Online lending startup StashFin has raised $30 million in debt from Fullerton Financial Holdings, the fully-owned subsidiary of Singapore’s sovereign fund Temasek, said a senior executive.
StashFin, which offers personal loans ranging from ₹10,000 to ₹3 lakhs, will use the funds, for onlending, i.e. further lend the borrowed funds to young salaried professionals, said Tushar Aggarwal, founder and CEO, StashFin.
The loans taken by customers are usually deposited either into a bank account or into a Visa prepaid card, while interest is charged only on the amount withdrawn. Customers can access the platform either through its website or app. Also, customers acquired through this partnership can withdraw funds 24/7 to the card from the available line 24/7, even on public holidays, bank holidays etc.
The product is also a flexi-credit line which the customer can use as and when required as against a traditional personal loan. This gives complete flexibility and independence to the customers, the startup says.
The startup’s services are currently present in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Indore, Chandigarh, and Delhi-NCR.
The startup last raised ₹30 crore in debt from another lender, DMI Finance, in July last year. It raised equity prior to that in June 2017, when it raised $5 million in a pre-series A round from Snow Leopard Ventures and Singapore-based Alto Partners. Snow Leopard Ventures is the VC arm of the Kirloskar Group.
"The benefits of borrowing through a platform like StashFin, are quick approvals, low processing fees, completely secure processes, minimum documentation needed, flexible payback terms and instant disbursal," said Aggarwal. “It can take as little as four hours for a loan to be processed. Documents can be picked up from the customer at her/his choice of place and time," he added.
Fullerton India Credit Company Limited (FICCL) is a non-banking financial company (NBFC) that offers retail finance products to rural households, and to small and medium enterprises in India. It offers instant personal loans, business loans, housing loans and for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Established in 2007, it has over 12,000 employees in 616 branches, serving over 2.96 million customers in 600 towns and over 58,000 villages across the country. In 2016, Fullerton India launched its housing finance company, Fullerton India Home Finance Company Limited (FIHFC),
Another lending startup Ftcash, a platform for lenders and small businesses, raised ₹50 crore from Dutch development finance institution FMO, and Accion International and IvyCap Ventures, Mint reported on May 2.
Lending start-ups, which operate either as marketplaces and facilitators, or lend from their own books, had faced difficult times getting money to lend late last year. Domestic NBFCs, which saw the fastest credit growth in the past few years, have been struggling with severe liquidity crunch after defaults by Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) in September. Loan disbursals slowed down amid pressure on balance sheets as NBFCs struggled to repay short-term loans.
Following the liquidity crisis, a number of fintech start-ups, including lenders Lendingkart and Capital Float, as well as marketplace Rubique, have been returning to the market to raise equity funding, Mint reported on 4 April.
