Flexiloans Funds 2lakh MSMEs

Ambitious disbursement

• Flexiloans rolls out ambitious plans to disburse loans worth INR 100 crore to over 2 lakh registered users in Nagpur by 2025.
• The Gurugram-based fintech startup, founded in 2016 by Manish Lunia, Ritesh Jain, and Deepak Jain, has already disbursed over INR 20 crore in loans to more than 500 MSMEs in the area, capitalizing on what it describes as ‘exponential demand’ from over 50,000 registered users.
• Nationwide, FlexiLoans claims to have facilitated over 65,000 loans amounting to INR 4000 crore over the past seven years. The company has received backing from prominent investors such as Sanjay Nayar, Falguni Nayar, and Maj Invest

Loan at a click

• In June 2022, FlexiLoans raised INR 500 crore fund and its assets under management (AUM) grew to INR 1000 crore in April 2023 aiming to hit INR 10,000 crore in AUM by 2025. Moreover, operating leveraging has been consistently improving. In September, FlexiLoans reported its first full year of profitability in FY23 with a PAT of INR 7 crore on revenue of INR 110 crore.
• ‘The jaan-pehchaan-based-borrowing model’ has been disrupted by Flexiloans, one of the founders Deepak Jain recalls.
• FlexiLoans has disbursed 70,000 loans worth INR 3,400 crore across more than 2,000 cities and 25,000 pin codes in India
• Every month FlexiLoans attracts 100,000 applications but grants only 2,000-3,000 loans, disbursing a total of INR 115 crore (USD 14 million) in loans per month. 53% of all loans are go out to MSMEs borrowing for the first time including 47% MSME loans in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
• FlexiLoans had last raised INR 150 crore through a mix of debt and equity in a funding round led by Nayar’s family office in October 2020. Prior to that in December 2017 the platform had raised INR 45 crore in debt from a handful of financial institutions.

And how did it start

• Stark reality of life led Deepak Jain aid the MSMEs. Born to a jeweler and money lender, Deepak grew up seeing people coming to his father’s shop to pawn jewelry for loan, that too on high interest rates.
• Deepak was exposed to the American digital lending model during his MBA day at ISB which made him realize that securing finance can be convenient game for the MSMEs.
• Flexiloans office still operates like the initial days. At the end of every month Deepak, Lunia and third co-founder Ritesh Jain hold review meetings looking into disbursals, collection rates and NPAs of every customer segment. They make tweaks where necessary, even shutting down customer segments that aren’t delivering.
• Looking back, Deepak feels the only grim season seen by MSME lending was Il&FS crisis in 2018.

Editor’s Note

A journey which began on the comprehension of loan amount less than 10 lakh is not a business loan eventually gave birth to a NBFC lender who claimed to disburse over 65,000 loans amounting to INR 4,000 crore over the past seven years.