RBI Tightens P2P Lending Rules As Several Lending Platforms Violating Norms

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently tightened regulations for peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms to enhance transparency and protect investors.

The Central Bank has reviewed and updated the Master Direction for Non-Banking Financial Company – Peer to Peer Lending Platform (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2017.

According to the recent circular, RBI said some of the entities adopted certain practices which are in violation of its regulations. “Such practices include, among others, violation of the prescribed funds transfer mechanism, promoting peer-to-peer lending as an investment product with features like tenure-linked assured minimum returns, providing liquidity options and at times acting like deposit takers and lenders, instead of being a platform,” it said.

The original master direction on NBFC – P2P lending platform (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2017, laid out clear rules for the operation of P2P lending platforms which serve as intermediaries in facilitating online transactions between lenders and borrowers.

However, RBI said it observed deviations from these rules, including violations related to funds transfer mechanisms, promoting P2P lending as an investment product, and practices resembling deposit-taking. To address these concerns, RBI revised and clarified several provisions of the directions

Here are the key changes, RBI has made

1. Credit Risk Prohibition: P2P platforms are now prohibited from assuming any credit risks. 

2. No Credit Enhancements or Guarantees: These platforms cannot offer credit enhancements or provide guarantees.

3. Investment Cap: Individual lenders are restricted from investing more than ₹50 lakh cumulatively through P2P platforms.

4. Disclosure Requirements: Platforms must disclose any losses borne by lenders on principal or interest.

5. Prohibition on Cross-Selling: P2P platforms cannot cross-sell insurance products related to credit enhancement or guarantees.

These updates aim to create a safer and more transparent environment for both lenders and borrowers.

Millennial Women's Investments in P2P Lending Rises by 430% - Study

• 30% and 150% rise in women investors and borrowers respectively in FY 21-22
• Mumbai and Hyderabad ranked top in terms of women investing in P2P lending
• Witnesses 150% Y-o-Y growth in women borrowers across the country
• More than 36% of all female borrowers returned to reapply for a loan
• With only a 3.37% default rate; women prove to be better borrowers than men

Mumbai, India's financial city, ranked top, followed by Hyderabad, the city of Nizams, in terms of the highest number of women borrowing from P2P lending platforms as per the data. LenDenClub, the country's leading Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending platform, released the report of women investors and borrowers on the P2P lending platform. The data further revealed that Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad lead the race in terms of women investing in P2P space.

According to analysis, there has been a whopping 430% rise in women investors in the P2P lending space in the financial year 2022 compared with FY21. There has also seen a 150% increase in women borrowers on the borrower side y-o-y basis. The study was conducted on the data from 20,165 women investors and borrowers in P2P lending for the period April 2021 to March 2022.

The report further revealed that young and social media-friendly women are much ahead of previous generations when it comes to borrowing or even availing of the P2P lending platform as an investment asset class. Millennial women aged 21-30 years were the most active borrowers, i.e. 56%, and lenders, i.e. 54%. It was followed by the cohort in the age group of 31-40 years that accounted for 37% and 33% in the case of borrowers and lenders, respectively.

Data highlights that Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending is fast emerging as an alternative investment option for women. According to the study, the highest number, i.e. over 50% of women, fall in the age group of 31 to 40, and the average amount invested is INR 50,000 in P2P lending. Of the women who invested in the platform, 100% of them re-invested their money. Female investors in P2P come from metro cities. Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai are the top cities where these women lenders invested in the asset class.

With rising education and awareness levels of financial products, an increasing number of women have appeared to take their own financial decisions. Indian women were perceived to be disinterested and unaware of their financial management, but the situation seems to be changing amid the pandemic.

Due to the pandemic, women mostly borrowed from medical emergencies to care for themselves and their family's healthcare. Data revealed that most women borrowed from the platform in the month of April 2021, when Covid's second wave was at its peak. Women also borrowed money for educational purposes indicating that they are career-focused and planning their future effectively by availing credit facilities from P2P lending platforms. The data revealed that Hyderabad & Mumbai were the top cities where the most women benefited from credit.

Women seem to be more particular about repayment of their loans, resulting in LenDenClub experiencing only 3.37% of women delayed or defaulted in the payment. They borrowed amounts as high as Rs 7 lakh and as low as Rs 10,000, whereas the average ticket size of borrowing stood at Rs.70,000. The platform saw over 50% of women borrowers fall between 21 to 30 years of age, indicating that women from Gen-Z and millennial cohort, who are also more acquainted with technology, are comfortable taking digital loans.

Bhavin Patel, Cofounder and CEO of LenDenClub, "We have witnessed a rise in investments from women, especially during the pandemic. The P2P lending space is regulated by RBI and awareness about it is still low among the women counterpart. It has emerged as a better asset class for the investors and source credit during emergencies for the borrowers.

