SucSEED Invests in P2P Lending Startup i2iFunding through Follow-on Funding

SucSEED Venture Partners have invested in RNVP Technology Private Limited  (known as i2iFunding), an RBI registered leading Peer to Peer Lending platform in India which verifies and matches borrowers looking for unsecured loans with interested lenders. 

i2iFunding provides affordable unsecured loans to borrowers such as people with no credit history, small businessmen, self-employed personnel, grade 4 government employees, newly employed salaried personnel, and many others who are not serviced by banks or NBFCs. i2iFunding has disbursed loans of value more than Rs. 36 Crores and has crossed monthly disbursal of Rs. 4 Crores. i2iFunding had raised more than $1 million so far.

Vaibhav Kumar Pandey, co-founder of i2iFunding, said, “Majority of India is still credit starved as it lacks traditional data which banks use to provide loan. As a result, these borrowers resort to expensive informal credit or have to disclose their requirements to friend / family for financial help. They end up in debt trap or get embarrassed or both. i2iFunding have now developed strong understanding of such borrowers and have come-up with technology based customized solutions to cater to each borrower segment using alternate data. We think that we have now reached the inflection point and are in position to replicate our solution on much larger scale by increasing our outreach.”

“We are grateful for the immense confidence which SucSEED has shown in the business. From January 2018, when SucSEED had previously invested, i2iFunding has grown more than 8x. This round of funding led by SucSEED will help us to leap forward and cement our position as the leader in peer to peer lending space. We expect to achieve further 5x growth over the next year and also become profitable on the back of our strong unit economics. We are also in discussions with fintech marquee investors to raise Series-A funds”, added Vaibhav.

Ajay Kalhan, an Active Investor with SucSEED and who have been representing SucSEED on board of I2iFunding said “Looking at the performance of i2iFunding over last 18 months, our Angel Investors felt excited to lead the follow-on investment round with them. Infact, this is our largest investment in any startup so far and we are excited to back i2iFunding with our full support”

Vikrant Varshney, Cofounder & Managing Partner of SucSEED, said “With Investments in Paymatrix, Insense, Stockal and i2iFunding we have penetration in Payments, Card Analytics, Wealth Management and P2P Lending space in FinTech sector. This gives us unique opportunity to help fester collaborations amongst all the FinTech Startups to create a unique value proposition for the Financial Sector”.

P2P Lending Platform i2iFunding Looks to Break Even by the 2nd Quarter of 2019-20

i2iFunding.com, a leading Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending Platform in the country aims to break even by the second half of 2019 given its robust growth in the last two years and promising growth outlook in the next 2 years.

Awarded as the startup of the year 2016, i2iFunding.com has gained a phenomenal popularity in a short span of time and has become the leading P2P lending platform in India due to its committed and transparent business model in providing alternative investment option to Investors and affordable personal loans to genuine borrowers looking for money for their various needs.

Launched in October 2015, i2ifunding is currently disbursing loan worth Rs. 60-75 lakhs per month. The company has a vision to upscale this disbursement up to Rs. 200-Crore over the next 2 years. With this pace, i2ifunding.com is most likely to achieve its break even point within 2 years, which is a year sooner than expected.

Speaking on break even, Vaibhav Pandey, Co-Founder of i2ifunding.com said that, “Against the traditional brick and mortar institutions, P2P lending gains an edge due to its cost-effectiveness and shorter turn-around time for loan disbursements. i2ifunding has achieved a leadership position in this segment and most likely to break even by 2019-20”.

“Not only borrowers here are the happy customers as they receive hassle-free loan, lenders too gain higher returns on their investments in proportion to their risk-appetite,” Vaibhav added.

Certainly, P2P lending has an edge over traditional banking mechanisms due to its low operational cost. I2IFunding disbursed loans more than 5-Cr till date with less than 4% defaults so far. Expanding its operations in more than 50 cities, the company is effectively tapping the huge market for P2P investments.

