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Many times in our lives, we just need a small financial push to realize our dreams or fulfill our needs. In today’s organized money market, we turn to banks and other financial institutions for credit for various purposes. However, it’s not always easy to get a loan. From documentation to your current income and credit history, there are lots of parameters that you need to fulfill to get credit.
Thankfully, the scenario is changing now, and many financial and fintech startups are coming up with innovative ways to make borrowing easy and quick for customers.
Bangalore-based ZestMoney is one such fintech startup that is making borrowing possible for people who have an insufficient credit history. People can get quick and easy loans and pay for products with ZestMoney Easy EMI.
Let’s know more about this BNPL startup that is making life easy for millions of Indians by providing easy access to credit.
ZestMoney – Company Highlights
| Startup Name | ZestMoney |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Bangalore, Karnataka, India |
| Sector | Financial Services |
| Founders | Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma, Ashish Anantharaman |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Parent Organization | Camden Town Technologies Private Limited |
| Website | zestmoney.in |
ZestMoney – About
ZestMoney – Founders and Team
ZestMoney – Startup Story
ZestMoney – Mission and Vision
ZestMoney – Name, Tagline & Logo
ZestMoney – Business and Revenue Model
ZestMoney – Funding & Investors
ZestMoney – Growth and Revenue
ZestMoney – Partnerships
ZestMoney – Competitors
ZestMoney – Future Plans
ZestMoney – About
ZestMoney is a platform that uses mobile technology, digital banking, and Artificial Intelligence to make getting loans easy. While many lending organizations hesitate to lend money in the absence of proper credit history, ZestMoney is the platform that does not see the absence of credit history as a barrier to getting a loan. ZestMoney through its AI-based machine learning decision engine creates a risk profile for every borrower. The ones who do not have sufficient credit history just need to provide some additional information based on which ZestMoney’s Decision Engine analyzes the credibility of the borrower and lends him money.
The products of ZestMoney include ‘credit limit’, also called ZestMoney EMI, and personal loans. To be able to access the ZestMoney Credit Limit, one just has to sign up with ZestMoney and complete the KYC process. Once approved, a user is assigned a credit limit based on his eligibility, and the user can use this credit limit to make payments to ZestMoney’s 3000+ merchant partners. ZestMoney has partnered with leading brands from different categories like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, SleepyCat, Xiaomi, NestAway, UpGrad, and many more.
The company’s lending partners include DMI Finance, Fox Capital, PACE Finance, Northern Arc, SMC Finance, Nahar Credits, InCred, Muthoot Finance, CSB Bank, Ghalla Bhansali, IIFL, and Hedge Finance.
ZestMoney offers personal loans only to customers who are using ZestMoney’s ‘Credit Limit’ service. As such one who wants to take a personal loan from ZestMoney needs to apply for ZestMoney ‘Credit Limit’ first.
Yash Gupta
ZestMoney – Founders and Team
ZestMoney’s founder trio, Lizzie Chapman from London, Priya Sharma from Delhi, and Ashish Anantharaman from Mumbai, were associated with a UK-based finance company called Wonga.
Lizzie Chapman
Lizzie Chapman served as the co-founder and CEO of ZestMoney. Lizzie was a student at the University of Edinburgh, where she obtained her BSc. degree in Microbiology. She started her career with Goldman Sachs, where she worked as a Business Analyst and an Associate. She then served as an Investment Manager at the Wellcome Trust. Wonga.com was the next company that she joined, and she served as the Country Head of India there. She then founded Abode Bombay. She also served as an Executive Director at DBS Bank and a Non-Executive Board Member at IndiaMart.
Lizzie is an advisor at India Quotient, a member of the Innovation Council of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and a member of the National Startup Advisory Council (NSAC).
Priya Sharma
Priya Sharma served as the co-founder, CFO, and COO of ZestMoney. Priya did a B.Tech. in Metallurgical Engineering from IIT Varanasi before obtaining an MBA in Finance from London Business School. Priya Sharma served as a Senior Associate at Sapient, a Consultant at Delloite, and an associate at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and then she joined Wonga.com, where Priya was the head of corporate development before joining hands with the other co-founders and building ZestMoney.
Ashish Anantharaman
Ashish Anantharaman served as the co-founder and CTO of ZestMoney. He has a Bachelor’s degree in science, software engineering from the University of Mumbai. Ashish previously served as an Application Developer at Veritas Technologies LLC, a senior developer at Betfair, an engineering team lead at Sportingbet, and then the head of engineering at Wonga.com.
In a recent development, co-founders Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma, and Ashish Anantharaman have stepped down from their positions at ZestMoney. This decision comes in the wake of the collapse of the anticipated acquisition deal with PhonePe.
ZestMoney has announced that Abhishek Sharma, currently serving as the senior vice president of growth, Mandar Satpute, the chief banking officer, and Mohit Chhajer, the vice president of finance and financial operations (FinOps), will assume leadership positions within the company. This decision reflects ZestMoney’s commitment to maintaining a strong and experienced leadership team.
ZestMoney – Startup Story
Lizzie, Priya, and Ashish observed that the Online Credit Transaction facility was not up to the mark in India. Also getting credit was not easy for those who do not have proper credit history. With their knowledge and experience, they wanted to create a solution to resolve these uses, which led them to start ZestMoney in 2015.
ZestMoney – Mission and Vision
“We are on a mission to make life more affordable for India using technology-led solutions,” says the mission statement of ZestMoney. Making life affordable is the vision of ZestMoney.