We believe that more awareness about the platform will increase participation from women in tier-1 and tier-2 cities. The easy access to online avenues of financial independence encourages women to make their own financial decisions. India can achieve better financial inclusion with more participation from women. We, at LenDenClub, help our women investors diversify their portfolios with high investment rates, while we encourage women borrowers to take out instant loans in times of need."

About LenDenClub

LenDenClub is a leading peer-to-peer lending platform that provides an alternate investment opportunity to investors or lenders looking for high returns with creditworthy borrowers looking for short term personal loans. With 1 million+ investors on board, LenDenClub has become a go-to platform to earn returns in the range of 10%-12%. LenDenClub offers investors a convenient medium to browse thousands of borrower profiles to achieve better returns than traditional asset classes. Moreover, LenDenClub is safeguarded by market volatility and inflation. LenDenClub provides a great way to diversify your investment portfolio.

Additionally, with more than 2.5 million+ borrowers, InstaMoney, its borrowing platform has disbursed over Rs. 2,000 crores of loans to date. It offers instant personal loans to salaried individuals with flexible loan tenure. The platform aims to foster financial inclusion by leveraging technology to support borrowers with hassle-free loans, even in the remotest parts of the country. InstamMoney also provides small merchant loans of up to Rs. 1,50,000 to borrowers who are into SME business. Through InstaMoney’s partnership with merchants, Instamoney also extends the popular service of Buy Now Pay Later to the end consumers or shoppers.

Online P2P Lending Startup Finzy Bags Product Innovator NBFC Of The Year Award

Finzy, a fintech platform in the peer to peer (P2P) lending space has won the coveted Product Innovator NBFC Of The Year Award at the India NBFC Summit and Awards 2019. The award acknowledges exceptional product innovators in the financial sector and has bestowed this year’s honour on Finzy.

Established in 2016 with its headquarters in Bengaluru, India, Finzy- a powerful tech-driven lending platform registered with RBI as an NBFC-P2P- functions with the vision to make finance easy. Finzy helps connect verified borrowers looking for affordable personal loans with investors looking to invest in a new risk optimized asset class. Finzy’s focus on prime borrowers, unique positioning, proprietary credit assessment algorithm, effective collections and recovery teams, ensures that it manages the entire loan lifecycle end to end.

Diversified investments, single click investments, monthly returns and ability to reinvest the returns to unlock the power of compounding, ensure that both investors and borrowers have a powerful value proposition on finzy.

Cutting edge features and great customer experience are helping the startup beat its competitors and stand out in the digital lending space.

We reached out to this year’s honorees at Finzy for comments on their latest achievement:

Amit More, Founder & CEO, Finzy, "Our vision is to create the most innovative yet simple financial solutions with customer experience right at the centre of all our product features and processes. We have been winning over TRUST of our customers and this has helped us to scale our business numbers and team without compromising a bit on our quality standards. Product Innovator of the Year Award is a clear validation of our approach, and our roadmap of product development will soon make Finzy a ubiquitous financial application on every smartphone of this country."

Finzy provides regular monthly returns to the investors. On average the returns are at 15.5% p.a, which is higher than most other asset classes. The simple and user-friendly process at Finzy allows the borrower to receive funds in less than 48 hours. The risk is optimised due to the ability to diversify investment across multiple hand-picked borrowers.

Apoorv - CIO and Head of Product, "At finzy we are always looking to build features and capabilities that solve real-world problems. A lot of inputs for these innovative features come from talking to our customers regularly about their experiences in investing and borrowing. Focus on great customer experience and listening to what customers have to say has helped us stand out and stay true to our goal of changing the way India borrows and invests."

With a team of over 130 employees, Finzy has opened investment opportunities for people across India while the borrowing option is currently available in eleven Indian cities - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Mysore, Coimbatore, Vizag and Ahmedabad. The Platform is expanding in more geographic regions for borrowers as well as industry-first product innovations are set to launch in the next few months in 2019.

P2P Lender LenDenClub Raises $1 Mn in Funding from Artha Venture Fund and Family Offices

LenDenClub, the fastest-growing peer to peer (P2P) lending platform in India, has raised a Pre-Series A funding of $1 million led by Artha Venture Fund, a micro VC fund that invests in early-stage companies.

The round also saw participation from several family offices like the UAE-based Transworld Group, and marquee angel investors Shuchi Kothari, Ramakant Sharma, Narendra Karnavat, Nandi Mehta. Previous investors also participated in the current round.

LenDenClub offers small ticket loans directly to lenders from over 150 cities. They started in 2016, disbursing 1 loan a day and, within a short span of 3 years,they have grown to 150 loans/day. Their fast growth is attributed to the runaway success of LenDenClub’s InstaMoney platform. InstaMoney services a gap that banks and NBFCs cannot fulfill - providing small-ticket loans disbursed into the bank accounts of salaried individuals within 24 hours.

[caption id="attachment_134449" align="aligncenter" width="894"] Bhavin Patel Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, LenDenClub[/caption]

LenDenClub leverages its proprietary tech-stack to reduce the time taken to underwrite a loan. Loans that meet the minimum preset qualification criteria get approved within 5 minutes and those that are rejected are underwritten by a back-end team with a 2-hour turnaround on the lending decision. The approved borrower profiles go live on a special lender app where over 10,000 active lenders choose whom they want to lend to.

