ZestMoney, the buy now pay later platform, is set to cease its operations by the end of December, according to an internal communication to its staff. The company, currently employing around 150 individuals, is compelled to take this step as it grapples with financial challenges, despite efforts to revitalize its operations. In a setback earlier this year, ZestMoney faced the departure of its three co-founders, Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma, and Ashish Anantharaman, following unsuccessful attempts to secure new funding and finalize an acquisition deal with PhonePe, a digital payment platform.
In a statement released in May, ZestMoney outlined a strategic shift, emphasizing a focus on core digital EMI and personal loan products while discontinuing SaaS and insurance business operations. Over the past six months, the company’s digital EMI product has faced challenges, encountering resistance not only from consumers but also from crucial partners such as payment aggregators, eCommerce platforms, and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).
Prosus, an investor with a significant 19.4% stake in ZestMoney, wrote off its $38 million investment as the company grappled with its financial downturn. Media reports indicate that ZestMoney terminated over 100 employees during a transitional phase. Despite raising approximately $5-7 million in seed funding in July, the company’s financial struggles persisted, culminating in the decision to shut down.
ZestMoney, which has raised a total of $125 million, including debt financing, experienced a decline following the implementation of new guidelines for Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) companies by the Reserve Bank of India in June 2022. The regulatory measures prohibited non-bank prepaid instrument issuers from loading instruments with credit lines.
As part of its wind-down strategy, ZestMoney intends to retain a minimal finance and legal team. This team will focus on selling the remaining assets of the business to a suitable buyer and overseeing the closure process. Although it is unlikely to attract interest from major fintech companies, there is speculation that a traditional NBFC might consider acquiring the technology in a potential firesale.
Established in 2015, ZestMoney initially operated as a loan-sourcing platform, facilitating rapid credit disbursal at the point of sale, particularly for online merchants. Collaborations with prominent eCommerce players such as Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra, and Nykaa were key to offering pay-later services. Following the breakdown of acquisition talks with PhonePe, ZestMoney attempted a shift in its business model, offering its technology stack as a white-label solution to other fintech lenders and NBFCs.
ZestMoney’s Loss Surges; Operating Revenue and Expenses Rise
Fintechs Learn from ZestMoney’s Cautionary Tale
Financial technology (fintech) experts suggest that stringent regulations have prompted non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and banks to reassess their associations with digital lending platforms. The rapid expansion of the personal loans sector through these platforms has raised concerns at the central bank for an extended period. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has consistently urged banks and NBFCs to exercise greater responsibility when engaging with digital platforms for lending. Additionally, pressure from civil rights groups has mounted, advocating for the elimination of predatory lending practices and addressing concerns related to recovery harassment.
The recent adjustment in risk weightage by the RBI has further complicated these partnerships. While there were speculations about the potential impact on the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) business, particularly for platforms like Paytm, the fintech giant has refuted such claims. However, it is anticipated that fintech companies operating in the realms of small-ticket personal loans and BNPL may encounter significant challenges in the coming months.
The closure of ZestMoney serves as a notable example of how heightened regulations can profoundly disrupt the operations of fintech startups. Numerous fintech ventures have expanded into digital lending in recent years, and the regulatory shifts pose a threat to their continued operations. In August of this year, two major consumer internet giants, Flipkart and Swiggy, announced their foray into lending. While Swiggy ventured into the co-branded credit card segment, Flipkart set its sights on the personal loan business.
Google Pay has also intensified its collaborations for both personal and merchant loans. Another major player, CRED, entered the lending arena with a BNPL product in 2022 and is currently exploring opportunities to expand its lending product offerings. Despite the saturation of the market with various digital lending platforms, the RBI’s decision to elevate risk weights appears to be a preventive measure against potential long-term catastrophes.
Fintech startups are recognizing that regulatory compliance is a fundamental aspect of their sector, and not merely an exception. In some ways, startups are acknowledging that merely activating digital lending channels may not suffice. In this context, the case of ZestMoney serves as a cautionary tale for the broader fintech ecosystem.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by ZestMoney.
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 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.
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
ZestMoney 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.
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.
One of the fastest-growing segments in consumer finance is BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) firms. A market segment that was worth 33 billion USD in 2019, according to GlobalData, had grown to 120 billion USD by 2021. The business model of BNPL firms emerged from extremely low-interest rates that allowed these firms to raise funds at low cost and offer point-of-sale loans to customers on online shopping websites.
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of Indians took advantage of eCommerce as online shopping gained a stronghold. Many of these shoppers did not own a credit card and opted for interest-free credit facilities at checkout points. To cater to this rising demand, online platforms and facilitators, who are mostly fintech firms like ZestMoney, LazyPay, Simpl, Pine Labs, and Capital Float, were willing to undertake the risks.
How BNPL startups are disrupting India’s lending space?
The Growth of BNPL
Global Transaction Value of Buy Now, Pay Later in Ecommerce from 2019 to 2026
As the economy slowly opened with restrictions, after the severe Covid-19 lockdown, the oncoming festive season of Diwali saw eCommerce firms like Flipkart and Amazon offer various fintech and credit products to make buying more affordable for their customers. In a bid to widen their customer base, these eCommerce sites made these offers available in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities as well.
Rajeev Kumar K, Senior Vice President, Market Development, South Asia of Mastercard said – “To encourage sales this festive season and making products more affordable for consumers, merchants are partnering with banks to come up with varied co-branded cards. For instance, Mastercard has a co-branded card with Flipkart and Axis Bank that offers higher reward points, cash backs and other benefits on making card purchases at partner brands.”
Backing this statement was Vikas Bansal, Director of Amazon Pay, who said, “We have definitely ramped up the coverage of our EMI-based credit products to help customers with affordability, keeping their monthly budget in control. Debit-card EMI will be a critical product for Tier 2 and 3 buyers this festive season. We have also increased the down payment cycles from 6 months to 9 months for credit card holders.”
He further went on to say that no-cost EMIs accounted for two-thirds of all EMI purchases on Amazon in 2020. Amazon launched the ‘Pay Later’ product in April of 2020 and by October of that year had already offered more than 10 lakh loans.
By 2021, consumer sentiment seemed to be peaking in light of higher vaccination rates. Indians were shrugging off the impact of a second wave of the coronavirus, which gave companies the confidence to look forward to a bumper festive season in 2021. This optimistic outlook was aided in large part by the flexibility to pay later.
The BNPL market size in 2021 was worth USD 132 billion which is expected to grow at a CAGR of 45% and reach an estimated value of USD 3680 billion by 2030.