ZestMoney – Name, Tagline & Logo
The word ‘Zest’ stands for positive feelings like enthusiasm, zeal, and passion, and thus the word ‘Zest’ in ‘ZestMoney’ represents the quick lending of money by ZestMoney thus making borrowing money a happy process rather than a matter of concern. The tagline of the company is ‘Adjust Nahi, Zest Karo.’
ZestMoney – Business and Revenue Model
ZestMoney acts as a virtual EMI platform, which integrates with merchants across online and offline channels. The company serves as a payment partner and an affiliate partner to these merchants and helps bring them new transactions and customers.
The company generates the major chunk of its revenues from the Direct Selling Agency Fees, which is the money that the company collects from its lending partners (NBFCs) as a result of the various services like lead generation, KYC, customer care and branding, which it provides. ZestMoney also charges a merchant commission on a fixed rate on products and services purchased by the borrowers from the merchants. Arranger fees are another vertical of revenue that ZestMoney has along with the other verticals, which consists of income from any other revenue wing.
Ashwini
ZestMoney – Funding & Investors
ZestMoney has raised funding from leading investors like Goldman Sachs, Quona Capital, Alteria Capital, and Primrose. The funding details of ZestMoney are listed below:
| Date | Funding Round | Amount | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 29, 2022 | Debt Financing | $2.54 million | Alteria Capital |
| September 22, 2021 | Series C | $50 million | Zip Co Limited |
| March 13, 2020 | Venture | $11.3 million | Primrose Hills Ventures |
| December 19, 2019 | Series B | $15 million | Goldman Sachs |
| April 22, 2019 | Series B | $20 million | Quona Capital |
| January 18, 2019 | Debt Financing | – | Alteria Capital |
| August 27, 2018 | Series A | $13.4 million | Xiaomi |
| December 7, 2016 | Series A | $6.5 million | PayU |
| September 1, 2015 | Seed | $2 million | Nelson Holzner, Omidyar Network |
ZestMoney – Growth and Revenue
ZestMoney earns commissions from merchant partners, lending partners, and also from borrowers. The company has reported that it has 17+ million registered users and expects the numbers to rise further.
In 2019, the company also had an NPS rating of 75, which is higher than that of Amazon and Uber.
In March 2021, ZestMoney stood second in a ranking of the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in India by Deloitte Technology. The rankings were based on percentage revenue growth over three years and ZestMoney grew 2,706 percent in these years.
The leading player in the Indian fintech industry, ZestMoney’s total revenue grew 1.6x to INR 145 crore in FY22 from INR 89.3 crore in FY21. Operating revenue also witnessed substantial growth, soaring by 68.6% to INR 138.4 crore in FY22 from INR 82 crore in FY21.
However, alongside its revenue growth, ZestMoney also faced widening losses, with losses expanding 3x to INR 398.8 crore in FY22 compared to INR 125.8 crore in FY21.
ZestMoney – Partnerships
Though ZestMoney is known for partnering with lenders like ICICI Bank, TATA Capital, DCB Bank, and more, the company also saw some partnerships outside of it.
ZestMoney partnered with Pickyourtrail on February 2020. The fintech company collaborated with the Chennai-based travel startup to provide consumers with flexible payment options for booking itineraries. This tie-up comes as a part of Pickyourtrail’s strategic plan to reach more customers.
The new partnership aims to facilitate travelers a more seamless travel booking experience by offering No Cost EMIs, along with options to ‘Travel now, pay later in 3 easy installments’. Providing the highest approval rates and zero pre-closure charges, travelers now don’t require credit history and are assured hassle-free online loan approval to experience their dream destination.
ZestMoney is the largest consumer lending fintech company in India. Its unique platform uses mobile technology, digital banking, and Artificial Intelligence to make life more affordable to people who currently don’t have access to credit cards or formal financing options due to insufficient credit history. Pickyourtrail is the latest brand to get Zestmoney onboard as a payment partner. The company has previously partnered with notable brands like Amazon, Myntra, Raymond, Uber, Big Bazaar, and Titan.
ZestMoney – Competitors
Some of the major competitors of ZestMoney are:
- Finzy
- LazyPay
- Snapmint
- KredXIndia
ZestMoney – Future Plans
The company plans to expand its product development and partnerships with an increased run rate in the future. While several ZestMoney Merchant Partners like Xiaomi, Titan, and Croma, accept ZestMoney EMI at offline stores, the company is partnering with more such merchants which will allow customers to pay using ZestMoney EMI in more offline outlets.
FAQs
What is ZestMoney?
ZestMoney is a Bangalore-based Fintech startup that is making borrowing possible for people who have an insufficient credit history.
Who is the Founder of ZestMoney?
Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma, and Ashish Anantharaman are founders of ZestMoney.
Who are the competitors of ZestMoney?
Finzy, LazyPay, Snapmint, and KredXIndia are some of the major competitors of ZestMoney.
Who are the partners of ZestMoney?
ZestMoney has partnered with leading brands like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Xiaomi, Udacity, upGrad, and many more.
Who are the lending partners of ZestMoney?
The lending partners of ZestMoney include DMI Finance, Northern Arc, SMC Finance, Nahar Credits, InCred, Muthoot Finance, CSB Bank, Ghalla Bhansali, IIFL, and Hedge Finance.
How do I pay with ZestMoney?
To pay with ZestMoney, select the EMI option at checkout and choose ZestMoney EMI as your payment method.
