EarlySalary.com, a yet-to-be-launched online lending platform, has raised $1.5 million (Rs 9.9 crore) in seed capital from Transcorp Group's Ashok Agarwal.
The fin-tech startup would use the money to build a mobile app that would map borrowers using a new credit scoring system, it said in a statement. It plans to launch the product within three months.
The startup was founded by Akshay Mehrotra, Ashish Goyal and Jay Jain this year. Mehrotra, who is also the company’s CEO, was previously chief marketing officer at Future Retail and PolicyBazaar. Goyal is a chartered accountant and worked as the chief investment officer at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. Jain was the director and co-founder of m-AdCall Digital prior to founding the startup.
EarlySalary.com is owned by Social Worth Technologies Pvt Ltd, which has a licence to operate as a non-banking finance company. It would provide short-term loans, usually for 10 days, during the end of the month till the time users get their next salary.
The company says the user's application is assessed within a few minutes and the money is disbursed in a couple of hours. No external creditors are involved in the process.
“The first time, the money takes a few hours to come as we complete the verification, but after that you can get money at the click of a button,†Mehrotra said. “EarlySalary.com moves away from conventional underwriting formulae of lending and looks more towards the e-information of an individual.â€
The fin-tech segment in India has attracted several venture capitalists and entrepreneurs recently. There is heightened investor interest in this sector as several startups are using technology to disrupt the country’s current systems of lending, borrowing, personal finance and financial inclusion.
EarlySalary.com joins Loanbaba.com and BankBazaar.com in raising funds. Lending marketplace Loanbaba.com raised $320,000 in seed funding from an unnamed angel investor in early November. In July, Chennai-based A & A Dukaan Financial Services Pvt Ltd, which sells third-party financial services products through BankBazaar.com, raised Rs 375 crore ($59.1 million) in Series C funding from e-commerce giant Amazon and other investors.