SME Lending Startup ftcash Gets NBFC Licence from RBI

SME lending startup, ftcash has received a licence from the Reserve Bank of India to set up a non-banking financial company. With this, the company aims to disburse loans worth INR 100 crore in FY23.

ftcash is one of India's fastest-growing financial technology companies with an aim to empower over 60 million micro-merchants and small businesses by bridging the lending gap with accessible loans.  Headquartered in Mumbai, the company was founded in 2015 by Sanjeev Chandak, Deepak Kothari and Vaibhav Lodha. As a responsible lender, it uses proprietary algorithm to analyse creditworthiness and offer underserved MSMEs, including retailers, pharmacies, garment stores, automobile shops and mom-and-pop stores, with institutional finance. The company has partnerships with Northern Arc, Ugro and Ambit for providing credit offerings to their customers.

ftcash Cofounder & CEO Sanjeev Chandak said, “Despite the government announcing several measures to enhance credit availability for the stressed MSMEs segment, nearly 80% of the total MSMEs in India lack access to lending. The NBFC licence will allow us to bridge this credit gap while offering loans with minimal documentation along with daily repayment options via PoS with equated daily installments.”

“We have over 60,000 merchants in our network currently and have disbursed over INR 600 crore worth of loans till now. We expect the disbursals to grow 3X by 2023.”

ftcash has raised $10.2 million in funding and is backed by several investors including Accion, FMO and IvyCap Ventures.