E-Commerce and Digital Lending are Emerging Sectors

Lending in India is experiencing a major transformation. This is digital transformation. Young entrepreneurs are focusing innovatively on the conventional challenges and resolving them with the unconventional, innovative ttechnology-drivensolutions. In an exclusive conversation with SMEStreet, Vikram Raichura, Co-Founder & CEO, Infin8 Capital explained some interesting insights and trends regarding the digital transformation and also unleashed how his organization.

The edited Excerpts:

According to your observations, how Web or the Internet as a medium is evolving for Finance in India?

India is on route to becoming the world’s fastest growing e-commerce market if current projections are anything to go by.  Investment banks believe India is on way to becoming one of the largest internet markets in the world, with implications for consumers and investors. Analysts say that India's internet market can grow to $137 bn by 2020 (a CAGR of 43 percent) and e-commerce will form the largest part of the internet market at $102 billion. The digital transformation of finance space has brought more trust of and comfortability with tech-based financial solutions for users. CFO’s all over India are also coming round the idea of digitalizing and placing financial processes in the cloud to cut cost and enhance productivity and free up finance time for lot other extra things like business partnering or high-level analytics.

What are the key trends are you witnessing in the market?

There is a high awareness among Finance domain that digital technologies, particularly automation and mobile, as well as the cloud, analytics, artificial intelligence and social media are having a major impact on the finance function. CFO’s see digital technologies as having a “Quite significant or even “disruptive “impact on the finance function.

Wherever you start, one thing is clear: from cloud computing and robotics to analytics, artificial intelligence, and cognitive technologies, a new class of digital disruptors is transforming how Finance business gets done. The majority of CFO’s recognize that digital technologies bear value for the finance function to achieve its strategic objectives and they feel they will be prepared to make use of such technologies.

Highlight some key attractions of Infin8 capital?

To introduce Infin8 Capital, we are building a Lending Marketplace wherein we help consumers to get the best offers as per their eligibility from multiple providers in shortest possible time.

We are currently generating over 3000 qualified leads per month for personal loans for 3 of our partners. We are interested in having the gold loan product also on our platform.

The USP of our platform for our Partners are:-

1) All leads we share are 100% verified by our contact center agents

2) All leads have an intent for the products, we do not do any outbound to generate leads.

3) We can scale up to 1000 leads per day for your product

4) We work on CPA Model

5) No JUNK Leads guarantee

The USP of our platform for consumers are:-

1) Available on call on India's most premium number 8080808080

2) Apart from call we are available on Web and Chatbots

3) We advise consumers on the most suitable product for them and connect them only to partners where they are eligible

4) We offer Products such as Credit Cards, P2P Loans, Personal Loans, Home Loans, Business Loans, and Mutual Funds & Insurance.

5) Reduced processing and documentation time. 

Any estimates on what level of spending consumers are making online? 

Analysts expects India’s e-commerce market (revenues) to grow from $2.9 bn in 2013 to over $100 bn by 2020, making it the fastest growing e-commerce market in the world. 85% of the users will use technology for their financial needs by 2020. 90% of the millennials deal with banks exclusively online, and half do so using smartphones. The level of spending on the web will gradually increase with time and it will surpass all traditional ways of transactions.

Also, offline Vs Online finance is a long debate, what is your opinion on this?

Demonetization has a defining effect on the banking and financial services sector recently. Various political campaigns related to reducing cash transactions and promoting digitisation of financial systems has accelerated consumers shift towards digital alternatives. With the introduction of more automation, artificial intelligence, data analytics have certainly increased the operational efficiency of digital lending platforms in the finance market.

Online platforms have grown rapidly due to lower turnaround time and convenience factor. Customers can check their eligibility and apply for a loan from anywhere. Applications, which can handle all the document uploads are into existence. Also online platforms have the advantage of easier access to a wider world of lenders where conventional lenders are choosy or demanding for paperwork. It is relatively easier to compare various aspects of loan like loan pricing, fees and rates online. While new processes and technological advancement do make online lending simpler, the wide acceptance of Aadhaar based KYC and greater availability of credit score are adding pace for approvals. From Inbound call options, websites interface or bots etc lenders are getting closer to customers than ever before.

On the other side offline finance option also has a large number of people who seekfor  a human interface to the process, helping them find answers to their questions in person. This is also because of their limited exposure and understanding of technology. Generally in rural areas, individuals find reassurance in physical branches of a lender that may have a presence across the country and are well-regulated with the backing of a stable institution.

Also, small companies looking for finance may tap financial institutions in the offline mode since they need an in-depth understanding to disburse the loan.

Even as technology continues to refine the entire loan availing process – using BOTs, web interfaces and even mobile apps, customer engagement comes from comfort, confidence and convenience – aspects that can be found both offline and online modes, depending on individual choices or needs.

Please highlight your market focus through Infin8?

We are more focused towards the bottom and middle segment which caters a huge business opportunity. The problem statement is explained below:

Problem Statement: The mentioned segment stays unaware about latest financial products or offers and opt for what they either hear from word of mouth or by selecting from one or two lending options which they approach randomly. They miss out on grabbing the best loan offer which matches perfectly with their eligibility. Some solid reasons for many profiles getting rejected for a loan aretheir past credit history, low cibil score, amount being too high, eligibility or negative profiles like Police, lawyer, politicians etc who stay avoided by many lenders due to risk factors. In a nutshell, profiles do not have a medium where they can find the best lending offer with a perfect balance of low interest rate with the asked loan amount as per the strength of an individual profile.

Solution: This can be solved via a platform which uses artificial intelligence, analytical mechanism to build a robust decision engine which calculates your eligibility with terms and conditions of the best lenders available who gives you the best deals at the lowest interest rate available. Even odd profiles will be evaluated with lenders who might take risk of giving a loan but on a higher interest rate. Lending options will be more transparent and convenient with such an option.

Please share your line of business priorities for next 1 year?

For this fiscal year, the major line of business priorities will be for secured and unsecured loans.

Secured loans that are protected by an asset or collateral of some sort. Item purchased, such as a home or a car, can be used as collateral, and a lien is placed on such item. On the other hand, unsecured loans include things like credit card purchases, education loans, or personal loans. Lenders take more of a risk by making such a loan, with no property or assets to recover in case of default, which is why the interest rates will be considerably higher. We are interested in having the gold loan product also on our platform within this year.