Late in 2018, a lender survey revealed that fierce competition for LenDenClub’s loans had left many lenders without enough opportunities to deploy the funds in their lender accounts. To resolve this problem, LenDenClub’s tech team developed an auto-invest feature.The feature allows the investor to choose from over 40+ criteria provided by borrowers.The criteria include utilization of funds, tenure of loan and even whether the borrower’s residence is self-owned or rented.

The funds from the lender’s account are auto invested if the borrower’s profile meet the criteria set by the lender. Over 70% of lenders activated this feature and its success can be gauged by LenDenClub founder, Bhavin Patel’s claim that 100% of all borrower profiles that have gone live on the platform have been funded.

LenDenClub makes revenues through registration fees and success fees charged to lenders and borrowers. Currently, it is operating in just 6 states with more than half a million individuals registered on the platform, disbursing 50,000+ P2P loans, and managing a loan book of Rs. 60 crores that is growing almost 20% month on month over the last 12 months. It intends on utilizing the $1 million fundraise to expand its senior management team, develop innovative lending products and expanding its geographical reach to 12 states.

Bhavin Patel, Co-Founder & CEO, LenDenClub said, “The current funding round gives us the ability to double our reach and continue our quest in finding creditworthy borrowers that are not being serviced by the current financial institutions. We also aim to double the number of lenders on the platform to reach Rs.500 crores disbursal in the next 18 months."

LenDenClub was Artha Venture Fund’s first investment and is also their first follow-on investment from the same fund. The fund’s Managing Partner, Anirudh A Damani said that, “P2P lending truly democratizes the lending ecosystem in India by removing the middlemen i.e. the NBFC’s and banks that have successfully credit-starved the Indian consumer. Their spectacular growth in lender registrations and money disbursed is even more heartening at a time wherein the entire lending ecosystem is petitioning the government for a bailout. There may not be a better poster boy for the success of P2P in India!"

The fund’s Growth Partner, Vinod Keni, also added, “LenDenClub’s solution of directly connecting individual lenders to borrowers has been a resounding success. It has, no doubt, been a pleasure to work with LenDenClub in their journey of making P2P platforms tantamount to the banking ecosystem in India.”

LenDenClub is the new-age P2P platform aims to foster financial inclusion by leveraging technology to support borrowers with hassle-free loans, even in the remotest parts of the country, while providing a new age investment option for lenders. LenDenClub currently enjoys a user base of over half a million and disbursing 50,000 loans per year. While the lenders at the platform are spread all across India to even NRIs, the borrowers are currently active in 6 states of the country. The platform has 100% funding record for its borrowers.

Artha Venture Fund is a micro VC fund that invests in early-stage companies, with follow-on investments up to Series A​. The fund thematically invests into consumption, consumption enablers and B2B. The fund made its second close in July 2019 at Rs. 100 crores with a portfolio of 6 companies: LenDenClub, Haazri, KabaddiAdda, Jadooz, Daalchini and Everest Fleet.

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.

Cash Suvidha raises $2.3 million in Debt funding during Apr-Jun 2019

Cash Suvidha, a NBFC and Fintech Company that extends business loans to SMEs & MSMEs and personal loans to individuals raised $2.3 million in debt in the first quarter of FY2019-20. The funds were raised through private placement on Non-convertible Debentures and from various Financial Institutions.  During the last financial year, Cash Suvidha raised a total debt of $10.25 million from various financial institutions.

The debt will be used to increase the loan books of the company. Founded in 2016, Cash Suvidha provides a variety of loans and funds will be primarily used to facilitate further lending to SMEs & MSMEs and to cater to the loan needs of Individuals, particularly in Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Rajasthan.

Commenting on the development, Geeta Goswami, Co-founder, Cash Suvidha, says, “We are expanding the horizon of financial inclusion for SMEs and MSMEs in India. Cash Suvidha’s financial performance has been strong since inception and we are glad to have significantly captured the market in just 3 years. This capital infusion will allow us to further accelerate our fast-growing lending platform and enhance our ability to provide the best terms to borrowers that do not have an established credit history.”

SME & MSME loans are one of the most sought-after categories of loans at Cash Suvidha. The key challenge witnessed by them is to obtain credit from the bank owing to a number of reasons. This has been predominantly addressed by Cash Suvidha with the successful disbursement of 70-75%per cent of the total loans to SMEs & MSMEs. Cash Suvidha provides loans with a ticket size of INR 50,000- 5, 00,000 for SMEs and 15,000- 50,000 for MSMEs.

The company is known for its quick digital processing, easy lending services and disbursing loans within three working days. Cash Suvidha is able to determine the best leads for credit and match them with the perfect kind of product.

