FinancePeer is essentially an Artificial Intelligence based peer to peer lending platform that assists potential borrowers and lenders meet each other and enable secured loan transaction between them directly. The company strives for establishing financial trust among people using AI based rating technology which analysis 13,000+ digital/social data points. It started the product designing on October 1st, 2016 and customer acquisition on May 13, 2017. Strategically located at Rise, Peninsula Business Park, Mumbai, it leverages on the best fintech resources to create technologically advanced fintech product.
It is founded by Rohit Gajbhiye, an IITB and Stanford Ignite alumnus who has immense experience of working in Credit & Liquidity Risk section through his past role in DBS, Singapore.The team consists of IIT, IIM and BITS alumni with combined experience of more than 31 years in the field of finance, marketing, data science, artificial intelligence and technology.
Under Rohit’s leadership, FinancePeer aims to increase the cash flow liquidity in the economy and in turn reduce the existing economic disparity. This will let everyone grow together. Rohit believes that even if they manage to reduce the economic disparity by a very small margin, it will still have a very huge impact!
Borrower’s Point of View: The Company realized that presently getting loans is a very complex process. Several issues are associated with the same, such as high and undeserving interest rates, inability to analyze non-credit bureau data, high occurrence of unsanctioned loans due to non-eligibility for the asked amount, lengthy and time consuming application process as well as waiting time extending up to weeks to get the money. The company decided to meet this unmet demand of consumers. Along with long term loans of upto 4 lakhs, FinancePeer also offers short term loans starting from Rs.1000, in contrast to the present financial system that does not have provisions for short term loans (Eg: Rs.20,000). FinancePeer follows a cyclical process, that is, money from the lender is given to borrower and therefore it avoids the disadvantage of the current financial system – stagnancy. Annual interest rates vary from just 12-19%. Moreover, in FinancePeer the rejection rate is much lower than the present financial system. The process of applying for a loan and the disbursement of the same is digitized. A customer need not go through the tiresome process of going through the loan documents manually. Furthermore, loans are approved within a couple of minutes. Also, the documents needed are exchanged between the company and the customer online. FinancePeer takes care of all these problems by offering a hassle free and dynamic process. From the borrower’s side, the company is looking for salaried, self-employed people and/or people with insufficient credit data with dire need of money at the earliest and at lower interest rates.
Lender’s Point of View: In the present system, consumers deposit money at lower interest rates whereas when someone borrows that money, he/she ends up borrowing at high interest rates. For instance in fixed deposits people get an interest of around 7%. However, when personal loans are taken, banks charge an interest rate of about 14% to 24%. This cost consists of operational costs, etc. The company intends to change the operational system, thereby reducing the rate of interest, time taken, and hassles faced by the consumers.
In FinancePeer, a customer depositing money will make more money (from 11 to 37% annually) and when a borrower borrows the money, he gets it at a lower interest rate. This has been made possible the company owing to its advanced technology and operational efficiency. For rating borrowers, it uses AI based technology that combines the bureau/CIBIL score along with anon-bureau credit score (based on social and digital presence) for each borrower in order to convey borrower capability accurately to the lenders. FinancePeer does not charge any fees from the lenders. Moreover, in case the borrower is unable to repay, FinancePeer will repay the amount (principle) to the lender. If seen from the lender’s perspective, the company intends to target those high earning individuals who have more interest in backing their peers and economy than in just making more money.
Professional Backup:
The company has huge backup in the form of veteran investor group, Ashish Mittaland, Equirus Capital (Digital.Equirus). Ashish Mittal is the Group CFO of Educomp Solutions and Director of several firms like Lotus Eduservices, Invictus Capital Partners, Singapore, etc.
The team is also mentored by fintech veteran Balajee Shrikanth, who has been Executive Director of DBS, Singapore and has 25 years + experience in the fintech industry. The company believes that there is no right or wrong in business. The success of a company depends on the belief the company has on its product, in addition to hard work and patience. The company also has an enriched backup of the IIT and IIM community. FinancePeer is the title sponsor for Ozone in IIT Bombay technology festival – Techfest. The company has been getting support from various investors/vendors/ mentors from different cities in India and outside. FinancePeer gets international support from countries such as the U.S., Philippines, Singapore, Israel, Dubai and Indonesia.
Presently, it has reached more than 40,000 people within a month through its strong marketing and advertising campaigns in social media, blogs, and events. Its customer attraction in certain cities in India in first 2 months is shown in above image.
Further information can be found on www.FinancePeer.com.
For any queries, you may reach out to support@financepeer.com or +91-7406795633.
