The financial services company InCred Group’s digitally first wealthtech platform, InCred Money, announced that it will buy discount broking platform Stocko to enter the retail broking market.
Although the transaction’s magnitude was not disclosed, those with knowledge of the situation estimated that it would be an all-cash transaction of roughly INR 300 crore.
The purchase is contingent on regulatory clearance. According to the Mumbai-based company, Stocko, which is now run by South Asian Stocks Limited, will be renamed as InCred Stocko and incorporated into InCred Money if it is approved.
India’s investment ecosystem is changing quickly, according to Bhupinder Singh, the company’s founder and CEO. InCred Money will use its technology, capital, and customer-first approach to fully realise its potential if Stocko provides it with a tested platform with significant volume.
Acquisition will Expand the Portfolio of InCred Money
Through the acquisition, InCred Money will be able to expand its offerings to include trading in stocks and derivatives for individual consumers.
Established in 2013 under the name SAS Online, Stocko is a New Delhi-based company that provides trading in stocks, derivatives, commodities, and currencies.
For active traders, it offers a subscription-based model where the per-order cost can be reduced to INR 2.99, in addition to charging a flat fee of INR 12.99 for every order. According to the platform, it generates over INR 1 lakh crore in notional revenue every day.
The three verticals of the InCred Group, which was founded in 2016, are InCred Finance (NBFC financing), InCred Capital (institutional and HNI wealth services), and InCred Money, which provides retail investors with products like fixed deposits and alternative investments.
Following the acquisition, the Stocko team, under the direction of CEO Shrey Jain, will keep running the platform. Jain stated that Stocko will expand more quickly, innovate more vigorously, and provide more intelligent products—from improved margin financing to more advanced technology—with InCred’s support.
InCred Money Joins the Bandwagon with Honchos Like Groww Paytm Money
By entering the retail broking market, InCred Money joins the growing number of fintechs and traditional financial institutions aiming to create full-stack platforms that integrate investing, wealth management, and lending.
This change is best illustrated by platforms like Groww, which began with investments in mutual funds before branching out into stocks, derivatives, and asset management, and Paytm Money, which changed from payments to broking and investment advising.
A group of wealthy people contributed $60 million to InCred Finance’s Series D funding round, which was closed in December 2023. The company was valued at about $1.04 billion after the round, which helped it join the unicorn club.
The Mumbai-based company, a partner of KKR & Co., is in talks with some firms, including IIFL Securities, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., and Nomura Holdings Inc., about working on an initial public offering (IPO) to raise approximately $470 million, according to a news agency report from April.
According to reports, fintech unicorn InCred Financial Services has started the process of going public and intends to generate between INR 4,000 Cr (about $470 million) and INR 5,000 Cr (roughly $590 million) through an initial public offering (IPO) in the latter part of next year. According to a source cited by various media reports, the fintech giant InCred Finance is considering a valuation between INR 15,000 Cr (about $1.78 billion) and INR 22,500 Cr (around $2.6 billion). By January 2025, the business intends to select merchant bankers to lead its public offering. According to reports, “the company wants to launch a Diwali 2025 initial public offering and aims to appoint four banks by January.” An offer for sale (OFS) component is also anticipated to be included in the IPO, allowing investors to sell their firm shares and record returns. Notably, in September, Bhupinder Singh, the founder and group CEO of InCred, stated that the fintech startup would only list on the stock exchanges if KKR, a prominent global private equity (PE) firm that owns 13.4% of the company, agreed to sell its position during the initial public offering (IPO).
Entering the Unicorn Club
A year after InCred announced that its lending division had joined the exclusive unicorn club after raising $60 million in its Series D round, which was led by Ranjan Pai of Manipal Education and Medical Group, the company decided to list on stock exchanges. As a fierce funding winter dried up money across the startup ecosystem, InCred became one of only two firms (the other being Zepto) to become unicorns in 2023, with a $1.04 billion fundraising campaign.