Cash Suvidha, the trade name of Usha Financial services, extends business loans to SMEs, MSMEs, women entrepreneurs for income generation purpose & personal loans to individuals. Apart from stirring the journeys of budding and longstanding entrepreneurs, Cash Suvidha, also deals with women empowerment on a micro level.

Cash Suvidha aims to fill the market gap that's not allowing visionaries in uplifting their dreams towards real touch of business world - establishment or enlargement of a profit-making entity.

Cash Suvidha has efficiently served customers right from the era of cash to emerging cashless economy. Digital banking is an integral part of their operations. Through Cash Suvidha, digital-savvy entrepreneurs can avail financial services seamlessly as they navigate through their progressively digitized lives.

In terms of growth story, Cash Suvidha began its operations in May 2016 after which they have been playing a significant role in empowering people to fulfil their ambitions. Within a short span of one year of its operations, the company has tied up with over 25-30 players to expand business across India and has targeted a 4x increase in processing loan applications. In terms of future plans, Cash Suvidha is targeting more tie-ups for business expansion.

Since its inception, Cash Suvidha has disbursed to 49,000+SMEs & MSMEs borrowers and the ticket size of loan is Rs 15,000- Rs. 5,00,000.

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 Firms to Get Boost as RBI May Raise Investment Limit of Individuals

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending firms are likely to get some breather from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), as the central bank is likely to raise the ceiling on fund infusion from individual investors into these platforms to around Rs 25 lakh from Rs 10 lakh currently, reported Business Standard.

"As it is a nascent industry, the central bank wants to make sure the sector grows in a structured way and that any easing of regulations doesn't jeopardise the current business model, " says the report.

According to existing P2P lending guidelines, an individual’s total exposure to P2P lending can not be more than Rs 10 lakh, across all the platforms combined.

Currently, through all existing P2P lending platforms, a lender can lend a maximum of Rs 50,000 to a single borrower and the total money lent across all the platforms combined can not be more than Rs 10 lakh. The report however does not say anything on raising single borrower lending limit.

It was in October 2017 when RBI, to limit the risk exposure of individuals, imposed limits on how much can be lent and how much can be borrowed by individuals from P2P lending platforms. Before the 2017 RBI guidelines, there were no specific limits and the platforms were free to take their own decisions.

It is being said that RBI's change in guidelines to increase the limit comes in response to coolapse of China's P2P market, where huge default rates and fraud had led to closure of many such P2P lenders in recent years. According to Shanghai-based researcher Yingcan Group, more than 400 P2P lending platforms collapsed from June 2018 - August 2018.

As P2P lending market is now developing in India with faster pace, RBI thus wants to take precautionary measures with prudent regulations before opening up the industry for big investors and avoid China's fate.

If the investment limit is raised, the P2P lending platform will be able to raise much more funds from high net-worth individuals (HNIs), who are eager to pump in more money into these platforms but are unable to lend more than Rs 10 lakh.

According to Raghavendra Pratap Singh, Co-founder of online p2p lending startup, i2ifunding.com, "The minimum exposure of HNIs ranges from Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 5 crore. The cap is affecting in many ways. HNIs are unable to lend more than Rs 10 lakh. Also, the NBFCs and banks that may have funded the platform have gone after the regulations. This has restricted the supply side."

In October last year, most of existing & new P2P lending companies have teamed-up and formed a registered body - Association of NBFC P2P Platforms to represent the Indian NBFC-P2P industry at various national as well as at international forums. A month later, Former Infosys Chief Financial Officer V Balakrishnan joined the association as a patron Member.

Currently, around 11 start-up companies hold NBFC-P2P licences with a total loan book size of around Rs 200 crore. Some of the entities working in this space are Finzy, Faircent, OML Technologies, i2iFunding, Peerlend, LenDenClub, Paisadukaan, LiquiLoans and AnyTimeLoan.

Recently, London-based Welendus, a short-term peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, is all set to enter the competitive Indian market of P2P lending. The UK startup has just raised an undisclosed amount in funding which it will use for future expansion into India.

Indian P2P Lending Operators forms Association to Make P2P Industry More Credible

After the Reserve Bank of India unveiled guidelines last October recognizing the need for peer-to-peer lending platforms as NBFC-P2P in the country, the regulatory authority had issued first license in May 2018 and since then 9 players have been recognized as NBFC-P2P companies. More than 12 companies are in the process of getting approval from the regulatory authority. Some of them are at advance to mid-level stage.

To represent the NBFC-P2P industry at various front as well as to represent country’s P2P lending industry at international forums, most of existing & new players have teamed-up and formed a registered body - Association of NBFC P2P Platforms.

The association has been registered under The Society Registration Act, 1860. Mr. Pramod Akhramka has been elected as President, Mr. Rajiv Ranjan as Secretary and Mr. Mukesh Bubna as Treasurer of the association.

Association’s aim is to create awareness on peer-to-peer lending and to promote merits among individuals and institutional customers. It also aims to bring credibility for this industry and to form P2P industry standards for more transparency within the industry.

