KreditBee, a non-deposit NBFC platform, that also facilitates loan transaction between borrowers and personal loan providers like NBFCs and banks digitally on a co-lending model – is positioned to serve Middle India when it comes to their financial needs that includes online lending and credit for consumers.
Currently, banks and NBFCs in India operate in a regulated manner, but a huge demographic still doesn't have a direct and seamless access to these financial services.
Ishan Bose, Chief Marketing Officer, KreditBee explains, “The best way to solve (this gap) was online, not just with respect to sourcing consumers, but also fulfilling their financial needs - lending or credit. Credit was the biggest need that we identified. We have been fortunate that in the last seven years, we have been able to serve more than one crore individual and unique customers with their credit needs.”
He adds, “If you look at this number, it may come across as one crore individuals. However, we look at it as one crore households because, most loans are not individualistic requirements, but are requirements that different households have for different cash crunches.” These requirements include multiple needs such as an emergency, to even upgrading their lifestyles or businesses or initiating new endeavors that can help an individual and their family move forward.
Bose also stated, “We make sure that financial constraints don't come in the way of any individual moving forward just because they may not have a direct geographic access to a bank or a NBFC. We primarily serve middle India and 80% of our consumers are from Tier II Tier III cities and towns where the offline presence of banks and NBFCs are limited. Only 15 to 20% of our audience from metros and Tier I cities.”
A One-Stop Credit Platform
What has helped KreditBee to reach out to a larger consumer base is the penetration, accessibility and affordability of Internet and smartphones. The company plans to focus on credit, other areas of lending, and identifying and servicing customers in cases beyond loans. “We provide consumers with insurance credit score report and will continue to grow this. We want to make sure that within the credit ecosystem we go beyond unsecured loans and look at secured use cases as well, for instance, loan against property is a product that we have recently launched. We also give two-wheeler loans.”
KreditBee’s average ticket size for personal loan is around ?20,000 and can range from between ?5,000 to ?5 lakh with the ticket size gradually and constantly increasing over time. Business loans can be up to ?10 lakh while it can be up to ?70 lakh rupees for loans against property. It must be highlighted that given the nature of the borrowing on the platform is typically skewed towards men, even though KreditBee prides itself on being an inclusive platform irrespective of age, gender and geography. Bose says, “We have our gatekeeping parameters with respect to who to lend, which is determined by our credit algorithm. However, that does not discriminate people on who they are and where they come from. It's purely based on our evaluation of what the repayment, intent and capability is.”
Digital Customer Engagement
For customer acquisitions, KreditBee has relied more on the digital direct to consumer acquisition, either through our digital marketing such as performance marketing or through its aggregator partners. Bose explains, “A lot of our journey is integrated on the respective partner platforms. In certain cases, the journeys are so advanced that the customer can even complete the credit loan journey on our partner platform, and in other cases the partial journey is completed on our partner platform, and the remainder of the journey is completed on KreditBee, where the customer downloads the app and takes a loan on KreditBee. That's another acquisition source, which is slightly high on intent and curation with respect to loans.” Another area of acquisition is referrals and word-of-mouth and Bose highlights the fact that more than 50% of acquisition of loans is of organic nature. As with acquisitions, even the marketing outreach is primarily digital. While brand activations and activities are slotted from time to time, the reliance on acquiring customers through ATL or BTL is limited. Bose says, “The majority of our acquisition has been sales driven so far, having said that we have been exploring brand activations and using it as a sustainable source of acquisition for us in the recent past. We are evaluating and growing our initiatives and endeavors in that direction.”
Betting On Financial Education
As an organization, KreditBee plays an active role in financial education, specifically lending. In fact in 2022, KreditBee launched the ‘Jagruk Rahein, Cyber Smart Banein’ campaign to raise awareness about online fraud and encourage individuals to follow safe practices while transacting digitally. The campaign showcased different situations cyber fraud can happen and it was not just limited to digital lending but could happen across any financial service.
Bose shared, “As a pioneer in the Fintech lending ecosystem, we believe that it's our responsibility to educate the consumers about the best practices of financial literacy, education, involvement and awareness. We reach out to consumers ourselves directly as well as through our campaigns and educate them about cyber security and how they can financially handle themselves better.”
.jpg)
