Emerging Peer-To-Peer (P2P) Lending Landscape In India

What do you do when you require a loan?

Most of us end up walking to a bank branch and initiate the process of involving high paperwork and operational hassles. After, a lot of consideration, the loan might or might not get approved depending on a host of factors like credit bureau footprints, bank records, employments status etc.

However, people without sufficient bank records or credit history, for whatever reason, doesn’t get approved. The most common solution for these people would be moneylenders who are willing to give out a personal loan to the borrowers at exorbitant interest rates.

Money lending has existed in India since ages owing to higher costs & lack of infrastructure to reach the unbanked masses. This used to be highly unorganized and was done mostly within closed communities.

These gaps in the current financial services landscape have given way to innovative fintech business models like P2P lending to connect creditworthy borrowers directly with lenders at reduced operational costs & other bottlenecks.

How is P2P evolving in India?

India is already becoming the fintech hotspot with P2P lending having immense potential given the Credit to GDP ratio in India stands below 50%. With young demographics, changing consumer behavior, increasing internet penetration & government initiatives like Digital India, Aadhaar stack etc., India is poised for innovative solutions to drive financial services.

By 2020, Indian credit market is expected to generate a demand of almost $3 trillion. With RBI releasing guidelines for P2P lending in FY 2017-18, it has already started attracting the early birds. The time is right for investors looking alternate investments for double digit returns while contributing towards financial inclusion.

Active P2P Platforms in India

There are multiple active P2P platforms garnering venture capital investments like RupeeCircle, Faircent, Monexo, LendenClub, i2ifunding etc.

With a seed fund of INR 40 million from Mahindra Finance & incubation into Oracle Global startup ecosystem, RupeeCircle has enrolled 3000+ borrowers & 300+ investors on its platform.

“We plan to establish us as the India’s most trusted Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending & investment platform. While providing average return of 24% per annum, we aim to serve creditworthy borrowers with technology backed credit underwriting to ensure our  default rates are lower than 1%”

– Ajit Kumar, Founder & CEO, RuppeeCircle.

 

“Our product features like Auto Invest, Re-Invest & ML based Risk Grading are helping investors to generate excellent returns while ensuring fair & transparent interest rates for borrowers. We are confident of bringing one million individuals under the ambit of P2P finance by 2025”

– Nikhil Prabhakar, Head of Marketing & Products, RupeeCircle.

Read more about P2P lending landscape here.