that aims to move the shift to a bank-less world by connecting people who need a loan with people who have money to lend.

RupeeCircle has also applied for a P2P licence from the Reserve Bank of India, Ajit Kumar, co-founder and chief executive of RupeeCircle, said in a statement.

The startup has an in-house underwriting team which does the credit analysis of each of the borrowers. RupeeCircle has also developed a proprietary Credit Score Model which incorporates a number of parameters such as credit history, financial and other behavioural patterns of the borrower.

RBI had issued norms for P2O startups in the country last year in October. According to the norms, such firms will come under the non-banking finance companies. These firms need to obtain an NBFC-P2P license to operate and have a net fund worth not less than ₹2 crores or as specified by the RBI, and they can only operate as intermediaries between the lenders and the borrowers.

About Mahindra Finance, in July 2017, it had also invested Rs 10 crore in an another NBFC Aye Finance by purchasing part of its portfolio, under a securitization deal. Last month, Aye Finance has raised $21.5M in a funding led by Google’s CapitalG.

As per the Reserve Bank of India, Peer to Peer Lending (aka P2P Lending) is a form of crowd-funding used to raise loans which are paid back with interest. Currently, Indian P2P has more than 30 players, and the market size is slated to cross US$4-5 billion by 2023. The VC activity in the sector is also high with around USD 221 Mn flowing in the last two years. Naturally, RBI issued final guidelines in Oct’17 for P2P Lending in order to better regulated and also make it trustworthy.

In last couple of years, startups in P2P lending sector are consistently raising funds. Few startup in P2P lending segment include Delhi-based Faircent, Delhi-based Peerlend.in, Mumbai-based Finzy, Bengaluru-based Cashkumar, Monexo Fintech, BigWin Infotech, along with OML Technologies, among many others.

In April, Mumbai based PaisaDukan.com, an another P2P Lending marketplace raised US$650K of seed funding round followed by $225K of second seed funding through angel investment, in May this year.

In March, US-based digital payment company Wibmo Inc acquired Gurgaon-based mobile peer-to-peer (P2P) payment solution startup Mypoolin in a cash and stock deal valued above $1 million.

Prior to this, Faircent, touted as India's largest P2P lending company, raised Rs. 25 crore in a high-profile funding round led by Incofin Investment Management with participation from its existing investors.