Business Wire India
Digital consumer lending startup HappyEMI today announced it has secured USD 1 million from AJ Ventures, JAN and Anand Sankeshwar, Managing Director of VRL Logistics. The funding will be used to further broaden the reach of consumer digital loans at point-of-sale across new geographies as well as venture into lending for education, healthcare services and further increase its reach of no cost equal monthly installments loans for consumer durables like smartphones and televisions. The funding will also be utilized to strengthen HappyEMI’s unique technology platform based on India stack to disrupt point-of-sale consumer lending by catering to aspirations of millennials across India.

Smartphones and feature phones penetration is rising across India including Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities where aspiration for owning consumer electronics like smartphones, televisions, laptops, air conditioners, refrigerators is on rise. There are over 478 million mobile internet users in India according to latest IAMAI report and millennials are digital natives who are disrupting traditional industries as well as services including embracing ecommerce, digital payments and digital lending for their aspirational needs including upgrading to latest gadget or consumer durable. The financing options available to millennials include credit cards, e-wallets that offer cash backs and no cost equal monthly installments. According to the latest consumer survey, almost 70 percent of smartphone buyers utilize non-cash modes to finance their purchase. It is this huge opportunity of digital lending that HappyEMI will be disrupting and participating in. Digital Lending is slated to be almost 1 trillion US dollars marketplace in India over course of next five years according to a report by Boston Consulting Group.

HappyEMI disrupts digital lending by providing shoppers with instant financing including no-cost based equal monthly installments at the point-of-sale in stores such as Sangeetha Mobiles, Poorvika, Happi Mobiles and over 500 independent retail stores thereby making the lending process winning proposition for both stores as well as consumers. HappyEMI’s intuitive platform is CIBIL independent which makes the lending process almost paperless with minimal human involvement at a point-of-sale where it originates loans in the retail stores and assesses credit risk in 15 minutes.

HappyEMI utilizes data-driven approach to underwrite risk beyond credit score to reach consumer base by using alternative data points like salary profile, bank account details, UPI Profile and social media. HappyEMI’s proposition helps its retail partners to improve sales conversions and boost their overall sales ticket size and increase customer happiness. To begin disrupting the lending market in India HappyEMI has already serviced over 10,000 customers as well as added 1000 point-of-sale retail partners.

To further disrupt digital lending space in India HappyEMI has acquired QuikLo to deepen its technology expertise as it scales up across India as well as acquire QuikLo’s intellectual property. HappyEMI has also partnered with manufacturers like Oppo, Vivo, Karbonn, Symphony Air Coolers, Samsung to originate point-of-sale lending at attractive rates. HappyEMI has a presence across Bangalore, Hassan, Mysore, Belgaum, Hubli, Dharwad, Tumkur, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Warangal, Guntur, Mangalore, Vijayawada, and Vizag.

“We are building digital lending ecosystem for Indian consumers at point-of-sale and are now focusing on Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities to further broaden our reach and give consumers access to wide variety of point-of-sale loans through our intuitive platform that is CIBIL independent and looks at other data points such as salary and social media profile,” said Suhas Gopinath, Founder and CEO of HappyEMI. “Millennials across India are digital natives with huge appetite for consumer durables and seek instant gratification through their purchases and our startup has unique proposition for both consumers as well as merchants through our unique digital lending platform,” further commented Gopinath.
About HappyEMI

HappyEMI is a consumer lending platform at point-of-sale in offline retail stores. HappyEMI offers no-cost EMI to finance smartphones and electronics at point-of-sale, and we monetise through retailer's commission and OEM subvention. We are present in over 1000+ stores now for point-of-sale lending, we have introduced defensive strategies to ensure we get retail partners push and exclusivity, and have expanded to Chennai, Mangalore, Mysore, Hassan, Belgaum, Pune, etc. Currently, we are adding a new city every week and growing at about 5% every week. Our NPAs have come down and also recently acquired QuikLo (student lending platform that was backed by Accel) for team and IP. We are lending 2 crores every month now and growing. Our NPA stands at less than 2% and we are in the process of applying for our own NBFC or acquire one. We want converge loyalty and lending using point-of-sale lending platform similar to Vyze.com in the US.