From SMEs to women entrepreneurs, Cash Suvidha lends to anyone with business need in rural and urban areas

Cash Suvidha, an online lending platform, was started with an aim to reduce the wait time and turnaround time for business loans in both urban and rural areas.

Ask anyone who has an idea and is starting up what is the one thing they need, and the answer you are most likely to get is “working capital”. Most traditional financial services, banks and NBFCs aren’t viable sources of funding for potential entrepreneurs.

It was looking at this that Rajesh Gupta, Anoop Garg and Geeta Goswami started Cash Suvidha, a platform that provides a diversified product portfolio in the finance sector related to business loans.

The platform enables users with a hassle-free operation, fast approval and quick disbursal. People can apply anytime, upload their documents, and have the loan disbursed within 72 hours. The focus of the platform is on income sectors and providing working capital to women entrepreneurs, MSMEs, SMEs, and startups, as well as the provision of invoice finance.

For Cash Suvidha, the focus area currently lies in managing both the urban and rural credit requirements, thus benefitting the lower strata as well. The motive is to bridge the wide gap in the market and reach out to those who have no access to banks and financial institutions.

Focus on a wide spectrum

“We are trying to uplift the journeys of budding entrepreneurs as well as enduring business personals; and we are doing that in a simplified manner. Additionally, the people from the bottom-of-the-pyramid are also welcomed at Cash Suvidha, for financial empowerment,” says 46-year-old Rajesh.

With over 25 years of experience in varying segments of the financial services market, Rajesh saw that there was a serious gap in the lending segment. Looking to solve this, he roped in acquaintance Anoop Gupta as a co-founder. Anoop has over 21 years of experience across finance and operations.

Realising that they needed someone with expertise in finance and business development with NBFCs, the duo roped in Geeta Goswami, who has over 10 years of work experience in business development, legal and secretarial work with several NBFCs.

The trio found that in most SMEs, MSMEs and startups, the transition from the first to the second phase is difficult, with many ventures failing at this level.

Breaking into the market

They first initiated a study of the Indian banking system, financial markets and existing NBFCs, especially in the lending domain. They found that there was a huge gap in the lending space between borrowers and lenders. A lot of paperwork is involved, which entails greater cost and time taken. Also, it is difficult to reach potential borrowers in remote areas.

When the trio visited the business banking services section of the bank they would see everyone from small vendors and shopkeepers to big businessmen looking for various types of loans for their ventures. “We have seen people struggling to avail loans for business. Availing a loan from a bank is a real headache,” says Rajesh.

So, with Cash Suvidha the team decided to eliminate the paperwork. This, Rajesh adds, has dramatically reduced the turnaround time for disbursement. “We are using and continuously trying to reevaluate the latest technologies like social media analysis, digital footprint and Big Data analysis to further reduce the turnaround time so that we can approve the loans in real-time,” he says.

The lending space

Since the demonetisation, the availability of credit in the market has increased. There are also a growing number of startups looking at the lending space. In the first half of 2016, the space saw as many as 46 deals, amounting to $285 million, being made.

Also, the number of business lending platforms is fast growing, with big names like CapitalFloat, LendingKart, and Rubique making inroads. CapitalFloat raised a Series B funding of $25 million last May, and LendingKart too raised Series B funding amounting to $32 million.

Apart from this, there are also platforms like IndiaLends, P2P lending platform Faircent, and Kudos Finance and Investment.

Started in April 2016 in Delhi, Cash Suvidha has onboarded over 3,500 borrowers, and claims to have an average loan size of Rs 3 lakh.

The team has tied up with various NBFCs and other financial institutions so that the loans are disbursed hassle-free.

“Our technological platform is very robust and comprehensive, and really solves the problems of paying visits to banks and financial institutions again and again. Thus, robust technology makes the entire process lucid and comforting for customers,” says Rajesh.

Self-funded, Cash Suvidha aims to reach up to one lakh borrowers and create a portfolio of Rs 200 crore by March 2019.

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