From an IIT Madras engineering pupil to a Silicon Valley-based totally entrepreneur to a VC in Bengaluru, the journey of Bala Parthasarathy has been an exhilarating tale of ambition, resourcefulness and ingenuity. The excessive points of his profession had been many, along with the time he bought Snapfish to Hewlett Packard for a whopping $300 Mn as well as the 12 months he spent volunteering at UIDAI underneath the Government of India. His stint as an investor, but, didn’t last lengthy. Ensnared through the appeal of entrepreneurship, Bala ventured into the promising global of fintech with MoneyTap, a client lending startup that was launched ultimate September.
Touted as India’s first app-based credit score line, the fintech startup is operating to democratise credit in a rustic in which 19% of the full populace continues to be unbanked. So, what precisely is a line of credit (LOC)?
Think of it as having a personal coins reserve at your disposal. You can take cash out every time you want with only a faucet of your finger, while not having to go to a bank or filling out useless bureaucracy. The credit score line, Bala claims, is an innovative product that offers customers flexibility no longer simplest in price tag length, however also in terms of payback period. Once the borrowed amount is paid returned, the cash gets straight away replenished inside the person’s account, no questions requested!
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Since its launch in September 2016, MoneyTap has gone through giant increase. Let’s study a number of its achievements during the last eight months:
The Story Of A Serial Entrepreneur: From Snapfish To MoneyTap
Bala has been a part of over 20 startups in his career, most considerably Snapfish which he co-founded together with Rajil Kapoor, Suneet Wadhwa, and Shripati Acharya. Started for the duration of the overdue dot-com technology. The internet-based totally picture sharing and printing carrier became sold to HP in 2005 for a astounding $three hundred Mn. Today, the web page caters to greater than 103 Mn users globally, has generated upwards of $900 Mn in revenue when you consider that its inception.
For Bala Parthasarathy, however, the fun of starting off is similar to the euphoria of homecoming.
He additionally co-based iSelect and Wyatt River Software, which became later received with the aid of SafeNet. Following the course that few NRIs have taken earlier than him, Bala again to India soon afterwards to begin a Seed degree funding firm, Prime Venture Partners in 2014 (formerly known as AngelPrime), along with Sanjay Swamy and Shripati Acharya. The VC company has invested in startups across numerous verticals, such as HackerEarth, Nimble Wireless, digital payments answer issuer Ezetap, and Happay.
For Bala Parthasarathy, however, the joys of taking off is corresponding to the euphoria of homecoming. After years at Prime Venture Partners, Bala again to entrepreneurship another time, and this time with fellow techies, Kunal Verma and Anuj Kacker. And this is in which MoneyTap’s adventure started. Interestingly, Kunal and Anuj co-based TapStart, a task discovery platform for consumers lower back in 2013. The duo managed to scale the organization to over three hundred,000 users, earlier than selling off their stake inside the venture in September 2015.
“The reason we started MoneyTap was that we wanted to remedy the trouble of purchaser credit. Clearly, India may be very credit score starved. Less than 1% of Indian purchasers have access to any shape of unsecured credit from a bank or any financial organization. Most people, whether it’s from middle elegance or lower center elegance, need credit, however they must use informal techniques,” explains Bala.
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MoneyTap Looks To Solve The Problem Of Insufficient Consumer Lending In India
During his stint at UIDAI, Bala Parthasarathy talked to some of bankers and over 1,000 clients in Mumbai about their experiences. He recollects, “Most of them did now not even remember banks as a pass-to option when they wished additional price range. Cumbersome processes, rigid products and entire loss of transparency have been their principal reasons to avoid banks absolutely. This turned into odd in a few ways due to the fact that banks are one of the most depended on brands inside the united states of america; in spite of everything, we consider them with all our savings.”
He calls this the “poverty premium”, which refers back to the abnormal problem in which individuals who earn less appear to pay a better fee for gaining access to certain financial offerings, although they may be more creditworthy than the rich. Based on his interactions, he concluded that there are 4 principal reasons in the back of this pervasive inadequacy of client credit score in the united states of america:
Historical baggage/legacy
Lack of information
High overhead in small-price tag loans
Finally, the emergence of a new class of annoying clients
Between 2003 and 2007, some of banks in India have been issuing loans with out doing any distinct checked. At the time, there was no credit bureaus or Aadhaar. Even PAN was no longer widely used. When the subprime disaster hit in 2008, these kinds of banks were given burned. In the duration previous to that, round 24 Mn credit score playing cards have been sanctioned in India, of which nearly 10 Mn crashed.