The association will work in conjunction with various government and regulatory authorities on matter of compliance. Objective of newly formed association is to establish NBFC-P2P industry in the country and make it more credible while having a cohesive work force for this new born industry.

Association members shown their trust in Mr. Pramod Akhramka, Founder OML P2P to lead the association as President, Mr. Rajiv Ranjan, Founder PaisaDukan would be Secretary and Mr. Mukesh Bubna, founder Monexo would be Treasurer of the association.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Pramod Akhramka, President of newly formed NBFC-P2P Platforms association, said “Peer-to-peer lending has emerged as new source of alternate financing globally and paving the way to evolution in this sector in the country. Our objective is to create awareness about peer-to-peer lending in India as well as promoting its merits among individual and institutional customers. The Association will work actively to make some strategic partnerships and collaborations with other stakeholders in the banking and finance industry."

Given the government and the RBI’s decision to include peer-to-peer lending as a part of the national financial regulatory framework, the industry’s prospects in coming years are extremely promising. The Association and all its members will ensure the utmost cooperation with the regulators, facilitating the industry’s expansion on various fronts.

Elucidating on the importance of P2P platforms association, Mr. Rajiv Ranjan, Secretary of the association said, “The phenomenon of P2P lending has emerged as an enabler to bring in large number of unbanked people into financial system directly and rapidly. Association would help in bringing more credibility to the segment that is growing at a faster pace at present."

Mr. Mukesh Bubna, Treasurer of the association said, “Association will setup P2P industry standards that will bring in more transparency to the industry. Right now it’s a nascent industry in India, however, by promoting it as an innovative product for alternative finance, peer-to-peer industry will help financial inclusion in coming years.”

The association aims to associate with honorary members from various domains to strengthen its authority in the Indian Financial Ecosystem.

RBI to Setup Regulatory Sandbox for Fintech and P2P Lending Startups, Co.s

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is said to be working on a regulatory sandbox for fintech companies can test out their product before releasing it to public usage. This will also involve bypassing RBI regulations, though for testing purpose only.

Regulatory sandboxes typically involve temporary relaxations or adjustments of regulatory requirements to provide a "safe space" for startups or established firms to test new technology-based financial services in a live environment for a limited time, without having to undergo a full authorization and licensing process.

Gautam Chatterjee, principal adviser to the Department of Statistics and Information Management at the RBI, said, "More products are coming in the market. To guard against the creative vulnerabilities, the idea is to bring in a regulatory sandbox where anybody can bring in a new product and it can be first tested before going to public."

"Today, all departments in the RBI are relying on data analytics. A regulatory sandbox, to separate running computer programs to mitigate system failures and software vulnerabilities from spreading, will help in product innovation as more products are coming in frequently," said Chatterjee to Economic Times at an event.

Governments, especially in developed economies, are striving to encourage online fintech innovation and for this the regulatory sandbox concept is taking off worldwide. The U.K. was the first country to implement a regulatory sandbox, announcing the approach in 2015 and approving the first sandbox fintech services in 2016. This was followed by Australian sandbox, introduced in December 2016, differs from the approach in the U.K. and some other countries in that it doesn’t require companies to apply for individual approval.

Additionally, RBI is also setting up data science labs to keep pace with innovation in the digital lending space including online P2P lending.

"A data science lab will be opened in the RBI with a mixed team of engineers, economists and statisticians and they will be going through internal data of each vertical," said Chatterjee.

RBI has set up an inter-regulatory working group to study regulatory issues relating to fintech and digital banking in India.

As per the RBI, 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.

It may also be recalled that last month, RBI has also set up a new unit to supervise, oversee its efforts in emerging technologies including cryptocurrency, blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In A First, P2P Lending Platform PaisaDukan Launches Lending Platform in Hindi

Soon within a day after e-commerce giant Amazon launched its website and app in Hindi language, PaisaDukan, a Mumbai-headquartered P2P Lending platform today announced launch of its web portal in Hindi and becomes the first major P2P lending operator to offer loan & investment services in Hindi. The new feature is in-line with company’s ambitions plan of becoming country’s largest P2P lending platform. The move is an attempt to make deeper inroads into the Indian market that is more comfortable in Hindi. Company is also exploring to extend its reach to more vernacular space to target customers beyond the metropolitans in India.

Speaking on the launch occasion, Rajiv M Ranjan, Founder & CMD, said “with over 460 million internet users, India is second largest market, behind China and expected to have around 600 million by 2022. Needless to say vernacular languages will play a crucial role in bringing next 150 million users online. The Hindi feature will connect PaisaDukan to users from smaller cities of North & central region and will help millions of customers who prefer Hindi.”.

Users can choose the Hindi option at home page of PaisaDukan.com website, which will be later set as default. The Hindi version will have the same features as available on English website. User will not be able to read detailed product information in Hindi but will be able to do registration, filling application, manage their account information, track their loan applications etc. in Hindi as well.