Shop Now for Diwali and Pay Later With Flipkart Pay Later
The Buy Now Pay Later concept continued to grow during the festive season of 2021 with multiple eCommerce players seeing disbursals growing by more than 100% in comparison to the festive season of 2020.
LazyPay, the BNPL platform of Prosus-owned payments major PayU, saw a rise of 300% in credit demand, particularly in segments like travel, food & beverages and entertainment.
Anup Agrawal, Business Head at LazyPay said, “We also saw an uptick of 70 per cent in user acquisition in the last two months. Around 60 per cent of the demand is from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, specifically outside of the top 10 cities in India, while the average age of consumers is 26-27 years.”
Prateek Jindal, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Uni, a BNPL startup, said they saw a 100% increase in their transactions, both in volume and value, within the first four months of beginning operations.
He went on to say, “We are currently doing more than Rs 100 crore of monthly disbursals and the peak spend per day in the season was 200 per cent higher than the average.”
Lizzie Chapman, Co-Founder and CEO of the Bengaluru-based startup, ZestMoney, confirmed that the company added 5x new customers in October of 2021 and intended to cross a gross merchandise value of USD 1 billion in the financial year.
The eCommerce giant Flipkart too joined the bandwagon and raised the credit limit of its pay later service from INR 10,000 to INR 70,000 in September 2021, ahead of the festive season. For Flipkart, this move proved hugely successful as they witnessed a 4x increase in the number of transacting customers opting for Flipkart Pay Later.
A company spokesperson said, “India is traditionally a credit averse market and the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic’s impact has increased reliance on credit solutions. Access to credit is a key unsolved need for Indian customers who want to manage their expenses, while also fulfilling their aspirations.”
BharatPe, the fintech unicorn, launched its BNPL platform PostPe and saw a daily average disbursals grow by 2X reaching INR 6 crores within the first two weeks of launch.
Suhail Sameer, CEO of BharatPe said, “The top spends were in categories like cabs, QR transactions at grocery or small retailers as well as electronic purchases- these are ones that witness a spike during the festive season. We expect the numbers to stay steady post festive season as the awareness for the product has grown manifold in the last one month.”
Most of the eCommerce players witnessed an increase in spends on categories like apparel, electronics, grocery, cosmetics, and food delivery.
The payments company, Ezetap integrates BNPL with point-of-sales machines and at the checkout of eCommerce platforms. Ezetap recorded a 73% increase in Pay Later transactions volume and a 136% rise in transaction value during 2021 Diwali. It also recorded a 3% rise in the average ticket size of BNPL transactions.
The trending surge of BNPL shows no signs of slowing and is likely to grow exponentially in the coming months and years. The oncoming Diwali season is showing an increased demand for BNPL as consumers are eager to indulge in high-value shopping with the Pay Later options readily available on most mega eCommerce platforms.
FAQs
What is BNPL?
BNPL, short for Buy Now Pay Later, is a financing option that enables customers to buy a product or service and pay for it later within a specified interest-free period.
What is the best BNPL in India?
Some of the top BNPL apps in India are:
ZestMoney
LazyPay
Amazon Pay Later
Flipkart Pay Later
PostPe
How does BNPL help push eCommerce sales during Diwali?
BNPL plays an important role in pushing eCommerce sales during the Diwali season. It gives customers more control over how and when they want to pay for their products or services. This leads to a better customer experience which in turn helps in increasing sales.
Fintech, short for financial technology, has become a crucial part of the global economy., all financial tasks were completed through paperwork only, as a paper-based medium was considered to be the safest. But with the development of technology, the internet has emerged as the preferred platform for financial transactions.
It is essentially an economic industry composed of companies that use technology to make financial services more efficient. They are used mainly by individuals to help in mobile payments, insurance, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, stock trading, digital lending and credit, budgeting and much more. Tech-focused startups and similar new market entrants are disrupting the way in which the financial services industry conducts its operations.
India has the world’s second-biggest fintech hub with more than 2,565 startups operating currently, there were only 737 in 2014. India’s largest share from fintech startups is through ‘payments’ and is followed by lending, wealth tech, personal finance, insurtech, regtech and others.
Let’s look at the list of the top fintech companies in India.
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Paytm was founded in 2010 and is India’s largest payment company that offers consumers multi-source and multi-destination payment solutions. They allow consumers to make payments from any bank account to any other bank account free of cost, i.e., 0% fee charges. Over 8 million merchants have availed its comprehensive payment solutions.
Paytm was founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma and is owned by One97 Communications and is licensed by RBI. The Paytm app allows users to shop for both physical and digital goods, and also pay for DTH plans, bill payments, and mobile recharges.
The company partnered with Alibaba’s cloud computing arm – ‘AliCloud’ to expand its payment network on a global scale. They have investors like Berkshire Hathaway, SoftBank Group, and MediaTek and even raised an undisclosed amount from Ratan Tata in March 2015. It is arguably the biggest fintech startup in India.
2. Razorpay
Founder: Shashank Kumar, Harshil Mathur
Founded: 2013
Razorpay Logo
Founded in Bangalore, Razorpay focuses on the payment needs of startups and enterprises. With Razorpay, merchants can easily accept, process, and disburse money to and from their dealers. It was founded in 2014 by Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar.
Thousands of clients use its service as it allows an online business to accept, process, and distribute digital payments through various modes like debit cards, credit cards, net banking, UPI, and prepaid digital wallets. It is one of the biggest fintech companies in Bangalore.
3. Upstox
Founder: Ravi Kumar, Kavitha Subramanian and Shrini Viswanath
Founded: 2009
Upstox Logo
Upstox provides financial services such as investments in stocks, mutual funds, derivatives, commodities, ETFs, and digital gold. It ensures full transparency in pricing by offering zero brokerage for equity trades and up to INR 20 per order for intraday, commodities, and currencies.
The founders, Ravi Kumar, Kavita Subramanian, and Srini Vishwanath conceived this idea of making trading and investing easier and cheaper and created Upstox for fellow young Indians. The Mumbai-based company is backed by industry giants like Tiger Global and Ratan Tata and currently has more than 250 employees and the fintech is striving to make trading a second nature for its users.
4. Cred
Founder: Kunal Shah
Founded: 2018
Cred Logo
Cred is a fintech startup founded by Kunal Shah, the founder of FreeCharge. The app aims to make paying credit card bills simpler and rewards you for paying them on time. The app asks for your phone number to check your credit score with Cibil, CRIF and Experian.