InCred’s Business Operations
Bhupinder Singh founded InCred Group in 2016, and through its three distinct verticals, it operates in the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) industry. InCred Finance and InCred Capital are the loan and wealth and asset management verticals, respectively, while InCred Money deals in retail bonds and alternative investments. In addition, InCred has investors including Moore Capital, Elevar Equity, Investcorp, OAKS, and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). At the conclusion of the fiscal year 2023–24 (FY24), InCred Finance reportedly had assets under management (AUM) of INR 9,039 Cr, up 52% year over year (YoY). In FY24, InCred’s consolidated net profit increased 162% to INR 316.3 Cr from INR 120.9 Cr the year before. Operating revenue increased from INR 864.6 Cr in FY23 to INR 1,270 Cr, a 47% increase.
With the IPO, InCred reaches a major milestone and establishes itself as a prominent player in the fintech and NBFC sectors in India. The company hopes to attract market attention for its eagerly awaited public debut in 2025 with its robust financial performance, diversified business plan, and support from international investors.
A common problem that people from middle and low-income group faces is shortage of money. Many plans and goals remain unfulfilled due to unavailability of money at the right time. Loans, especially personal loans, being collateral free can be a good way to solve this problem of money shortage. However, getting a personal loan is not easy either. From stringent eligibility criteria to extensive paperwork, there are lots of reasons which deter people from taking a personal loan. Thankfully, the situation is gradually changing. Financial institutions are now coming up with various viable loan options. Qbera, a Bangalore based fintech startup is making personal loans available quickly and easily so that you can get money just when most needed.
Qbera offers digital, quick, hassle-free personal loans. Founded in 2017, this Bangalore based startup offers instant personal loans to salaried and self-employed individuals across 900+ cities in India. Qbera’s vision is to provide super-smart, super-quick and super-fair credit services to creditworthy individuals. It aims to serve the underserved segment mostly comprising of individuals with low-to-mid level incomes, lower-than-prime credit scores, and those employed with uncategorized/unlisted companies across 900+ Indian cities.
Our core belief is to improve credit penetration in the economy by offering the best-unsecured loan services to salaried individuals in India.
Qbera Founders and CEO
Aditya Kumar, Anubhav Jain are the founders of Qbera.
Aditya Kumar is the founder and CEO of Qbera. He graduated in Economics from the University of Warwick. He is also an MSc in Investments from CASS Business School. Prior to Qbera, Aditya founded Oaktree International School, in Kolkata, which he exited in the year 2014. Aditya also worked with well-known organizations like Lehman Brothers and Clarks Group of Hotels.
Anubhav Jain is an alumnus of IIM Indore, where he did his MBA. He is an IT graduate. Prior to Qbera, Anubahv worked with LoanCircle as Director of Risk and Finance. He also co-founded StudyBud, a platform for simplifying campus placement preparations for institutes and students. At Qbera, Anubhav is the Head of Risk.
How was Qbera Started
The idea started with identifying a fundamental problem in the Indian credit market. A massive section of individuals remained underserved until fintech companies surfaced a few years ago. While a good number of individuals who once found it difficult to get loans can now get easy and convenient access to credit, the underserved market still holds tremendous potential.
The journey began with the understanding that credit penetration is extremely crucial for the economy. Individuals with subprime credit scores and those belonging to mid and low-income levels found it almost impossible to get personal loans from banks or traditional lending institutions. Fintechs have come in and turned the equation over its head.
Qbera started its operations in Bangalore and was launched in partnership with RBL (first lending partner). Initial capital was 3 crores – it was initially directed towards paying salaries of early team members, covering overhead costs such as rent, systems, etc.
Initial people, we spoke to Startup advisors, Industry professionals, Banks and NBFCs who were willing to collaborate in exploring the segment. The response was positive at the very least.
Qbera derives its name from “Kuber”, the Indian God of Wealth/Money.