“Our philosophy is to align our platform with vision of financial inclusion to serve the unserved. Many people in such category find themselves comfortable with their native language and are not so conversant on platform in English language. The move is part of our PAN India expansion plan and we want to bring every citizen to financial system” concluded Mr. Ranjan.

In April this year, the startup had raised US$650K in seed funding followed by second round of seed funding amounting $2,25,000 through angel investment, in the following month, which took company to the total Seed investment of $875,000 till date.

India's online P2P lending market attained maturity in 2017, with various factors such as the Reserve Bank of India's guidelines on the sector, the proliferation of digital transactions, the development of financial technologies, and the lack of access to credit contributing to its rise.

In A First, P2P Lending Platform PaisaDukan Launches Lending Platform in Hindi

Soon within a day after e-commerce giant Amazon launched its website and app in Hindi language, PaisaDukan, a Mumbai-headquartered P2P Lending platform today announced launch of its web portal in Hindi and becomes the first major P2P lending operator to offer loan & investment services in Hindi. The new feature is in-line with company’s ambitions plan of becoming country’s largest P2P lending platform. The move is an attempt to make deeper inroads into the Indian market that is more comfortable in Hindi. Company is also exploring to extend its reach to more vernacular space to target customers beyond the metropolitans in India.

Speaking on the launch occasion, Rajiv M Ranjan, Founder & CMD, said “with over 460 million internet users, India is second largest market, behind China and expected to have around 600 million by 2022. Needless to say vernacular languages will play a crucial role in bringing next 150 million users online. The Hindi feature will connect PaisaDukan to users from smaller cities of North & central region and will help millions of customers who prefer Hindi.”.

Users can choose the Hindi option at home page of PaisaDukan.com website, which will be later set as default. The Hindi version will have the same features as available on English website. User will not be able to read detailed product information in Hindi but will be able to do registration, filling application, manage their account information, track their loan applications etc. in Hindi as well.

“Our philosophy is to align our platform with vision of financial inclusion to serve the unserved. Many people in such category find themselves comfortable with their native language and are not so conversant on platform in English language. The move is part of our PAN India expansion plan and we want to bring every citizen to financial system” concluded Mr. Ranjan.

In April this year, the startup had raised US$650K in seed funding followed by second round of seed funding amounting $2,25,000 through angel investment, in the following month, which took company to the total Seed investment of $875,000 till date.

India's online P2P lending market attained maturity in 2017, with various factors such as the Reserve Bank of India's guidelines on the sector, the proliferation of digital transactions, the development of financial technologies, and the lack of access to credit contributing to its rise.

P2P Online Lending Startup Finzy Completes $2.3 Mn Pre-Series A Fund Raise

Bangalore-based peer to peer (P2P) lending platform Finzy on Monday announced raising funds worth USD 2.3 million in Pre-Series A round, including USD 1.3 million raised in the first tranche in March 2018.

This funding round has been funded by senior professionals from BFSI industry and successful entrepreneurs. The startup plans to use the freshly raised capital for geographical expansion, technology investment and stronger distribution networks.

Founded in 2016, by Abhinandan Sangam, Amit More and Vishwas Dixit, Finzy is a premier P2P lending solution in India that connect borrowers with investors and make the entire process simple and easy so that one can get a loan in as little as 48 hours.

“This round will help us scale our business closer towards break even. Currently, Finzy is a team of 60 passionate colleagues working towards a single minded objective of providing a hassle free experience to our borrowers and create a new sustainable asset class for our lenders,” said founder and CEO, Finzy, Amit More.

“We are achieving this without compromising on our standards and we do not have even a single NPA till date,” added More.

Finzy’s monthly loan disbursements have grown more than 2x in the last 6 months and is expected to grow by an additional 3x from here on by March 2019.

“RBI regulations have ensured that only competent platforms continue to offer Peer to Peer Lending services. Lenders clearly understand the power of monthly returns at 15.5% per annum. The vacuum that Finzy’s new investment opportunity fills in between fixed deposits and equity is also a powerful value proposition to lenders on the platform. Lenders are loving the experience and returns offered on Finzy and more than 40% of these lenders are returning back to make repeat investments,” said co-founder and CMO, Finzy, Vishwas Dixit.

Recent Fundings in Digital P2P Lending Startups

Last week, an another Bangalore-based digital consumer lending startup HappyEMI raised $1 million from AJ Ventures, JAN and Anand Sankeshwar, Managing Director of VRL Logistics.

Last month, Mumbai-based online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending startup RupeeCircle raised Rs 4 crore in seed funding from Mahindra Finance, which is a non-banking financial company (NBFC) under Mahindra Group.

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.

Via - Times of India

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.

P2P Lending Startup PaisaDukan Secures Additional Seed Funding of US$225K

PaisaDukan.com, a P2P Lending marketplace owned by Mumbai based FinTech start-up BigWin Infotech today announced second round of seed funding and secured USD 225K through angel investment. The company has raised US$650K of seed funding last month that takes company to the total Seed investment of USD 875K till date.

