Fin-tech in India has seen the entry of high profile and blue-chip investors in recent times.
Bengaluru: Deal4Loans (WRS Info Pvt. Ltd), a marketplace for business-to-consumer loans, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding, the company said in a statement on Thursday. Its investors include founding board member and one of the first investors in global search engine giant Google Ram Shriram, WhatsApp global business head Neeraj Arora and Puru Vashishtha, previously an investor on Wall Street hedge funds, including Soros Fund Management.
Vashishtha will also join the board of Deals4Loans.
Deal4Loans has facilitated disbursal of more than Rs.10,000 crore, the statement said. “With proven expertise in business and technology, their broad global perspective is helping us to design and enhance systems to enable a billion Indians to achieve their dreams by applying for loans online, in an efficient and user friendly manner,” said Rishi Mehra, founder and chief executive of Deals4Loans, in a statement.
Fin-tech in India has seen the entry of high profile and blue-chip investors in recent times. There are around 950 fin-tech start-ups in India that have raised $1.2 billion in 2015 alone with Paytm (One97 Communications Pvt. Ltd) accounting for $890 million raised last year, according to data by start-up tracker Tracxn.
“Indian fin-tech is entering a very exciting phase and Deal4Loans is best positioned to capture the hockey stick growth in that space, as it is the biggest financial marketplace in India,” said Vashishtha.
The move to digital payments and transactions has created opportunities for start-ups offering mobile wallets and online lending platforms, among others.
Adding teeth to its transition to a cashless economy, the National Payments Corp. of India (NCPI) launched the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) earlier this week. UPI enables earlier e-commerce transactions and also facilitates micropayments and person-to-person payments.
“Digitization of banks is a reality that Indian banks will have to adapt to. This is a big market opportunity to reach new consumers and banks will need a technology partner of the caliber of Deal4Loans to help them move to new digital banking age,” said Shriram, in the statement.
[“Source-Livemint”]
