Startup Buddy, Myntra Ex-CTO, Others Back Fintech Startup Chqbook

Gurugram-based fintech startup Chqbook has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from YouWeCan-backed Startup Buddy. Apurva Chamaria, Global head of corporate marketing at HCL; Sachin Arora, ex-CTO at Myntra; Bharat Gupta, founder of Net Asset Consulting LLP; and Amit Manocha, a private equity professional based out of Singapore, also participated in the round.

Kunal Singhal, Partner at Suresh Chandra and Associates, was the advisor for the transaction. Amit Singhal joins the board at Chqbook while Apurva Chamaria and Sachin Arora join as advisors to the board.

Chqbook: Aims To Bring Lending Stakeholders On One Platform

Chqbook was launched early this year by Vipul Sharma and Rajat Kumar, who together bring in over 28 years of experience in product and sales management as well as distribution and strategy in leading Indian banks. With Chqbook, the founders aim to bring suppliers (banks and NBFC’s), distributors (Chqbook experts) and customers onto a single platform, both online and offline.

The startup currently offers 20+ solutions to smoothen the process of home loans for individuals. It is currently operational in four cities including Mumbai, Delhi/NCR, Bengaluru and Chennai and has over 400 plus experts on its platform. Customers can explore loans and check their eligibility while Chqbook uses machine learning and complex algorithms to match customers to the right provider. Each application is tracked over a 100+ parameters and Chqbook monitors every stage of the approval process, making the experience seamless.

Reportedly, Chqbook will use the raised funding to expand to over 50 cities and increase its product portfolio to credit cards and personal loan services.

“Financial products are quite complex and diverse and our model aims to provide complete and honest advice and support to retail consumers to take best decisions for their key financial needs. Currently, we provide only home loans on our platform and will be adding personal loans and credit cards shortly,” said Vipul in an official statement.

Opportunity For The Fintech Startup In The Current Market

As per a Nasscom report, the Indian fintech software market is forecasted to touch $2.4 Bn by 2020, from the current $1.2 Bn. Further, in India, there are over 20 lakh financial service providers like Insurance Agents, Direct Selling Agents and Bank executives who help process loans and cards.

Chqbook leverages that ecosystem and brings on the top 1% to service customers looking for financial services. As per market estimates, in the personal finance industry, around $7.62 Bn (INR 50,000 Cr) a month of home loans are disbursed out of which online is only 2%-3% but it’s been doubling each year, and is expected to reach $1.5 Bn (INR 10000 Cr) to $2.28 Bn (INR 15000 Cr) a month by 2022.

As shared by Rajat Kumar, COO and co-founder of Chqbook, “What we found are hardworking, smart and ambitious professionals with years of experience each and a razor-sharp focus on building relationships and being there with the customer for the long term. This ensures they put their best foot forward always.”

In terms of funding too, the sector has gained good attention. According to Inc42 Datalabs, fintech startups attracted the highest number of funding deals in H1 2017. Total investment made in this segment during the period stood at $2 Bn. Earlier this month, Ahmedabad-based SME lending platform Lendingkart Technologies raised $10.9 Mn (INR 70 Cr) funding round, in the form of equity funds from Sistema Asia Fund, others.

Despite all this opportunity, the online lending segment competes directly with the offline segment. With the raised funding, how the fintech startup Chqbook will be able to disrupt this market, remains to be seen.