Lending Startup RupeeRedee Raises $6 Mn From Parent Company DFI

Gurugram-based lending startup RupeeRedee has announced $6 Mn funding from Digital Finance International (DFI), a multinational private equity group with over 20 fintech brands across several countries.

Setting up its operation in 2018, RupeeRedee provides small-ticket and flexible digital personal loans to underserved sections, which include the salaried, self-employed, first-time borrowers and individuals, whose loan requests have not been approved by other lending companies. The company relies on state-of-the-art technology and data sciences to make lending safe and quick.

The fintech startup claims to provide instant loans with an average time of 10 minutes in a 100% paperless manner. RupeeRedee also claims to provide over 10K loans per month. The company acts as a ‘product ladder’ by creating a credit history to enhance an individual’s creditworthiness.

RupeeRedee aims to “help customers deal with unexpected financial emergencies through safe, instant and hassle-free loans driven by a completely online and secure process.”

RupeeRedee also has a digital non-banking financial corporation (NBFC) FincFriend, which issues loans and has also created an online brokerage platform.

With this funding, RupeeRedee plans to expand its team and lending operations. The company also plans on improving its technology, along with other backend processes to evaluate the lendees in a more effective way to avoid bad loans. RupeeRedee is also looking to expand its services by partnering up with digital and point-of-sale lending.

Digital Lending In India

As per DataLabs by Inc42 estimates, the credit demand in India the credit demand is expected to rise at a rate of  3.73% between FY17 and FY22, to reach $ 1.41 Tn. Between 2015 and Q1 2019, the total investment in Indian fintech startups was $7.62 Bn with a total deal count of 478. Out of the total funding, 25.49%  was in lending tech startups, accounting for up to $1.94 Bn.

The setting up of digital lending platforms has risen up to become an alternative to the conservative banking system that heavily relies on the creditworthiness of an individual.

According to RTI  made public in April 2019, Indian banks have rejected almost 77% of the loan applications received, despite receiving in-principle approval from the 59minutes loan portal, a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s loan in ’59minutes’ scheme launch in November 2018.