CASHe: The Instant Credit Fintech The post-pandemic growth of CASHE, a platform for personal loans and credit lines, is obvious in its scale, which surpassed Rs 560 crore in the most recent fiscal year. In India, millennials and Gen Z are the target market for the personal loan and digital lending platform CASHE.
By Kavya Pillai
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The post-pandemic growth of CASHE, a platform for personal loans and credit lines, is obvious in its scale, which surpassed Rs 560 crore in the most recent fiscal year. In India, millennials and Gen Z are the target market for the personal loan and digital lending platform CASHE. In addition to personal loans, it offers salaried people "buy now, pay later" items via an app and a proprietary underwriting algorithm that uses alternative data. Because of their streamlined workflow, which includes doing away with manual processes, utilizing technology to underwrite loans, and employing their own unique algorithms, they are able to issue credit quickly. In May 2022, it ventured into the wealth management domain by acquiring the wealthtech platform Sqrrl.
Fintech companies are leveraging technology to comply with regulatory requirements such as Know Your Customer (KYC). This enables them to offer financial services in a compliant and efficient manner while reducing the cost and complexity of regulatory compliance. In a conversation with Entrepreneur Media, V Raman Kumar, Founder & Chairman of CASHe, he said, "Many people lack basic financial knowledge and struggle to manage their finances effectively. We provide multiple product offerings to help people make informed financial decisions."
Coming to their tech code, the Social Loan Quotient (SLQ), is CASHe's proprietary AI, ML-based algorithm that assesses the risk of a borrower based on the user's social and mobile data footprints. The model goes beyond traditional credit-risk metrics and assesses the goodness quotient in the borrower and the ability to repay. SLQ is forward-looking in nature as it measures a borrower's propensity to repay based on currently available information, as opposed to traditional credit scoring systems which deliver a score based only on historical financial behavior. An individual with no history in the Indian financial system, but whom the SLQ engine determines has a reasonable propensity to repay, can get a loan from CASHe. Hence, "CASHe lends to young working professionals who are either near-prime or subprime borrowers with or without a prior credit history," Kumar explained.
This fintech has been profitable for four consecutive years. As for the road to profitability, Kumar said, " It involves identifying and validating your business model, achieving product/market fit, building a strong customer base, managing costs, maximizing revenue streams, and expanding and scaling our business."
At this current stage looking at the high stakes and the competition, to conclude our conversation we asked Kumar what his thoughts were on staying at the top of the game. "Overall, the key to retaining customers in the fintech space is to provide a seamless customer experience and also to provide industry-first value-added services that help customers achieve their financial goals," He said. "We primarily focus on customer experience: A great customer experience can differentiate a fintech company from its competitors. We achieve this by providing personalized services, quick response times, and an intuitive user interface. Our current business model is fully scalable as it enables us to offer value-added services to our customers," he concluded.
Facts About The Company:
Amount of funding received: Rs 1200 crores (debt plus equity)
Year of inception: 2016
No. of employees: 500
No. of app downloads: > 30 million