MoneyTap Raises Rs 500 Cr in Funding led by Aquiline Technology, RTP Global

Consumer lending platform MoneyTap on Tuesday said it has raised Rs 500 crore in a funding round led by global funds like Aquiline Technology Growth and RTP Global.

The series-B funding round was a mix of equity and debt and saw participation from existing investors like Sequoia India, Prime Venture Partners and MegaDelta, MoneyTap said in a release.

The funding will aid in creating a loan book of Rs 5,000 crore over the next 12-18 months, it said.

Debt capital was secured from players like Vivriti Capital, Credit Saison and others in the form of co-lending and credit lines. The company had previously raised a total of USD 12.3 million.

MoneyTap will use the funds to accelerate its growth trajectory, invest further in technology, data science, and launch its NBFC operations, it said.

The company further said there are plans to significantly expand its geographical footprint from 60 to 200 Indian cities, bringing its unique credit line value proposition to the masses.

"We will use this funding to scale our business, innovate with data-backed lending models and continue to hire aggressively. We will also use the funds to expand our credit offerings via our own NBFC," MoneyTap Co-founder Anuj Kacker said.

MoneyTap was commercially launched in September 2016 by Bala Parthasarathy, Anuj Kacker and Kunal Varma. PTI KPM

EarlySalary Reaches the Milestone of 1 Million Loans

EarlySalary, India’s largest consumer lending app for salaried individuals, recently achieved a key milestone of successfully disbursing 1 million loans amounting to Rs 1,850+ crores.

The app primarily provides young working professionals an easy line of credit, instant cash loans, interest-free EMIs and other long term loans in sectors such as education, travel, shopping, etc. Apart from working professionals, the company also acts as a financial wellness provider for blue-collar or entry-level workers and has over 400 corporates who have signed up for their Financial Wellness Offering & Salary Advances in their customer base.

To celebrate this milestone, EarlySalary is launching a campaign where customers can do a virtual handshake with the app and get exciting rewards in return.

Taking a closer look at the demographics of the recipients of the 1 million salary advance disbursals, it was observed that:

• The majority of customers (67%) were millennials in the age group 26-35 years old.


• They were mainly job beginners with a work experience of 0 - 2 years.


• The average salary of borrowers was Rs 40,000 per month.


• Monthly Loan Disbursal - Rs 130 Cr.


• The highest demand was from the city of Bengaluru (27%), followed by Delhi & NCR region (21%), and Hyderabad (13%).


• While EarlySalary does not ask its customers for their reasons to seek funds, it was observed that these spike during festivals and long weekends, which thereby imply that people want to shop for the latest gadgets, to travel, etc.

Adoption and implementation of the latest technologies in the digital lending sector have greatly assisted EarlySalary in crossing this significant milestone of 1 million disbursals. The app operates with a fully digitalized and instant decision-making system, which allows users to borrow in mere minutes rather than days. The company is focused on building a Deep Tech Machine Learning platform with data integration across multiple data sources, to help understand customer profiles better and faster to facilitate these loans. Apart from this, seamless customer onboarding, loan origination and management systems that can handle up to 250,000 monthly transactions have been built in-house.

“Completing 1 million salary advances is a major milestone for EarlySalary, as we continue to be the first line of credit for young Indians. These customers often experience a month-end cash crunch and due to lack of credit-score knowledge, they are unable to borrow money from the traditional credit facilities available. It is this gap that EarlySalary has been able to successfully mitigate for its consumers. This is further backed by hyper repeat and good retention rates of customers, and delinquency rates of less than 1%. This speaks volumes about the Machine Learning Scorecards and risk engines built by us while giving loans in seconds, and this is why the future looks bright for EarlySalary,” said Akshay Mehrotra, Co-Founder, and CEO of EarlySalary.