5. ETMoney
Founder: Mukesh P Kalra
Founded: 2005
ETMoney Logo
ETMoney is a full-stack investment platform with a wide range of products in the domains of investments, credit cards and loans, insurance, and financial tools. It aims to simplify the financial journey of retail customers.
ETMoney was founded by Mukesh Kalra in 2015. A passionate company that indulges in personal finance, has become the first fintech company in India to introduce Aadhar-based SIP payments. With more than 100 crore bank accounts linked to Aadhar, the company plans to simplify installment payments with Aadhar OTP verifications.
The company has also partnered with Google Pay for a simplified way to invest in Mutual Funds and National Pension System.
Sampad Swain, Akash Gehani and Aditya Sengupta co-founded Instamojo in September 2012. Instamojo started as a solution provider of digital payments which now has progressively grown into a robust online platform for enterprises like micro, small, and medium so that they start, manage, and grow their businesses online.
MojoCapital from Instamojo helps disperse bite-sized short-term credit loans which are worth around $2 million. MojoCapital caters primarily to its merchants on a monthly basis, and it has shown a projected growth of 25% on the month on month basis.
PolicyBazaar is an online insurance aggregator for comparative analysis of products that are offered by various insurers using parameters like price, quality, and key benefits. It helps users compare insurance policies and assists them in selecting the best or the most relevant policy that can be purchased online or offline.
PolicyBazaar was founded by Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal, and Avaneesh Nirjar in June 2008 in Gurugram. They have raised over $650 million as of 2020. The online platform began as a price-comparison website and an information portal for learning about insurance and related programs; it then expanded to become a marketplace for insurance policies.
PolicyBazaar has tied up with insurance brokers which helps it procure information such as price, benefit, insurance cover, etc. directly from the insurers for the customer to compare. They do not charge anything from the customer for their service. The revenue for the company is generated from the fees charged for the marketing and advertisement stints done by insurance companies on its platform.
MobiKwik is an Indian fintech company that was founded in 2009 by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku. It is headquartered in Gurugram. MobiKwik is a digital wallet service provider that offers services mobile and online payments, phone and DTH recharge, mobile transfers, online shopping and a lot more.
It allows users to store up to INR 50,000 in a MobiKwik wallet that can be used to recharge mobile, pay bills, and shop across various channels. Their users can also use the partial payment feature for ticket reservations and cash pick-up for bus tickets booking.
MobiKwik’s investors include Sequoia Capital, NET1, GMO Venture Partners to name a few. Post demonetization, MobiKwik has made it free to transfer money from your wallet to your bank account.
Before demonetization, they used to charge 4% for a non-KYC compliant user and 1% fee for a KYC (know your customer) compliant user. They have over 100 million users across India and many more are being added. Non-KYC compliant users can transfer from INR 1000 to INR 20,000 to their bank account. But once your KYC is done, you can store upto INR 1,00,000 in your MobiKwik wallet.
9. ZestMoney
Founders: Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma and Ashish Anantharaman
Founded: 2015
Zest Money Logo
Do you want to buy something offline on EMI but don’t own a credit card? Zest Money has a buy now pay later policy and offers an EMI option that you can use to purchase things online or offline from its partner merchants. It is another Bangalore-based startup founded by Lizzie Chapman, Ashish Anantharaman, and Priya Sharma.
10. Lendingkart
Founder: Harshvardhan Lunia and Mukul Sachan
Founded: 2014
Lendingkart Logo
Lendingkart is an online financing company founded by Harshvardhan Lunia and Mukul Sachan in 2014. Lendingkartprovides loans for working capital needs for SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises); these loans are quick and collateral-free with minimal paperwork.
The company works across1300 cities and has disbused loans over INR 3,500+ crores till date (2020). Aditya Birla Capital, Saama Capital, Mayfield Fund, Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), and Darrin Capital Management are some of its prominent funding partners. In March 2016, Lendingkart entered into a strategic partnership with Mahindra’s SmartShift – a digitally enabled aggregator for cargo owners and transporters.
Lendingkart has access to a huge amount of data from data partners dispersed across the country. These data partners provide Lendingkart with diverse information about the vendor: educational qualification, family background, reputation, competitiveness in the market, etc.
Refrens is fairly new to the fintech industry in India. It was founded by Naman Sarawagi and Mohit Jain in 2019. Refrens provides a payment gateway system for freelancers to send and receive payments smoothly.
It offers free invoicing, payments, and expense management systems. For freelancers, it becomes easy to enable options like adding payment methods, offering discounts, etc. for their clients. It is so easy to use that it is possible to create an invoice in just 30 seconds.
Pine Labs is a Gurugram-based fintech platform that provides PoS (Point of Sale) software solutions for offline retailers and brands. It was founded in 1998 by Lokvir Kapoor, Rajul Garg and Tarun Upaday.
They initially offered a smart card-based payment and loyalty solution for the petroleum sector. It then introduced a PoS machine for offline merchants. Its ‘Plutus PoS’ solution is a cloud-based software that can be integrated with a generic POS terminal to allow retailers to accept debit and credit cards, e-wallets, QR codes, and UPI-based payments.
Pine Labs’ offerings include marketing tools, reporting and analytics, payment gateway API solutions, mobile payment solutions (via myPlutus), loyalty and gift card programs, value-added solutions like EMIs, discounts, pay by points, loyalty solutions, e-wallets and others.
The mobile app of Pine Labs is available on Android and iOS and can be used for targeted promotions, dynamic currency conversion and more. In 2017, Pine Labs launched its complete suite of services in Southeast Asian markets; it is present in Malaysia.
13. MoneyTap
Founders: Bala Parthasarathy, Kunal Varma, and Anuj Kacker
Founded: 2015
MoneyTap Logo
MoneyTap is India’s first app-based credit line. It provides you credit and you can repay your credit amount in flexible EMIs of 2 to 36 months. MoneyTap aims to make credit accessible to the Indians who use internet banking.
It uses customers’ details to evaluate the user’s eligibility and decide the credit limit. MoneyTap was launched in 2015 by Bala Parthasarathy, Kunal Verma, and Anuj Kacker.
14. Khatabook
Founders: Ravish Naresh, Dhanesh Kumar, and Jaideep Poonia
Founded: 2017
KhataBook Logo
Founded in October 2018, by Ashish Sonone, Dhanesh Kumar, Vaibhav Kalpe, Jaideep Poonia, and Ravish Naresh, Khatabook is the world’s fastest-growing SaaS company. It has become India’s leading business management app for MSMEs with 20M+ downloads in a remarkably short period of time.
