Mumbai | 27 February, 2019: LenDenClub, one of India’s fastest growing peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms, recently crossed an important landmark with more than 1,00,000 borrowers and lenders on its platform. The breakdown of borrowers to lenders is 83,300 and 16700, respectively. The company crossed this milestone by keeping up with latest market trends, and saw an increase in the use of its product InstaMoney, which was launched in June 2018.
The popularity of InstaMoney is largely due to its swift loan approval and disbursal process, which has gained immense positive feedback from borrowers. Additionally, LenDenClub’s users benefit with the platform’s cutting-edge technology, which enables an inclusive and seamless process for both borrowers and lenders, reaching the underserved communities in the remotest parts of the country.
The company has also tapped in to the popularity of P2P platforms amongst millennials, both for borrowing and lending. Moreover, it received increased traction from Tier II and Tier III cities in the past year, with lenders spread across Jaipur, Surat, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Vadodara, Visakhapatnam and Coimbatore and borrowers in Dharwad, Guntoor, Davangere, Ahmednagar, Vadodara, Surat etc. Furthermore, LenDenClub plans to have at least 50 new locations covered under its loan services by the end of this year. Currently, Mumbai tops the list with the maximum number of lenders. This is followed by Bangalore and Hyderabad. Of the total lenders, 60 percent come from Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
As for current borrowers on the platform, 86 percent are Male and 14 percent are Female. Additionally, 70 percent of LenDenClub’s borrowers are from Maharashtra and Karnataka, while the rest are from Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Kerala. The platform also has NRIs, investing from foreign countries such as the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, UAE, Indonesia, Hungary, Qatar and Haiti. Additionally, through its P2P services, LenDenClub has begun pilot for lending to the small businesses in India, the first of which are located in Bangalore. For this segment of loans, the company has plans in place to grow at 100 percent per month.
Commenting on the rapid growth of its user base, Bhavin Patel, Co-founder and CEO, LenDenClub said, “I remember days when we would wait for hours to get 1 user on the platform. Achieving a 1lakh+ user base is a big milestone for us at LenDenClub. It motivates us to steadfastly continue on our journey to transform the financial services domain in India. Additionally, it has bolstered our endeavour to venture into a number of sectors to make borrowing and lending an efficient and streamlined process for all our users.
In addition to the small businesses, we are also evaluating more products for salaried borrowers. We want to cover all kind of borrowers under our p2p loans coverage. LenDenClub’s approach involves our in-house assessment team, who, with the help of our AI driven tech, quickly assesses an application through 100s of data points. This method ensures quick disbursal of loans, and reduction in transaction costs for the applicants.”
He further added, “We have a customer-focused culture, and our product decisions are driven by constant feedback from both investors and borrowers. Additionally, with the help of our dedicated support and product team, we are able to upgrade our propositions regularly. FY20 is set to be an exciting year for us, with a series of new products and features in the line-up.We want to be the fastest loan provider and the most reliable investment platform.”
The rise of P2P lending started in 2018. It proved to be a better option for investment as opposed to equity, mutual funds and real estate, as these delivered negative results, whereas P2P lending offered consistent returns, at around 20 percent. There has also been a visible boost in investors’ confidence after the RBI has issued certificates to P2P platforms, of which LenDenClub is one, allowing them to operate as NBFC-P2P.
LenDenClub is currently disbursing 2000-3000 loans per month, and plans to disburse 5X the current amount by the end of 2019. With its robust technology and array of products, the company aims to quickly become the leading player in the P2P industry.
