The fintech sector is thriving in India with investors placing their bets on them and customers adapting to newer technologies for payments, bookkeeping and lending. Yet, Sumit Maniyar, founder and CEO of Rupeek Fintech, claims that this is just the tip of an iceberg and fintech still has a long way to go. “Some of the best exits in India, in the recent past, have come from fintech companies. And there is a long road ahead for the sector,” he says.
Maniyar founded Rupeek, an asset-backed online lending platform, in 2015.
“I come from a business family where we used to take credit numerous times for business needs,” says Maniyar. He further adds, “While analyzing the Indian lending market I figured that everyone does not have access to credit.”
Maniyar says people who take credit from informal sources pay high interest rate. To solve this problem he came up with Rupeek, which gives credit against gold. “I want to monetize India’s $1 trillion gold. It is an underutilized resource,” says Maniyar.
Credit Access For Everyone
Maniyar believes that for a country to develop, credit should be available to everyone. “In India, credit is a privilege and not a utility, whereas it should be a utility,” says Maniyar. Rupeek plans to foray into 1,000 cities in India and is offering lowest interest rate at 0.89 per cent per month to make credit accessible to people across the socioeconomic ladder.
Rupeek is growing at a rate of 20 per cent month-on-month basis, claims Maniyar. “Almost 6,000 to 7,000 new customers come to us every month and there are 4,000 repeat customers, making our monthly average 10,000.” Rupeek, in total, has about 50,000-60,000 yearly customers.
The road ahead
Maniyar wants to diversify Rupeek by offering credit against other assets such as property. He also plans to give unsecured loans. The company already provides services such as free 30 minutes doorstep service and no processing fee.
The company is backed by investors such as Bertelsmann India, Accel and Sequoia India, and plans to raise Series C funding. “You may hear an announcement on funding very soon next year,” says Maniyar.
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