This Bangalore-based mobile app service shares WhatsApp and SMS reminders to users when money is due to be paid or collected. Khatabook enables micro, small and medium merchants to track business transactions safely and securely.
Capital Float is a Bangalore-based digital finance company founded by Sashank Rishyasringa and Gaurav Hinduja that provides working capital loans and term loans to small businesses via a technology-led loan origination and credit underwriting platform.
Capital Float offers loans ranging from INR 1 lakh–INR 1 crore with terms between 1 – 12 months. The offered loans are based on cash flows, expected receivables, financials, CIBIL scores, and bank statements. Individuals can apply online for the loan and once the loan is approved, it is disbursed to their bank account.
If you have ordered from well-reputed corporate customers, you can borrow up to 80% of the value of an outstanding invoice, and repay only after you receive payment from your customer. The company has partnered with startups like Shopclues, Paytm, and Uber.
16. Shiksha Finance
Founders: V L Ramakrishnan and Jacob Abraham
Founded: 2014
Shiksha Finance Logo
Many individuals have the potential to become great students but the exorbitant tuition fees of educational institutions hinder them from pursuing education. Shiksha Finance provides short-term loans to students for their fees. The loan ranges from INR 10,000-INR to 30,050 and must be paid within 6-10 months. For a private school or college, the loan can range from INR 1 lakh-INR 73.5 lakh and can be paid within 6 months to 5 years. It was founded by Jacob Abraham in 2014.
Founded by Chandu Sohoni and Poorna Nayak in 2013, Amigobulls provides solutions to wealth management-related problems. You can get the daily stock analysis in the form of short, personalized videos.
The personalized videos are created automatically using Amigobulls’ technology; thousands of videos can be created in a few minutes. This fintech company offers investment advice and news to stock market investors through a patent-pending video generation technology.
18. KredX
Founders: Manish Kumar and Anurag Jain
Founded: 2015
KredX Logo
KredX isIndia’s first invoice discounting marketplace platform. It helps businesses gain quick access to working capital in around 24 to 72 hours by selling their unpaid receivables while providing investors with an opportunity to earn low-risk high returns through a unique short-term investment.
Founded by Anurag Jain, the company provides a technological platform that connects investors, both institutional and individual, with high-growth businesses looking for working capital through invoice discounting.
KredX’s objective is to facilitate short-term working capital to the SMEs raised against blue-chip companies to a network of financiers. KredX’s recent acquisition of Hummingbill, a New York-based startup – to strengthen technological capability has assisted the former to progress its growth curve in the lending space.
Founded by Ranjit Punja, Gowri Mukherjee and Rajasundaram Sudarshan in 2011, Credit Mantri is a credit facilitator which uses data and technology to help people make better financial decisions. It provides an Equifax credit score that is one of the four credit bureaus authorized in India by the RBI.
Anyone who needs credit can create a credit profile on CreditMantri’s website to apply for loans and credit card offers based on his or her credit profile. The Equifax score is used by CreditMantri to analyse the individual’s credit profile
Headquartered in Mumbai, Mswipe provides software solutions and payment devices to merchants. Mswipe works with all kinds of bank accounts; hence, merchants don’t have to open a new account for their devices. The company was founded in 2011 by Manish Patel.
21. Financial Software Systems (FSS)
Founders: Nagaraj Mylandla
Founded: 1991
FSS Logo
Financial Software Systems Pvt. Ltd. was founded in 1991 and is a Chennai-based fintech venture that provides electronic payment and financial transaction processing solutions and services globally. Financial Software Systems records all of the financial activities within a business organization.
Its products include card management, merchant management, mobile payments, financial inclusion, messaging middleware, and value-added solutions. FSS also offers software services that include systems integration, offshore development, project management and implementation, and 24/7 global helpdesk support services.
22. BankBazaar
Founder: Rati Rajkumar
Founded: 2008
BankBazaar Logo
BankBazaar is a Chennai-based online financial platform founded in 2008 by Adhil Shetty, Arjun Shetty, and Rati Shetty for product distribution and comparison analysis. It enables users to buy personal loans, home loans, auto loans, and education loans.
BankBazaar also offers debit and credit cards, life insurance, health insurance, auto insurance, travel insurance products, mutual funds, fixed deposits, and savings accounts. With multiple offers from multiple banks, you can compare offers and check your eligibility in minutes.
Users only need to provide basic details to apply for a product online and can track its status. BankBazaar’s revenue comes from application-based commissions from banks. Customers don’t need to pay any charge.
23. Active.Ai
Founder: Ravi Shankar, Parikshit Paspulati, Shankar Narayanan
Founded: 2016
Active.Ai Logo
Active.Ai provides chatbot solutions to all types of banks and other financial institutions. Although it is a Singapore-based startup, it has a lab in Banglore and was founded by 3 Indians – Ravishankar, Shankar Narayan, and Parikshit Paspulati in 2016. The main focus of Active.Ai is on the banking sector.
24. Finly
Founder: Vivek Alike Ganapathy
Founded: 2017
Finly Logo
Finly lets companies and startups analyse their expenses. Besides expense management, Finly also eases the process of fund disbursement, vendor payment, and helps with the automation of collection. It builds financial software products to save the companies money and time. It was founded in 2015 by Vivek AG.
25. Ezetap
Founder: Byas Nambisan
Founded: 2011
Ezetap Logo
Ezetap, co-founded by Abhijit (Bobby) Bose and Bhaktha Keshvachar, provides businesses and financial institutions with smart technological transaction solutions. The Company develops and commercializes a mobile point of sale (PoS) solution that allows mobile devices to be converted into PoS terminals by connecting a card-reader to the headphone jack of the device.
Financepeer helps to pay the entire year fees upfront to the School in one installment and collects fees in 3 to 12 monthly installments from parents at 0 Interest and 0 Cost. It is a Google incubated School (K-12) Fee Financing Company.Rohit Gajbhiye, Naveesh Reddy, Sunit Gajbhiye and Debi Prasad Baral launched Financepeer in 2017 to cater to an audience that cannot afford to pay the school fees all at once.
Loanwalle.com was founded by Sachin Mittal in 2015. It deals in payday loans which are quick emergency loans disbursed in 30 minutes from the time it is applied for. To fulfill the fast money requirements of the customers, the loan approval process is fully automated and is based on an algorithm that assesses the applicant’s creditworthiness.