In the aftermath of the fall apart, banks have become very conservative, making the procedure of shopping loans all the more difficult. Even getting credit playing cards became difficult. Although the sector has witnessed amazing increase within the decade for the reason that economic disaster, this historical luggage, Bala Parthasarathy believes, this is still one of the principal motives for the lack of enough patron credit score within the usa until date.
During the financial disaster of 2007-08, subprime lending became regularly supported with the aid of little or no verifiable documentation and credit checks. The originators of the subprime mortgages served most effective intermediaries that did no longer have any “skin in the sport”. Lenders, however, had to depend upon 0.33-birthday celebration credit ratings and assessment that have been at instances unreliable. In India, the dearth of verifiable records approximately mortgage seekers, along with employment fame, profits, a business enterprise’s debt-to-equity ratio, and many others. Keeps to handicap the banking quarter.
In a country with a population of over 1.31 Bn, simplest 220 Mn people have PAN playing cards. Other types of KYC (recognize your client), including voter ID, Aadhaar and ration playing cards aren't considered as the only identification evidence, specifically in relation to financial sports. Credit records agencies (CIC) – which include TransUnion Credit Information Bureau Ltd. (CIBIL), Experian India and Equifax India – nevertheless do now not have facts of a large section of the united states of america’s banked populace.
The 1/3 motive is more fundamental and has to do with the manner of loan disbursal itself. As per Bala Parthasarathy, the value of comparing and issuing a credit score line/loan/credit score card for a bank is extremely high and thus they prefer to give large-price tag loans to few humans rather than small price ticket loans for a massive institution of people. The common mortgage price ticket size in this u . S . A . Is between $four,629 – $7,715 (INR three Lakh-INR five Lakh). At the sort of excessive degree, the overhead remains bearable for the banks.
If you suspect of India as a pyramid in terms of the net well worth of human beings, some of these banks awareness on best round 12 to 15 Mn customers at the pinnacle of the pyramid due to the fact they may be capable of applying for a loan well worth $four,629 to $7,715. The problem, in line with him, arises when someone needs a $463 (INR 30,000) mortgage because the overhead, in this situation, is just too high for the financial institution to make any income.
With the arrival of massive patron agencies like Flipkart, Amazon and Reliance Retail in recent years, the patron has also grow to be extra annoying. While the banks have emerge as extra conservative, consumer expectation has skyrocketed. People today assume last flexibility and stellar customer service. For a product like money, customers call for even greater flexibility, which has inadvertently made the availability of smooth purchaser credit line greater tough. This, Bala believes, is the fourth purpose behind the intense scarcity of consumer lending.
Developing A Technology That Provides Hassle Free Personal Credit Line
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MoneyTap’s proprietary era strives to remedy this trouble of insufficient client credit score line by means of focused on the united states of america’s speedy-developing middle-earnings group who needs money for purchasing, paying college fees, lease, weddings, delivery and demise, scientific emergencies, sending money to family and so forth.
The customer lending startup claims to presently cater to clients with monthly profits ranging between $308-$1,080 (INR 20,000-INR 70,000). Parthasarathy adds, “Someone who is incomes that sort of cash and residing in any person of the 14 towns that we operate in is genuinely always brief of money.”
When it involves the unsecured credit score line, Bala believes, there are three primary matters the patron wishes. Firstly, there may be comfort and simplicity of use. Secondly, flexibility in ticket length is equally vital and can be as little as $forty six. Lastly, clients need flexibility when it comes to payback as properly, be it , four or six months. Bala Parthasarathy is going on to add, “They don’t need to get locked into a long-term mortgage, that is something the financial institution commonly does. That’s why we got here up with the concept of credit line. Credit line is a incredible bendy product.”
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On the MoneyTap platform, consumers can borrow everywhere between $forty six-$7,715 (INR three,000 to INR five Lakh) with an choice to pick the reimbursement period from as low as months up to a few years. When a user downloads the app and applies for a loan with one of the organisation’s banking companions, he/she gets assigned credit score restriction, relying at the eligibility standards. The purchaser lending startup’s essential selling factor, in keeping with Bala, is that it provides consumers with a personal line of credit score to be used on every occasion and however they need. If they don’t use up the required restriction, users don’t pay any interest.
