In recent times, financial services in India has been going through a gigantic shift especially in the field of investments and lending. With the increased flexibility and seamless working of institutions, various methods are becoming inherently simple and affordable, especially due to the advent of digital age. In this current economic scenario, the startup ecosystem has given few of the most path breaking startups which have contributed to this unfolding situation. Like other fields, the financial system has also been changing with the evolution of digital lending.
We have been researching many startups especially in the financial system regarding their growth and changes brought by them. We stumbled upon various unique ideas which are shaping the current financial landscape of our country. One such idea is Digital lending which has been taken up by few startups in the country and here we will like to talk about a unique product – Happy Loans, a solution for financial requirements of people who are not covered in the banking system.
The concept of ‘Digital Lending’ emerged from the standard business process of lead generation. It has now turned into a completely new paperless phenomenon. A supreme example of this section is ‘Happy Loans’. It is a micro-lending initiative of a self-funded startup, ArthImpact which is an entrepreneurial venture of Mr. Manish Khera and Gautam Ivatuary.
Before launching it, Mr. Khera had worked at various high ranks in financial institutions like ICICI Bank, Airtel Payment Banks and Fino PayTech which is the youngest Payment Bank in India. He joined ICICI Bank in 1993, where he executed various roles till 2005. In 2015, he joined as the CEO of Airtel Money Services Limited. His journey of ArthImpact started back in December 2016. He has been recognized by World Economic Forum and has been awarded the Forbes India Leadership Award in 2012.
In “Happy Loans”, they lend money ranging from Rs. 2000 to 1,00,000 to small businesses, with a flexible tenure at an alluring interest rate of mere 2% per month. It is almost at the part with most of the personal loans that are provided by various banks in the country and of course, it is way better than informal lending. Happy Loans is targeted to cater to the needs of un-served people of India. This product provides an alternate lending system to the people based on their repayment capacity. It is microfinance initiative, having a presence in 100 cities in India and so far has provided Rs .10 crores worth of loan, which is expected to rise to Rs. 100 crores. Happy Loans assists the borrower in building up his/her credit history by means of structured repayment approach.
It is an end-to-end digital micro lending platform with a target market potential of 600 million people who don’t have any type of access to Indian banking system. It caters the requirement of low-income population with loans starting from mere Rs. 2000, as mentioned earlier. With flexible tenure as short as 30 days, it provides much-needed support to small businesses which are looking for working capital to run their operations. Owing to technology, the financial costs have come down and become more affordable in comparison with the unorganized informal lending structure of India.
Now let’s move on to the salient features and benefits of Happy Loans, which are duly mentioned below:
- Lending amount starts from Rs.2000 to Rs. 1 lakh. It is a convenient solution for a small capital requirement of people who require money for meeting financial obligations like repairing home etc.
- The tenure of repaying the loan beginning 30 days is quite flexible for people and provides breathing space and sense of security to the borrower.
- Owing to its simple structure and being technology driven, the loans are disbursed in a matter of few hours.
- Since everything is digital, the borrower doesn’t have to fill any physical documents, and this digital process removes the chances of any leakages too.
- Digitization has resulted in minimum operation cost which makes it low-cost lending solution.
- By taking Happy Loan, the customers can build a credit history in case they don’t have one.
- The customer only need require a bank account, Aadhar Number with identification proofs in order to complete the KYC process and then he/she can get his loan eligibility. This simple process provides hassle free experience to the customer.
- Disbursal of loan and repayment is done digitally which brings convenience to the customer.
Happy Loans do consider credit history in case the customer has one. However, for instance, if a customer has a POS machine, then the volume of business can be identified along with customer transactions. That’s why Happy Loans have partners like Mswipe, Eko, PayTM, Ongo and payworld.
Even with the presence of structured microfinance industry, Happy Loans is certainly a viable solution for financial requirements of small businesses and low-end customers due to its low-cost structure, low-interest rate and flexible tenure.
The term “Happy Loans” does live up to its name as it brings happiness to people who are in dire need of a small sum of money for different purposes. As per our observation, it is a great end to end digital micro lending product which is available at an affordable cost. With the current government’s efforts for more financial inclusion in the country, ArthImpact is creating a wave with “Happy Loans” and is well set to tap the upcoming growth in this sector.