28. Money View
Founder: Puneet Agarwal and Sanjay Aggarwal
Founded: 2014
Money View Logo
Money View was launched in 2014 by two IIT friends, Sanjay Aggarwal and Puneet Agarwal. Money View is a loan financer, and also helps in planning overall finances. Itcaters for the user with personal finance management, to keep a check on everyday finances and also provides loans ranging from INR 10,000 to 5,00,000 within a day or less. The application provides the user with a view of their bank balance, income spends, and income dues by pulling from their SMSes.The app runs and is updated even without internet connectivity.
29. Cube Wealth
Founder: Satyen Kothari
Founded: 2016
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Cube Wealth was founded by Satyen Kothari in 2016, who had previously founded Citrus Pay. Cube Wealth provides comprehensive portfolio management solutions to help busy professionals achieve their goals through investments.
The app helps individuals to invest in multiple asset classes including equities, mutual funds, P2P lending, gold, and even charitable investing to build a well-rounded portfolio. It is a subscription-based automated wealth technology application that works on the concept of disciplined long-term wealth creation.
Goal Teller founded by Vivek Banka in 2020 is a financial planning platform that allows users to build their own financial plans. It is a fintech startup in the investment planning space and is operating in the B2C space.
31. Kuants
Founders: Ayush Gangwar, Mohit Bansal
Founded: 2017
Kuants Logo
Kuants was founded in the last month of 2017, by Ayush Gangwar and Mohit Bansal. Their inspiration for the startup was to ensure that technology never acts as a barrier to a stock trader while exploring the domain of algorithmic trading. Kuants is a Fintech startup based in Gurugram, making algorithmic trading easy for those who cannot code themselves.
Akshat Saxena, Aurko Bhattacharya and Uday Somayajula are the founders of ePayLater. ePayLater provides credit at the point of sale. It offers a simple checkout experience by providing customers with the ability to conclude a transaction with just one click of a button. It is a ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ solution through which customers can get access to an instant credit limit to make faster purchases.
PayKun was launched by Nikunj Yadav, Prashant Kambad, Vijay Yadav, Deepak Dabhi and Nirav Solanki, who were five friends from Gujarat. It was founded in the year 2018, with the primary intention to introduce ease and integrity into the online payment system. PayKun is an online payment gateway integrator that allows merchants to integrate any payment gateway they prefer. It is an affordable and secure solution for sellers. And what’s more, it does not require the user to have any technical skills to use it.
PaisaDukan was established by Rajiv M Ranjan in 2017 . It is a P2P platform that acts as a mediator between investors and borrowers. The company serves as a digital marketplace to enable borrowers to meet their financial needs, provide investors with a safer and smarter investment option and aid financial inclusion.
35. Cashfree
Founders: Reeju Datta, Akash Sinha
Founded: 2015
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Cashfree, a full-stack payments solution is incubated and backed by PayPal and YCombinator respectively. Cashfree helps global and Indian businesses collect and disburse payments via 100+ payment methods including MasterCard, Visa, RuPay, UPI, NEFT, IMPS, Paytm, and other wallets.
It also claims of being India’s leading API banking platform. Other than payment gateway products, Cashfree has products such as UPI auto pay, Refunds Suite, Auto collect options and Marketplace settlements. Cashfree has integrated with major platforms such as Shopify, Amazon Pay, PayPal, Google Pay, and Ola Money.
36. CoinDCX
Founders: Sumit Gupta, Neeraj Khandelwal
Founded: 2018
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Founded by IIT Bombay alumni Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal in April 2018, CoinDCX is a beginner-friendly crypto exchange platform.Investment in cryptocurrency has been made easy by CoinDCX. The platform also enables users to access a wide range of financial products and services backed by insurance protection.
The crypto platform with 1 lakh active users has a more than $40 million trading volume. Backed by hedge fund giant Polychain Capital, the platform offers crypto transactions at no cost to investors. For those who trade, it charges a fee of 0.1%.
The company recently launched CoinDCX Go. This product runs on the 7M framework which studies and analyses the depths of the crypto market and predicts future threats. On this platform, crypto assets are listed with uncompromising listing criteria. The product accommodates currencies like Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Tron, Bitcoin Cash, Matic, Litecoin, etc.
Easy Home Finance is a housing finance company that offers home loans through a paperless route. The Mumbai-based company was founded by Rohit Chokhani. It is registered under National Housing Bank Act as a housing finance company and aims to tap the market using a paperless experience.
Its products include home loans, home construction/extension loans, loans against property, and loans through Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana. They also have a pre-approved property database for home options and instant loan approvals.
The company, backed by Harbourfront Group, aims to streamline the onboarding, assessment, and management of home loans through an AI-based lending platform. Easy Home Finances is focused on providing home loans to first-time buyers and women who wish to enter the property market and also targets customers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across India. It is also set to launch a Product-as-a-service (PaaS) with co-lenders and other financing companies.
38. Recko
Founder: Saurya Prakash Sinha
Founded: 2017
Recko Logo
Recko is a Bangalore-based fintech startup that is into the reconciliation of companies. It offers financial services to e-commerce companies, banks, and insurance providers who have huge volumes of transactions. It is a third-party transaction layer that ensures authenticity and transparency in all recorded transactions. Recko’s workings mainly rely on AI models to comprehend and collect data, connecting payment gateways, banks, and customer management systems.
Backed by Prime Ventures Partners and several angels, Recko was founded by Suarya Prakash Sinha and Prashant Borde. The fintech company claims to have reconciled accounts worth $5 billion to date and has integrated with big names in the fintech industry such as Myntra, Pharmeasy, Meesho, Dunzo, Townscript, and Grofers.
39. FypMoney
Founder: Kapil Banwari
Founded: 2021
Fyp Logo
Owned by Pockket Payment Technologies Ltd, FypMoney is a platform introduced for financial literacy in teenagers. The platform aims to target the age group 11-19 who comprise 15-20% of smartphone users. In a seed funding round, it has raised $2 million from angel investors including Leberatha Kallath, Mukesh Yadav, and Dinesh Nagpal.
FypMoney takes into consideration the concerns of parents with teenagers and has introduced features like instant pocket money transfers, tracking spending patterns with real-time transaction alerts, and setting transaction limits.
As for teenagers, it is equipped with quick transfer options like UPI, referral bonuses, Fyp Debit card, online investments in Mutual funds, savings, and a social community to interact with FypMoney users. The founder, Kapil Banwari believes that this platform will make teenagers aware of financial aspects, get them into a habit of saving and educate them about personal finance.