Commenting on the recent funding, Mr. Rajiv M Ranjan, Founder & CMD of PaisaDukan said “Infusion of Additional Seed funding has showcased investors’ confidence on our platform, as well as on our operations management and business strategy. We have filed our application for NBFC-P2P in Dec 2017 and awaiting response from RBI. Our platform is ready to go live along with mobile app as soon as we receive Certificate of Registration (COR) of NBFC-P2P from RBI. The current round of funding will boost company’s progress and will help in hiring experienced key resources and expand our technology workforce."

“We are also in discussion with couple of VCs who have shown interest for pre / ‘A’ series funding,” added Mr. Ranjan.

Founded in 2018 by Rajiv Ranjan, PaisaDukan is a P2P lending marketplace platform wherein borrowers can take loans from individual investors who are willing to lend their own money for an agreed upon interest rate. Their mission is to provide their clients with the finest financial platform to create a smart way of lending or borrowing money in a transparent way.

Recent Activities in P2P Lending Segment

India's online P2P lending market attained maturity in 2017, with various factors such as the Reserve Bank of India's guidelines on the sector, the proliferation of digital transactions, the development of financial technologies, and the lack of access to credit contributing to its rise.

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

In December, 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.

In February 2017, SlicePay has acquired Trustio, a New Delhi based P2P lending company giving alumni-backed loans to students and recent graduates. Trustio was backed by Axilor Ventures and Zostel CEO Dharamveer Singh Chouhan.

P2P Lending Startup PaisaDukan Secures Additional Seed Funding of US$225K

PaisaDukan.com, a P2P Lending marketplace owned by Mumbai based FinTech start-up BigWin Infotech today announced second round of seed funding and secured USD 225K through angel investment. The company has raised US$650K of seed funding last month that takes company to the total Seed investment of USD 875K till date.

Commenting on the recent funding, Mr. Rajiv M Ranjan, Founder & CMD of PaisaDukan said “Infusion of Additional Seed funding has showcased investors’ confidence on our platform, as well as on our operations management and business strategy. We have filed our application for NBFC-P2P in Dec 2017 and awaiting response from RBI. Our platform is ready to go live along with mobile app as soon as we receive Certificate of Registration (COR) of NBFC-P2P from RBI. The current round of funding will boost company’s progress and will help in hiring experienced key resources and expand our technology workforce."

“We are also in discussion with couple of VCs who have shown interest for pre / ‘A’ series funding,” added Mr. Ranjan.

Founded in 2018 by Rajiv Ranjan, PaisaDukan is a P2P lending marketplace platform wherein borrowers can take loans from individual investors who are willing to lend their own money for an agreed upon interest rate. Their mission is to provide their clients with the finest financial platform to create a smart way of lending or borrowing money in a transparent way.

Recent Activities in P2P Lending Segment

India's online P2P lending market attained maturity in 2017, with various factors such as the Reserve Bank of India's guidelines on the sector, the proliferation of digital transactions, the development of financial technologies, and the lack of access to credit contributing to its rise.

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

In December, 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.

In February 2017, SlicePay has acquired Trustio, a New Delhi based P2P lending company giving alumni-backed loans to students and recent graduates. Trustio was backed by Axilor Ventures and Zostel CEO Dharamveer Singh Chouhan.

Mumbai-based P2P Lending Platform PaisaDukan Raises $650K Through Angel Funding Route

PaisaDukan.com a P2P Lending marketplace solely owned by Mumbai based FinTech start-up BigWin Infotech, today announced a secured seed funding of USD 650K through Angel funding route. The fund will be used for marketplace platform and mobile app development.

BigWin Infotech is a government of India recognized ISO 9001:2015 & ISO 27001:2013 FinTech startup. PaisaDukan is a Techno Grad – CA Association and is a brainchild of two industry experts Mr. Rajiv M Ranjan, a leading FinTech professional and Mr. Ambar Kasliwal, a practicing CA.

Commenting on the development, Mr. Rajiv M Ranjan, Founder & CMD PaisaDukan said “The deal signifies our robust QMS and is our first milestone. Our mission is to provide a world-class platform for borrowers & lenders that will empower and set new standards bringing a comprehensive portfolio carrying unparalleled products to fasten our services. We are coming up with own proprietary credit risk management tool to cater all sections of society."

“We have applied for NBFC P2P license in Dec’ 2017 and are awaiting an approval from RBI. Our platform will go live as soon as we receive the Certificate of Registration from RBI” added Mr. Ranjan.

P2P lending is one of the most innovative products of recent time; India has a huge potential and is poised to flourish in 2018. According to various market reports, India is poised to be a USD 4-trillion economy by 2022, of which USD 1-trillion would be digital economy. On a similar note, the Govt. of India emphasized on digital economy and announced various budget allocations to boost digital Indian economy in the union budget 2018.