Real-Time Credit Assessment In Under 15 Minutes
Once a user downloads the app, after answering the set of inquiries to a chatbot, the user is informed upfront whether or not he/she is eligible for a credit score line. “But in case you are eligible, we compare your creditworthiness by using gathering a gaggle of records like your salary, employment popularity, and so on. We additionally do a credit score bureau check. In some instances, we pull your financial institution statement to apprehend what your music document is,” solutions Parthasarathy on the topic of credit assessment.
He in addition claims that the entire technique of credit evaluation takes around three to 7 minutes, depending on how rapid the customer kinds. Unlike other consumer lending systems, credit evaluation on MoneyTap happens in actual time.
The mortgage agreement is ultimately reviewed by using the financial institution that has partnered with MoneyTap. The customer lending organisation is presently operating with seven banking/NBFC partners at one of a kind tiers of integration, together with the RBL Bank. Once the bank gives its approval, the credit score line is set up almost without delay within the name of the client. Although actual-time credit score evaluation sounds a chunk too volatile, Parthasarathy keeps that the platform’s average default price is a whole lot beneath 1%.
As revealed by using the founding group, the platform differs from the opposition on another count as nicely. Bala states, “The essence of the product lies in the one-time credit score assessment. So as soon as your profile is accepted, your mortgage requests are approved mechanically. It is a one-time method through the app. After that, the cash is yours. If you don’t use it, you don’t pay any hobby price. When you do need the cash, all you want to do is press the button on the app and the quantity can be transferred within 15 seconds.”
At gift, MoneyTap costs a one-time setup and origination price of $7.7 (INR 499) plus tax. Repayment on the platform is performed thru EMIs. So once the credit score is availed, the “meter” starts offevolved ticking. The next month, the customer gets a bill for the EMI. When the amount is repaid, the person’s credit score limit is raised once more.
Why MoneyTap Chose To Partner With Banks & NBFCs
Compared to credit card hobby rates which commonly range someplace between 3% and four% according to month, the hobby charges charged by way of the MoneyTap app are simply over 1.5%. According to Bala, there are two motives the purchaser lending platform manages to offer low-interest costs. The first cause has to do with the truth that the cost of capital for a bank is the most inexpensive inside the country.
Bala adds, “This is the fundamental difference among P2P lending groups and MoneyTap. Because we have partnered with banks, we've got get admission to to cheap capital. If you're partnering with individual creditors as is the case with P2P lending corporations, the traders will probably demand hobby costs among 18% and 20%. The platform itself has to invite for better prices due to all of the prices of KYC, origination and many others. So, the purpose for our low-hobby rates lies no longer with us however in our partnerships.”
Secondly, Aadhaar has helped carry down the compliance expenses of fintech and patron lending agencies in India to a fantastic extent. The release of the virtual stack, as well as demonetisation, has made KYC lots simpler and more transparent. Parthasarathy states, “Overall, the emergence of the digital stack and demonetisation helped greatly in growing the attention of virtual payments as well as lending/borrowing.”
From Zero To 300K Users In Less Than Eight Months
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The group at MoneyTap
Since its release in September 2016, MoneyTap has grown by using leaps and boundaries. In less than eight months, the platform has long gone from zero to 300K registered customers across 14 cities in India. While a certain percent of the growth has come organically, the corporation presently relies on numerous advertising and marketing channels at gift, which include Google, social media and content material advertising, to onboard new customers.
With a small workplace in Mumbai and a head office in Bengaluru, MoneyTap’s gift workforce comprises 30 people. The number, the founders agree with, will in all likelihood double within the subsequent yr or so. They country, “Our plan is to enlarge in a tech-enabled way, which means that we don’t need to have greater footfalls in the street or for that count number, greater places of work. The “feet on the road” is required simplest for two things: series and KYC, both of which in our case the banking companions cope with. We can be operationally present in a hundred towns, but physically we are probable to be present in a lot of towns.”
In June 2017, MoneyTap raised $12.Three Mn in a spherical led by means of Sequoia India, New Enterprise Associates and Prime Venture Partners to drive the growth of its app-primarily based client credit line in India. The investment, as said through Bala, has also helped support the leadership role of the consumer lending firm with the aid of improving credit accessibility for other segments of customers.
Tackling A Myriad Of Challenges From Acquiring Capital To Appeasing Demanding Customers
According to Bala Parthasarathy, the maximum hard thing within the patron lending business is acquiring capital at low costs. Players in this region have multiple options. They can both lend from a P2P network, increase debt or equity for a business enterprise, lend one’s very own cash or lend the financial institution’s cash.