40. Avail Finance
Founder: Ankush Aggarwal
Founded: 2017
Avail Finance Logo
Avail Finance is a fintech startup based in Bangalore that exclusively focuses on the blue-collar workforce and aims at introducing credit facilities and financial literacy to them since they’re seldom aware of it. It provides them with a neo-banking platform and includes every individual on a credit hunt, under the financial umbrella.
The startup aims to reach that segment in the financial market that is oblivious to credit card penetration, has no credit history, and has a low to almost zero CIBIL score. The platform offers other financial services including savings, insurance, and investment products. Founded in 2017 by Ankush Agrawal and Tushar Mehndiratta, the startup has raised around INR 85 crore in a funding round led by Alpha wave Incubation.
Upwards is a fintech company that offers personal loans up to INR 2 lakhs within 24 hours to salaried individuals with no credit history and whose earning capacity is at least INR 15000 per month. The fintech has a wide range of personal loans that cover weddings, travel, studies, medical emergency, and home renovation. The company charges an interest rate of 18-32% on its financial products.
The Mumbai-based startup is currently active in more than 30 cities including Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. Founded in 2017 by alumni of IIT Delhi Abhishek Soni and Nimesh Verma, the company has disbursed INR 4 crore since its year of inception and is 40% of its credit demand coming from smaller towns of Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu.
KreditBee is a personal loan platform for self-employed and salaried professionals where they can avail of a loan starting from INR 1000 to INR 2 Lakhs with minimal paperwork and tenures from two to fifteen months. It offers loans to even those without a credit history. It hosts multiple non-banking financial companies (NBFC) that are licensed by the Reserve Bank of India. This includes KrazyBee Services Pvt Ltd which is a non-deposit financial institution that offers innovative technology and availability of credit.
Founded in May 2018 by a bunch of intellectuals from various IITs across India, KreditBee currently has more than 1200 employees and a user base of 20 million. Through its holding entity Finnov, KreditBee has recently raised $70 million which it says will be utilized towards scaling up the lending portfolio beyond personal loans.
43. Finin
Founders: Suman Gandham and Sudheer Maram
Founded: 2019
Finin Logo
Finin is a fintech startup that has launched itself as a “neobank”, in partnership with SBM bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the State Bank of Mauritius in India. It is a platform that focuses on saving rather than lending. The “neobank” has an AI-driven experience for its users which gets insights from your spend-save behaviour. It can be linked to all your bank accounts and keeps a track of your transactions and budgets. Users also receive customized investment options and hyper-personal financial tips that take into consideration your pay cheque, lifestyle, marital status, and more.
Finin users have to rely on SBM branch networks for banking activities and the physical branches which are currently operating in Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. Going against the flow, founder and CEO Suman Gandham believes Finin will make more revenue from wealth management services rather than lending services.
Founders: Samant Sikka, Sanjeev Sharma and Dhananjay Singh
Founded: 2016
Sqrll Logo
Sqrrl is an investment and wealth management platform for young individuals and professionals. The company is registered under AMFI and SEBI and is available in 9 Indian languages. It encourages Indians to save and invest better while guiding them towards building an investment portfolio with baby steps.
The company uses machine learning, AI, and data science to offer one-on-one assistance encouraging users to invest in high-performing mutual funds based on the risks, their goals, and requirements.
Based in Gurgaon, Haryana, Sqrrl has a team of 40 people including the founders namely Dhananjay Singh, Sanjeev Sharma, and Samant Sikka.
45. Moneyfront
Founders: Mohit Gang, Anil Bang, and Puneet Mehta
Founded: 2015
Moneyfront Logo
Moneyfront is a wealth management platform that allows you to invest in funds and keep a track of them. While many other platforms offer the same, Moneyfront uses a comprehensive database, news, and statistics and lays out the best options for its users. It provides model portfolios so that you have more options and you can measure your risk appetite and choose what’s best suited for your goals.
The fintech company tied hands with Niyogin Fintech, which provides collateral-free credit to MSMEs. Reportedly, Niyogin has acquired a 50.1% stake in Moneyfront for INR 12 crore.
Founders: Archit Gupta, Srivatsan Chari, Ankit Solanki, Raja Ram Gupta
Founded: 2011
ClearTax Logo
ClearTax is a financial services platform that helps individuals, tax experts, SMEs, and enterprises streamline income tax returns, GST, Invoicing, Billing solutions, and more. Cleartax helps businesses save 2-7% of their net GST every month while individuals have saved up to INR 86000 by filing their tax returns through them.
The company recently launched a GST-compliant billing and e-invoicing product called ClearOne. ClearOne is an easy, affordable, and compliance-proof solution for all the challenges faced by SMEs. Founded by Archit Gupta, Srivatsan Chari, and Ankit Solanki, ClearTax is helping millennials pay their own taxes in a simple and hassle-free manner.
47. Groww
Founders: Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain
Founded: 2016
Groww has become the unicorn in the fintech industry by raising $83 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global. The company has raised $140 million as capital so far. With a freshly acquired unicorn status, Groww is an investment platform that allows individuals to invest and trade in stocks, mutual funds, US stocks, and Gold. it also has fixed deposit options for conventional investors.
Backed by a huge force of investors such as Sequoia Capital India, Ribbit Capital, Y Combinator, Kauffman Fellows, Propel Venture Partners, and Kairos, Groww plans to deploy its funding into introducing financial educational content for its 1.5 crore registered users.
LoanTap is an NBFC registered under RBI that offers flexible personal loans which are EMI-free (partial repayments of principal amounts), and allows personal overdraft and debt consolidation loans that are best suited for your lifestyle and requirements. Whether it’s an upcoming holiday, a wedding, a loan repayment, a new vehicle purchase, or a business loan, LoanTap covers it all.
The Pune-based company recently tied hands with the Bank of Maharashtra into a co-lending agreement. This agreement would help the bank meet its priority lending target through a digital lending platform like LoanTap by avoiding visits to the branch and easier loan disbursals.
49. RevFin
Founder: Sameer Aggarwal
Founded: 2018
Revfin Logo
Founded by an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, Sameer Agarwal, RevFin is a digital lending platform that offers loans through its own NBFC. Its products include regular personal loans and Revloans, which is an unsecured credit limit that a customer can use at any time as per their convenience. RevFin has currently financed E-Rickshaws in several towns across India which include Kolkata, Jhansi, Dehradun, Hisar, and Delhi.