Qbera Logo
What is Qbera
Qbera is actively addressing the problems of the underserved segment in India by offering instant credit to individuals who found themselves facing rejection owing to low-to-mid income levels, subprime credit scores and being employed with unlisted/uncategorized companies. Any person(salaried or self-employed) aged 23-55, with a minimum monthly income of 20,000 and a credit score of 625 or more can apply for Qbera loans. The best part is that the loan is disbursed within 24-48 hours.
Some of the key features of Qbera loans are–
1. Quick Registration 2. Minimal documentation 3. No collateral 4. Flexibility to Choose one’s own tenure 5. Budget-friendly interest rates 6. Security: Customer’s data is safe with 128 bit SSL encryption. 7. Simple repayment options: Qbera provides easy repayment of its smart loans through automatic debit of EMIs via NACH mandate.
Qbera offers loan amount ranging from Rs.1,00,000 to Rs.15,00,000. APR (Annual Percentage Rate) ranges from 11.99% to 35.99%. Loan lengths range from 12 to 60 months. Administration fee ranges from 1% to 5%.
Qbera’s USP is super-quick, super-smart and super-fair credit services through a paperless and presence-less loan process. Qbera uses alternative scoring methods to view a consumer’s profile comprehensively. Qbera’s eligibility framework isn’t confined to a consumer’s credit score and repayment history and looks at an individual’s social standing, income, ability to repay, employment stability, type of residence, etc. Qbera Focuses on data analytics and predictive analytics to understand consumer behavior much better and used various other methods through available data to more accurately determine a consumer’s repayment capability.
Qbera – Business Model and How it works
Qbera has partnered with Fullerton, RBL and IndusInd Bank to offer instant credit to individuals with a minimum net monthly income of Rs. 20,000 per month. Qbera determines the eligibility of consumers in-house, and Qbera’s lending partner/s come-in during the final stage of disbursement. The risk is shared in accordance with contractual terms with the lender/s.
Qbera – Funding and Investors
Qbera raised a 3 million dollar funding from E-city Ventures – the first round of funding since launching the startup. Qbera has utilized these funds for its expansion plans as well as to scale up its technology and offerings-
Funding Date
Funding Stage
Fundig Amount
Investors
2018
Series A
$3 Million
E-city Ventures
Qbera – User Acquisition
As revealed by Aditya, Qbera’s target market includes salaried/ self employed individuals between 23-55 years.
The industry in the next 5 years is expected to grow steadily, as the demand for credit products isn’t going to cease from any angle.
To generate more business, Qbera expanded its operations to several other cities in India, and also expanded its partner base to seal the deal with 2 other partners – IndusInd Bank and Fullerton other than its initial partner RBL bank.
Key strategy hacks followed by Qbera to expand its customer base are-
Accessing more relevant data and improving scoring models to take a larger view of available consumer data
Focusing on its funnels to convert creditworthy customers
Critically evaluating the mediums that influence its customer acquisitions.
As said by Aditya, arranging for enough capital to lend was one of the biggest challenges faced by Qbera. This challenge was met by Qbera by sealing new partnership with banks and NBFCs.
Acquiring an NBFC license is another challenging task. Futile tie-ups and unprofitable partnerships with channel partners is also a challenge for the company, which requires efficient handling.
Qbera – Competitors
LoanTap and MoneyTap are two core competitors of Qbera. Qbera is inspired by the excellent marketing campaigns run by LoanTap and MoneyTap.
Some other competitors are InCred, CapitalFloat, LendingKart, IndiaLends, Faircent, Lendbox, Progcap, EarlySalary and PaySense.
Qbera recently achieved a significant milestone by expanding its book size to over 100 crores. Qbera has its lending services across 180+ cities and serves 15,500 pin codes across the country. Qbera is the only fintech retail lender in India having such a vast presence.
With close to 100 crores of disbursal till date and less than 1% delinquency, we aim to soon be the largest digital lending platform in the country and further cement our leadership position in the alternate lending space.
