Through an online platform that connects small enterprise with organised lenders, Gurugram-based fintech (financial technology) startup Indifi Technologies Pvt Ltd is easing the pain of securing credit from traditional banking and non-banking institutions. “Small businesses have entrepreneurial zeal to succeed but often lack access to financing. They are largely unorganised, which makes it difficult for them to convince bankers and other formal lenders of their financial prudence and credit worthiness. As a fintech player, we are equipped to ascertain credit worthiness of these businessmen,” says the company’s co-founder and CEO Alok Mittal (amittal@indifi.com) in an interview with SH. Indifi, he explains, mines data from diverse sources including courier services and clients’ bank statements in order to develop the credit profile of MSMEs.
By Mrinmoy Bhattacharjee
What sets fintech apart from the traditional formal lending ecosystem?
Fintech companies are enhancing the user experience by changing the front-end technology, whereas traditional lenders have adopted technology to smoothen out their back-end process primarily in terms of CBS and so on.
How’s the fintech ecosystem evolving in India?
All fintech companies are solving one of the specialised aspects of finance, be it payments, accounting or financing. All of them play an integral part in the upgrade of the system.
What are the growth drivers for fintech in the country?
Plugging the access gap and adoption of technology in the core business are the key drivers. A reinstated focus by the players to simplify and increase usage is helping their cause.
Why are fintech founders able to attract investors for their startups?
The scale of the opportunity is large and the innovation that is happening is exciting. The time is right for disrupting the way financing is done.
How do MSMEs stand to gain from fintech firms?
While banks and NBFCs have specialised products for MSMEs, they are collateral based, time taking and not flexible enough for their specific working capital requirements. On the other hand fintech firms, being technology and data driven, can analyse their true potential and provide customised products in a short span of time.
What is Indifi’s business model?
We are a tech driven company bridging the access gap for MSMEs by simplifying the loan process, and introducing alternative methods to evaluate a potential applicant. Our custom solutions for six segments set us apart from regular lenders with vanilla products. This is a transformational shift in the finance industry.
Indifi serves as a platform for end-to-end loan processing – origination, data aggregation and modeling, customer support, and lifetime value management. Alongside, it broadens the scope and explores new segments which open the opportunity for lenders.
How well is Indifi’s proposition being accepted by small businesses?
Our startup is finding wide acceptance among its target customers owing to our hassle-free service. We automate everything, from data collection to approval. Our fintech ensures that customers get loans based on their exact business requirement. We also ensure that the entire process takes no more than five working days. The enterprises can borrow from Rs one lakh to Rs 50 lakh with the help of our technology. We have already helped over 2,000 enterprises obtain finance from our lenders.
What’s the future of fintech? How is your startup placed in the future landscape?
This is a very dynamic and evolving sector, but the overall goal is to simplify the systems and increase the usage of financial facilities. Indifi is very focused towards creating segment specific products, leveraging technology to simplify the loan process, and improving the reach of MSME financing. These are needs of the hour and resonate perfectly with the market need. ')}