About a year ago, i2iFunding.com had also established a Principal Protection Fund by keeping aside money from its earnings. This was done to safeguard the interest of its customers and help them stay stress-free. The quantum of the payout was fixed by the category of loans. Lately, i2iFunding compensated 40 investors, by paying a total sum of Rs 4.25 lakhs. Out of 7 accounts wherein the defaults were reported, 4 belonged to the risk category ‘D’ and one account each belonged to the categories ‘C’, ‘E’ and ‘F’. This was done at no extra cost to the investors.

i2iFunding.com has become the first P2P lending platform in India to compensate investors for the loss of outstanding principal amount incurred on the defaulted accounts, the company claims.

Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform i2ifunding Announces 'Principal Protection Fund'

i2ifunding.com, a leading peer-to-peer lending platform has announced a first-of-its-kind investor protection fund, which will allow its investors to enjoy up to 100% protection against loan defaults.

Speaking about the announcement of Principal Protection Fund, Vaibhav Pandey, Co-founder and CEO of i2ifunding.com said, "The principal protection fund is a step further in our commitment to build a healthy ecosystem. The investors on our platform now significantly reduce the risk of losing their principal because of a loan default. While we ensure that there are no defaults, even if they do happen, we will share the burden with the investors. With this fund, we have increased our skin in the game."

The participation in the 'Principal Protection Fund' is available by default to all investors who lend through the platform. There are no extra charges for the same. i2ifunding.com will set aside 5% of the disbursed loans towards the Principal Protection Fund. The company has already created an initial corpus to set up the Investor Protection Fund.

Principal protection is offered to investors so that in case of default, a certain percent of principal outstanding will be returned to them by i2ifunding.com.

i2ifunding.com defines a risk category for every borrower on its platform. These categories are from A to F, where A is the safest and F the riskiest. The extent of principal protection depends upon the risk category of the borrower. 100% principal protection applies to risk category A, while category F has a 50% protection.

The final refund of principal to investors may depend on the amount available in the protection fund. The platform has witnessed zero default on its loans so far. This also speaks about the creditability of i2i's credit risk analysis algorithm. Thus, the company has decided to offer principal protection to its investors to further increase their confidence.

Peer to Peer Lending Portal i2ifunding Raises Funding For Its Expansion

Noida-based RNVP Technology Pvt. Ltd, which operates the online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending portal i2ifunding, has raised Angel funding, from a group of industry veterans. “We are delighted that this distinguished group of investors has chosen to support i2ifunding in our mission to increase financial inclusion in India by helping the borrowers access the loans for various needs at lower than market rates and at the same time provide an alternative high return investment option to retail investors” said Vaibhav Pandey, the CEO of the company.

“This investment could not have come at a better time as RBI has talked about 2 Cr capital requirement for P2P players in the concept paper recently released for regulating P2P lending platforms in India and this funding would mean that we would be able to clear this requirement easily.” The company did not disclose the amount raised in the current round.

i2ifunding, connects verified borrowers looking for unsecured personal loans with lenders looking for high return investment options. “We have been growing rapidly since inception and today we do more loans in a month than what we used to do in a quarter about a month back. Founded in 2015, we have now more than 1200 registered users on platform. Our real strength lies in our strong credit underwriting process supported by our proprietary risk evaluation model. There has been no default on our platform till date”, added Neha Aggarwal who heads the risk management division.

Company plans to utilize the fund towards technology expansion and also towards increasing its presence geographically. Manisha Bansal who heads strategy said, “We currently have investors from all across the country; however borrowers are limited to Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore. Our target is to expand to at least top 20 cities of India in next one year”.

P2P space in India has recently seen lot of interest after RBI came up with the concept paper on regulating the P2P lending market in India. “P2P lending in India is going to grow very rapidly in coming days and we are all geared up to establish ourselves as one of the top players in this space”, said Vaibhav.

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