The MoneyTap co-founder explains, “From a borrower point of view, P2P isn't feasible because of its excessive-hobby fees. Raising fairness capital, then again, isn't very scalable both due to the fact you can only improve a lot before diluting the company. The 1/3 choice is to raise debt, that's especially for set up entities and no longer for startups. This way that the cash has to return from a bank or an NBFC. And working with a financial institution or an NBFC is not easy due to the fact you need to follow their guidelines and policies.”
Banks are conservative, however also have the most money within the usa. Finding a balance in the relationship, Bala claims, has been pretty taxing. The different assignment has been running with demanding clients. Consumers nowadays need stellar experience, in terms of pace, flexibility and reliability. To meet the consumer’s demands at the same time as running in the strict shape set with the aid of the banks is extraordinarily hard, specially for new startups. The investment, Bala provides, changed into raised to broaden answers geared closer to bridging the distance among those two ends of the spectrum.
Future Plans: Hitting Unit Economics Profitability In 12 Months And More
The patron lending startup is aiming to disburse credit line well worth approximately $forty six.2 Mn (INR three hundred Cr) by means of the quit of the cutting-edge economic yr. While hitting profitability is not one of the company’s major dreams for the time being, Bala is more focused on touching unit economics ruin-even by March 2018. He provides, “We’ll hit unit economics profitability through July 2018. We are not capturing for enterprise profitability right now. Our issue is to make sure our product is profitable within the unit economics metrics.”
Although there are many players within the area, competition, Bala claims, is not some thing MoneyTap is too worried about. He is going on to say, “Our consciousness, therefore, isn't always on thwarting opposition, however on boom and integration. Our purpose is to hit unit economics profitability in the subsequent six to 12 months. There is not any question of whether or not there is a marketplace or now not. The challenge is obtaining capital, for which the banks are the first-class sources. And the banks are very keen to work with us because they're also looking to installation capital at a low charge. We provide the tech facility to banks. Our biggest promoting factor is our product.”
The credit line, Bala Parthasarathy believes, is reasonably great technology in itself. The frontend of the app is only a small portion that clients can see. The backend, facts compliance system, integration with the banks are all pushed with the aid of superior, especially-specialized technology. As revealed via Parthasarathy, MoneyTap has already filed patents for 5 of its proprietary technology.
Armed with a effective era-enabled machine, the crew at MoneyTap is gearing as much as lend greater than $1 Bn really worth of credit line within the coming three years. Additionally, the purchaser lending business enterprise is trying to make bigger operations throughout a hundred towns in the subsequent to three years. The immediately intention is to attain 30 new towns in twelve months. On the topic of acquisition, Bala solutions, “We might gather organizations that proportion our values. But, we are not actively seeking out acquisitions. The way we study it is that there are a billion consumers in the u . S ., 1% of whom we serve. If we can double that to two%, we've a large win.”
Editor’s be aware
According to Bala Parthasarathy, when analyzing the consumer lending marketplace in India, one desires to take a look at the markets in China and the United States, respectively. The market within the US may be very in contrast to India. The US may be very saturated in phrases of client credit. China, however, is a P2P lending paradise. The state of affairs in that us of a is a bit specific. “What usually takes place in China is that there's wild growth to start with, but they crash right away and significantly, as may be seen with the P2P version,” adds Bala.
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India lies midway between those extremes. Although incredibly younger, the fintech marketplace is undergoing a phase of rapid boom and is forecasted to pass $2.Four Bn by means of 2020, as according to reports by way of KPMG India and NASSCOM. India is currently domestic to extra than 500 fintech startups. According to Inc42 Data labs file, alternative customer lending startups have already attracted $220.Sixty six Mn in funding between 2015 and 2017, which debts for round 2.5% percent of the overall fintech funding of $2 Bn all through the stated length. The increase has been, in element, the end result of the release of India’s virtual stack – Aadhaar, eKYC and virtual charge services (together with UPI and BHIM), demonetisation as well as favourable government rules.
Despite the world’s extraordinary increase, unsecured non-public loans presently constitute simplest four% of all loans in India, as consistent with a Reuters record. Although technological advances have controlled to carry down loan delinquencies to a remarkable volume, the hazard has no longer been completely removed. In addition to the hazard of default, consumer lending startups like Bala Parthasarathy co-founded MoneyTap should tackle the dichotomous dating with banks. For MoneyTap, the project, therefore, lies in making sure stellar purchaser experience in addition to protecting the financial institution’s cash, even as on the same time thwarting opposition from a developing class of alternative lending systems including Lendingkart, Capital Float, Rubique, Innoviti and Indifi, amongst others.