“We are deeply inspired by ‘Digital India’. Our vision is very clear, we aim to serve India’s traditionally underserved populace, and our target audience consists of consumers who find it difficult to secure a timely loan from banks or any other financial institutions. Also, we are not limited to basic lending operations; we’re expanding our services into certain areas where financing institutions don’t foray into, we will be catering to tier 2, tier 3 and rural locations to bring investors and borrowers together” said Mr. Ambar Kasliwal, co-founder & director, PaisaDukan.com.

The NBFC sector in India has grown significantly during the last few years and has become an important segment in the financial sector contributing to almost 10 per cent of the total assets of the financial sector.

RBI issued a guideline to companies operating in peer to peer lending platforms and classified them as NBFC-P2P. This is the twelfth category of NBFC introduced by RBI with the last one being for microfinanced companies (i.e. NBFC-MFI)

BigWin Infotech is an ISO certified startup, duly recognized by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP). The Company operates in P2P lending business through its solely owned marketplace PaisaDukan.com.

The company's founder Rajiv was involved in some of the major path breaking projects as Cheque Truncation System (CTS), Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS), National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) and Negotiated Dealing System (NDS). He has been an active participant in major initiative of institute of Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT). Rajiv holds a degree in Computer Science Engineering and is an alumnus of IIMC.

Recent Activities in P2P Lending Segment

India's online P2P lending market attained maturity in 2017, with various factors such as the Reserve Bank of India's guidelines on the sector, the proliferation of digital transactions, the development of financial technologies, and the lack of access to credit contributing to its rise.

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

In December, 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.

In February 2017, SlicePay has acquired Trustio, a New Delhi based P2P lending company giving alumni-backed loans to students and recent graduates. Trustio was backed by Axilor Ventures and Zostel CEO Dharamveer Singh Chouhan.

Mumbai-based P2P Lending Platform PaisaDukan Raises $650K Through Angel Funding Route

PaisaDukan.com a P2P Lending marketplace solely owned by Mumbai based FinTech start-up BigWin Infotech, today announced a secured seed funding of USD 650K through Angel funding route. The fund will be used for marketplace platform and mobile app development. 

BigWin Infotech is a government of India recognized ISO 9001:2015 & ISO 27001:2013 FinTech startup. PaisaDukan is a Techno Grad – CA Association and is a brainchild of two industry experts Mr. Rajiv M Ranjan, a leading FinTech professional and Mr. Ambar Kasliwal, a practicing CA.

Commenting on the development, Mr. Rajiv M Ranjan, Founder & CMD PaisaDukan said “The deal signifies our robust QMS and is our first milestone. Our mission is to provide a world-class platform for borrowers & lenders that will empower and set new standards bringing a comprehensive portfolio carrying unparalleled products to fasten our services. We are coming up with own proprietary credit risk management tool to cater all sections of society."

“We have applied for NBFC P2P license in Dec’ 2017 and are awaiting an approval from RBI. Our platform will go live as soon as we receive the Certificate of Registration from RBI” added Mr. Ranjan.

P2P lending is one of the most innovative products of recent time; India has a huge potential and is poised to flourish in 2018. According to various market reports, India is poised to be a USD 4-trillion economy by 2022, of which USD 1-trillion would be digital economy. On a similar note, the Govt. of India emphasized on digital economy and announced various budget allocations to boost digital Indian economy in the union budget 2018.

“We are deeply inspired by ‘Digital India’. Our vision is very clear, we aim to serve India’s traditionally underserved populace, and our target audience consists of consumers who find it difficult to secure a timely loan from banks or any other financial institutions. Also, we are not limited to basic lending operations; we’re expanding our services into certain areas where financing institutions don’t foray into, we will be catering to tier 2, tier 3 and rural locations to bring investors and borrowers together” said Mr. Ambar Kasliwal, co-founder & director, PaisaDukan.com.

The NBFC sector in India has grown significantly during the last few years and has become an important segment in the financial sector contributing to almost 10 per cent of the total assets of the financial sector.

RBI issued a guideline to companies operating in peer to peer lending platforms and classified them as NBFC-P2P. This is the twelfth category of NBFC introduced by RBI with the last one being for microfinanced companies (i.e. NBFC-MFI)

BigWin Infotech is an ISO certified startup, duly recognized by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP). The Company operates in P2P lending business through its solely owned marketplace PaisaDukan.com.

The company's founder Rajiv was involved in some of the major path breaking projects as Cheque Truncation System (CTS), Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS), National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) and Negotiated Dealing System (NDS). He has been an active participant in major initiative of institute of Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT). Rajiv holds a degree in Computer Science Engineering and is an alumnus of IIMC.

Recent Activities in P2P Lending Segment

India's online P2P lending market attained maturity in 2017, with various factors such as the Reserve Bank of India's guidelines on the sector, the proliferation of digital transactions, the development of financial technologies, and the lack of access to credit contributing to its rise.

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

In December, 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.

In February 2017, SlicePay has acquired Trustio, a New Delhi based P2P lending company giving alumni-backed loans to students and recent graduates. Trustio was backed by Axilor Ventures and Zostel CEO Dharamveer Singh Chouhan.