Headquartered in Delhi, RevFin was founded in 2018 and has captured the sector of vehicle loans for three-wheelers and two-wheelers. The fintech is backed by several angel investors including Harsh Jain, Anil Goyal, Anil Lamba, and Krishna B Singh.
50. PayU
Founders: Jose Velez, Martin Schrimpff, Arjan Bakker, Grzegorz Brochocki, Nitin Gupta, Shailaz Nag
Founded: 2002
PayU Logo
PayU is one of the best fintech companies in India that provides a payment gateway and payment solutions for online merchants. The platform provides a seamless experience when users check out a particular website or mobile app. It integrates various gateways such as net banking, Visa and MasterCard, UPI, and wallets.
PayU has integrated with giants like Netflix, Myntra, and Cred with unique payment solutions where customers can choose any payment option on any platform or website. It also enables customers to accept payments outside India from 100-plus countries.
PayU India is the flagship company of Naspers Group, based in London. It has also launched an alternate lending platform called LazyPay to offer credit solutions such as Small ticket credit (Buy now pay later), App-based Loans, and Point of sale credit (Merchant EMI).
Conclusion
Startups work hard on their products, marketing, and other business activities but forget about one crucial aspect: finance. Managing one’s finances is of utmost importance. Business is all about money, you can’t run a business if you don’t think about money. This list of fintech startups in India should help you understand the advancements in the world of Finance and give you an insight into India’s biggest and top fintech to keep an eye out for.
There are more than 2000 fintech startups in India as of 2022.
What are some of the biggest fintech startups in India?
Some of the biggest fintech startups in India are,
Paytm
Cred
Razorpay
Instamojo
Lendingkart
MoneyView
Paykun
PaisaDukan
Mswipe
Kredx
What is FinTech Company India?
Financial technology is abbreviated to FinTech and it comprises companies that use technology to offer financial services. It has emerged as a relatively new industry in India.
What are examples of FinTech?
Some examples of FinTech are mobile banking, mobile payments, trading, cryptocurrency, insurance, trading, and lending to name a few.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verifiedinformation ondifferent startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by MoneyTap.
Don’t you think life would have been easier if you had a personal line of credit at your disposal? Who doesn’t want a hassle-free credit, where there are no formalities and paperwork? And the icing on the cake would be the money getting topped up in your account as you keep paying back the borrowed amount.
You are wrong if you think this isn’t possible. MoneyTap, a Bangalore-based startup has made this dream a reality. The company claims to be India’s first app-based personal line of credit for consumers. MoneyTap is India’s first company that provides lifetime credit of up to Rs. 5 lakh instantly to its customers.
Started by three serial entrepreneurs, Bala Parthasarathy, Kunal Verma, and Anuj Kacker, MoneyTap was incorporated in October 2015. It offers instant personal loans of up to Rs 5 Lakhs, with the entire KYC process happening through its mobile app. It is headquartered in Bangalore, India.
The startup aims to deliver quick and flexible personal loans to individuals in partnership with banks – smoothly and efficiently.
The MoneyTap app is a trustworthy and reliable one with many USPs. The app offers instant online loans through a 100% paperless process and doesn’t require a bank visit. Moreover, one has to pay interest only on the amount borrowed. A loan taken through their app is collateral-free and has flexible loan tenures of 2-36 months. MoneyTap is India’s first company that provides lifetime credit of up to Rs.5 lakh instantly to its customers.
Getting loans from MoneyTap is super easy. Eligible candidates need to download the app and fill the KYC. After completion of the KYC formalities, the loan is approved and the customer is given a MoneyTap credit card that’s loaded with the sanctioned amount. This can be used as a credit card or for withdrawing from the MoneyTap account. Once the repayments are done and there isn’t further need for an account, one can easily close the account through their website or the app.
To be Eligible for MoneyTap Loans, one needs to be between 23-55 years of age and should have a regular source of income. A person having as low as a minimum in-hand salary of Rs 15,000 per month can apply for loans on the platform.
A Complete Guide on How to get Instant Loan from MoneyTap
MoneyTap – Industry Details
With the significant increase in internet users, almost every solution is now available online. Like all other services, financial services have also become accessible through apps and online services. Many Fintech companies are cropping up in the Indian market.
India is amongst the fastest-growing Fintech markets in the world. Of the 2,100+ FinTechs existing in India today, over 67% have been set up in the last 5 years. The Indian Fintech market is currently valued at $31 Bn and is expected to grow to $84 Bn by 2025, at a CAGR of 22%.
The Fintech transaction value size is set to grow from US$ 66 Bn in 2019 to US$ 138 Bn in 2023, at a CAGR of 20%.
The Indian government is also launching initiatives to develop Visakhapatnam (Vizag) as the ‘fintech valley’.
MoneyTap CEO, BalaParthasarathy is the co-founder of multiple startups in Silicon Valley, including Snapfish (sold to Hewlett Packard). He has contributed immensely to the growth of Snapfish by gathering 100M users and $300M in revenue. Bala also volunteered for UIDAI under Mr Nandan Nilekani in 2007. He started AngelPrime, an angel investment firm in 2011 (now Prime Venture Partners). While working with AngelPrime he helped shape companies like ZipDial (sold to Twitter), EZETap, Happay, etc.
KunalVarma is a serial entrepreneur, who founded Whimsia Custom Works, a company for customized merchandise, and Aspirare, which designs learning programs and assessment solutions for job seekers and college graduates. Kunal along with Anuj Kacker also co-founded Tapstart, a job discovery platform.
Anuj Kacker is the COO of MoneyTap. Anuj has experience in diverse fields courtesy of working with established brands such as Airtel, Reliance, and JWT. He co-founded Tapstart which grew to 300K users and turned profitable within two years. Anuj exited Tapstart in 2015 to join MoneyTap.
With a small office in Mumbai and the headquarters in Bengaluru, the MoneyTap workforce is comprised of 30 people, as per 2019 data.
MoneyTap – The Idea And Launch
MoneyTap Founder
MoneyTap was founded keeping in mind the needs of the middle class. The salaried class is often constrained by monetary issues when it comes to satisfying needs. These needs can be anything like medical needs, school fees, or house rent.
The trio observed that just a minimal amount of credit could help the middle class take care of these needs easily. But extensive paperwork and formalities make people apprehensive about taking loans unless it’s a huge amount. Moreover, credit cards and personal loans are not very popular in India.
Besides, the middle class also finds it humiliating to borrow money from family and friends. MoneyTap was the solution to this conflation of issues.
