5 digital lending platforms in India offering instant credit

By Leandra Monteiro

Digital lending has witnessed an enormous boom with the advancement in technology. However, as India is still a developing nation, a chunk of its population has little knowledge of the opportunities available to them in the digital lending space.

Digital lending mostly captures Tier 2-Tier 3 cities and aims to provide the underbanked with financial security as per their needs. Creating ease for the rural population in terms of process and knowledge, digital lenders have made it a 3-4 click process for instant credit lending.

Here are a few of the country’s popular digital lending platforms:

• Nira

Co-founded by ex-Goldman Sachs colleagues Rohit Sen and Nupur Gupta, NIRA, a FinTech startup offering small-ticket loans to blue and grey-collared workers via its mobile app and website. The company offers loans of up to INR 1 lakh for up to one year, via its app-based credit line.

Based on NIRA’s own parameters, it lends to borrowers with good credit scores at lower interest rates. It also lends to those who do not have a credit score and are first-time borrowers. The FinTech startup tied up with Federal Bank for loan disbursal.

• mPokket

Founded in 2016, Kolkata-based mPokket is an instant loan app that provides loans to college students and young working professionals. Borrowers can avail of loans ranging from INR 500 to INR 30,000 and the amount is sent via instant credit to a bank account or Paytm wallet.

The borrowing limit will keep increasing over time based on multiple factors, including timely loan repayments. The company has more than 30 lakh borrowers on its platform with 10 million downloads. One can choose to repay in up to 3 months along with a nominal interest charge. Their customers do not need to submit any physical documents or visit a branch to get instant personal loans. They just need to apply online on the mPokket mobile app.

• RupeeRedee

Incepted in 2018, RupeeRedee is a digital lending platform that allows consumers to fulfill their lending needs in simple steps with the help of technology. The app gives you access to personal loans within a few minutes at your fingertips. It is a tech-driven digital lending platform that leverages technology and data sciences to make lending accessible for India’s massive population of underserved customers.

Operating with its own Captive NBFC FincFriends Private Limited in the background to facilitate short-term personal loans coupled with digital lending services and has deployed various forms of underwriting including alternate data sources and is not restricted to credit score-based underwriting only.

• SmartCoin

Founded in 2016, SmartCoin Financials Pvt. Ltd. is an app-based consumer lending platform. They partner with RBI-registered NBFCs to offer instant personal loans to self-employed and salaried individuals.

With a vision to address the concerns of the vast underbanked in India, they are evolving from a micro-lending platform to providing a full suite of offerings, including gold savings, and insurance, among others. With SmartCoin, one can get loans from ₹1,000 to ₹70,000 within a tenure of 91 days to 270 days at a minimum interest rate of 20% and maximum interest rate of 36%.

• Zestmoney

ZestMoney is an AI-driven EMI financing and Buy Now, Pay Later platform in India. ZestMoney is deeply integrated with the largest merchants in India including Amazon, Flipkart and MakeMyTrip, increasing the affordability of their products and helping them facilitate frictionless sales at a higher conversion rate to a larger base of customers. ZestMoney has built a platform that integrates mobile technology, digital banking, and artificial intelligence, enabling people to apply for and get a digital credit line within seconds.

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