Ashish Goyal, Co-Founder and CFO added, “At EarlySalary, upgrading lives through technology and customer experience has been at the core of every initiative we have undertaken. We are happy to have been of help to our customers a million times, who needed funds quickly and with ease, to either tide over an emergency or to fulfil their desire to upgrade their lifestyle. We thank our customers who have trusted us and believed in our product making a difference to their lives. We also take this opportunity to thank our partners and lenders for their support in this journey. We are on the path to fulfil our aspiration to become the first choice of credit for young aspiring India.”

EarlySalary.com was founded by Akshay Mehrotra and Ashish Goyal in 2015 and is India’s largest consumer lending application, crossing the INR 1850 Crores disbursal mark. The mobile-first lending application has provided financial assistance to over 250,000 unique customers through 1 million cumulative loans across 17 cities, which has made EarlySalary the first line of credit for young working Indians.

About EarlySalary.com

Founded by Akshay Mehrotra and Ashish Goyal, EarlySalary is a mobile app that allows salaried individuals to avail of financial assistance. The company offers a bouquet of products tailored to the need of young India including salary advances, instant loans, interest-free EMI options and a line of credit to shop. The company conducts a prudent risk assessment by leveraging machine learning to go beyond financial underwriting.

EarlySalary earlier raised INR 100 crores in January 2018 led by Eight Roads Ventures (Fidelity). With more than 10 Million Downloads and loans worth Rs. 1850 crores already being disbursed, EarlySalary is helping customers borrow within minutes. EarlySalary has fast become the 1st line of credit for young working professionals in India.

~ Business Wire India

India among 5 Nations having Best Prospects for Online Micro Consumer Lending

According to the analysts of the financial holding Robocash Group who made a corporate ranking of countries in South and Southeast Asia, Laos, India, the Philippines, Myanmar and Vietnam have the highest prospects for the development of online micro consumer lending.

The highest score in the ranking (20) belongs to Laos. It combines a high potential of the untapped demand with a positive attitude to short-term online lending from the government and population. The need for relevant products in Laos is similar to the situation in Myanmar, but it is free from some obstacles of the latter. Over time, the new market will grow, and foreign investors may significantly contribute to this process. The underdevelopment of the legislation and the absence of financial institutes such as credit bureaus encourage experienced foreign companies with a fine-tuned scoring and reliable operation processes to support the efficient development of the market.

India holds second place with a score of 18. Despite a direct connection between the development level of a country and its place in the ranking, India is an exception. Although a significant part of local people already has access to credit products (79.9%), the rest include hundreds of millions of people. It correlates with the formed regulation. Besides, the market has a relatively small number of foreign companies, and not many Chinese startups have entered the market. As a result, the competition remains quite moderate.

Third place belongs to the Philippines (16). The country gives in the leading positions to other countries because of their hidden potential. However, other advantages compensate for it. The country has an established market of short-term lending services, flexible and facilitative regulation. Then, there is a balance between the high demand for relevant products and low debt load among the population. Moreover, the Philippine government is driving the digitization of financial services to decrease the factor of geographical fragmentation. It makes the country stand out on the regional background.

Myanmar is fourth in the ranking (14). As a country with a relatively large number of people below the poverty line and high demand for micro consumer loans, Myanmar stands out in comparison to the more developed countries in Southeast Asia. Still, some points are holding the market back. Partly, this is due to its underdevelopment. The government has introduced strong regulation to get rid off illegal creditors, which activities have led to debt overload of the population. The latter reduces the attractiveness of the country for foreign companies significantly.

Fifth place belongs to Vietnam (12). Vietnam demonstrates significant demand for micro consumer online loans. With a large number of people living in rural areas (66%), only one-third of the population has access to credit products. Another stimulating factor is the growing GDP forecasted to increase by 6.6% by 2020. Still, Vietnam should improve its regulation in terms of licensing of companies and control of financial statements. Overall, the country represents a bright example of the market with a medium position in the ranking. Vietnam is quite perspective but gives in the leadership due to the current difficulties for the business.



Methodology:
To rank the countries by their prospects for the development of micro consumer online lending, the estimate took into account the information about GDP, population and its access to financial services, regulation requirements and some other additional factors.