The name MoneyTap was chosen because the app allows users to get money simply at the tap of the finger.
MoneyTap – How it Works?
The MoneyTap app, launched in partnership with the RBL Bank and several NBFCs, issues collateral-free credit up to a limit of Rs 5 Lakhs. The founders added that consumers can borrow anywhere between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5 Lakhs from the app and choose from among several repayment options with regards to time ranging from 2 to 36 months. MoneyTap and RBL also launched the RBL MoneyTap credit card. The card can be used like any other credit card for making online and offline payments. Users can also transfer money from the MoneyTap app to their bank accounts directly.
MoneyTap offers loans at an interest rate as low as 1.08% per month, and 13% to 18% per annum.
Consumers have to pay a one-time setup fee of Rs 499 along with taxes which is payable to the banking partner directly for blocking the credit limit.
We are trying to get the middle-income group to use our application. For us, the sweet spot is someone who earns in the salary bracket of Rs 40,000 – 50,000 monthly. However, we also don’t mind it being lower.
The founders also add that the money gets replenished as soon the customers start paying their EMIs. For example, an amount of Rs 30,000 borrowed (out of the credit limit of Rs 5 Lakh) will get replenished as the person pays their instalments over time, thus becoming available for borrowing in the future. Further, the onboarding of customers happens through a chatbot interface wherein the system instantly connects to the banking system and the credit bureau to find out the credit history of the customer. The money then gets approved accordingly.
MoneyTap adheres to strong business fundamentals since money lending requires attention to detail. The way it makes money is through a revenue share with banking partners. Every time a customer gets approved for access to a credit line for a lifetime, a small fee of Rs 500 is charged. Once the customer spends some money for one year, the money is recovered. Also, the usual interest paid by the customer along with the processing fees that are charged every time a person borrows also increases profitability.
MoneyTap is designed to be a product company running on the backbone of data science, technology, and product thinking. It is also focused on low-cost, tech-friendly solutions to pave the way towards increased revenue.
MoneyTap – Customer Acquisition
MoneyTap was successful in building a large customer base within a short period. Within eight months of its inception, the company acquired 300,000 registered users from 14 cities in India.
MoneyTap acquires some of its customers organically. The company also markets its products through Google, social media, and content marketing.
According to Bala, there are a billion consumers in the country, and MoneyTap serves only 1% of them. He considers that even doubling this figure to 2% is a huge win.
MoneyTap – Funding and Investors
Date
Stage
Amount
Investor
Jun 14, 2017
Series A
$12.3 million
Sequoia India, New Enterprise Associates, Prime Venture partners
Jan 28, 2020
Series B
$70 million
Sequoia Capital India, RTP Global, Prime Venture Partners, Aquiline Technology Growth & MegaDelta Capital
MoneyTap has raised $82.3 million in 2 rounds of funding to date. In the latest round, MoneyTap raised funding worth $70 Million (500 Crore) in January 2020. Here are the funding and investor details of MoneyTap.
The funding, as stated by Bala, has strengthened the leadership position of the consumer lending firm by improving credit accessibility for other customer segments.
The most challenging thing in the consumer lending business is acquiring capital at low costs.
Some of the major challenges faced by MoneyTap are:
Identifying trustworthy borrowers to whom credit can be disbursed without the fear of default.
Maintaining strong relations with banks and NBFCs.
MoneyTap – Competitors
Finomena is MoneyTap’s #1 competitor. Finomena was founded in 2015 in New Delhi. Like MoneyTap, Finomena also operates in the consumer finance space.
Other major rivals of MoneyTap are, PaySense and ZestMoney. Both of these companies, founded in 2015, function in the same segment. While PaySense is located in Mumbai, ZestMoney is located in Bangalore.
Besides, CreditVidya and Delhi-based Revfinalso competes with MoneyTap.
MoneyTap – Achievements
MoneyTap has more than 5 Million downloads. However, this number isn’t indicative of customers who hold a credit line, since the rejection rate from the pool of applicants can be as high as 60-70 per cent. This high rejection rate is due to the rigorous checks done by the app’s algorithms.
Almost 90 per cent of MoneyTap’s customers who have been issued credit lines are active and have drawn credit multiple times through the app. The average lending size of the company is Rs 30,000–35,000 and the average age of the customer is 28–30 years.
MoneyTap is currently operational in 60 Indian cities, with the majority of its users coming from the top metros like Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Chennai. The company is planning to expand its footprints to 200 cities soon. MoneyTap also claims to have its non-performing assets well within the one per cent mark.
MoneyTap was awarded the ‘Best Innovative Lending Product/Service’ in the Payment & Fintech category at the 8th India Digital Awards. The award show was organized by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). MoneyTap was also awarded the leading FinTech Company in the lending categoryat PICUP Fintech 2017.
MoneyTap – Acquisitions And Mergers
MoneyTap is not actively looking for acquisitions. Bala tells that MoneyTap might acquire companies sharing similar values.
MoneyTap – Partners
MoneyTap launched its product with RBL Bank, its first banking partner. With the help of RBL’s Technology, MoneyTap was able to serve customers with quick decisions and quick access to the money round the clock. Moreover, RBL Bank also provides a MoneyTap-RBL Credit Card with the credit line.
In 2017, MoneyTap announced a partnership with Aditya Birla Finance Limited (ABFL). MoneyTap also has several other banks and NBFCs as partners.
In December 2020, MoneyTap announced its partnership with Pawtect with a view to offering Pet Insurance Policies to their employees.
MoneyTap – Future Plans
MoneyTap’s plans include:
It is looking to expand to more Tier II and III cities in India, and to global markets with South East Asia and the Middle East.
The company currently claims to have a loan book of 1000 crores and aims to make it 5000 crores by 2021.
The company currently targets customers in the age group 29-31, with average incomes of INR 30,000-INR 40,000 per month, but is planning to reach out to groups having income as low as Rs 10000-15000 soon.
MoneyTap has also received an NBFC license in September 2019 and plans to launch its own NBFC company soon.
MoneyTap – FAQs
What is MoneyTap?
MoneyTap is a Fintech company that aims to deliver quick and flexible personal loans to individuals.
Who are the Founders of MoneyTap?
MoneyTap was founded by Bala Parthasarathy, Kunal Varma, and Anuj Kacker in 2015.
How much is MoneyTap Funding?
MoneyTap has raised $82.3 million in 2 rounds of funding. In the latest round, MoneyTap raised funding worth $70 Million (500 Crore) in January 2020.
Aditya Sankaran
