Gold Loan Provider Ruptok Fintech Secures Debt Funding Of INR 14 Cr

Delhi-based gold loan provider Ruptok Fintech has raised INR 14 Cr in debt funding from Eclear Leasing and Finance. The company, which operated in Delhi NCR, recently entered Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Vadodara and Surat. It now aims to increase its presence to 27 cities by FY 2021-22.

The company will further venture into a co-lending agreement with Eclear. Ruptok, via the agreement, will offer an additional lending amount to the borrowers on the same pledged gold assets enabling users to get a higher value for the same asset within RBI guidelines.

Founded in July 2020 by Ankur Gupta and Yashwardhan Aeren, Ruptok Fintech provides disbursal of loans against gold jewellery. The startup last raised angel funding from Canada-based investment firm Wurk of INR 10 Cr. Ruptok later acquired Vinrak Technologies, which owns the brand GoldUno, in an all-stock deal and expanded its footprint in Jaipur and Mumbai. The company has so far disbursed loans worth over INR 60 Cr to over 1400 customers. “We are further steering to disburse INR 25 Cr per month in the next phase of our business growth,” Gupta said.

An S&P Global Market Intelligence report suggests that the Covid-19 pandemic triggered a surge in loans against jewellery. The gold loan industry, organized or unorganized has at present seen an increase in demand for short-term and instant loans.

The organised gold loan sector in India includes Sequoia-Backed Rupeek, and major brick-and-mortar NBFCs such as Muthoot Finance, Manappuram Finance and India Infoline. According to a 2018 KPMG report, Muthoot and Mannapuram commanded almost 81% of the organised gold loan market.

SBI, which is one of India’s biggest lenders by assets, reported disbursement of gold loans worth INR 209.87 Bn for Q4 FY 2020-21, a 4.7x growth. RBI also noted that the outstanding loans against gold jewellery among banks rose to INR 604.64 Bn by March 2021, a 2.25x growth. But banks can charge interest rates of about 7% to 15% so people are warming up to the idea of the formal channel.

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