Please tell our readers something about your group - Lendingkart.
Harshvardhan Lunia: At Lendingkart Group, we aim to make working capital finance available at the fingertips of entrepreneurs, so that they can focus on business instead of worrying about the gaps in their cash-flows.

At Lendingkart Group NBFC, unlike banks and other NBFC’s, we do not focus on vendor’s old records (Past Financial Statements & Income Tax returns) to evaluate the credit risk profile of a potential client. We focus on their current year’s cash flows and business growth. We help to arrange a short term revolving credit line, which can be used any time to pay suppliers, employees, taxes and other liabilities. Our effort is to make capital funds available at finger tips so that entrepreneurs can focus on business instead of worrying about gaps in their cash-flows.

How this innovative model works? What are your charges for your services?
Harshvardhan Lunia: Our usual process requires applicants to visit Lendingkart Group website at www.lendingkart.com to apply for the loan. They then need to give background information and upload minimum documents. Those documents are then handed over to our NBFC that verifies and transfers to its analytics team to determine the creditworthiness of the applicant. The entire process is integrated with technology and the NBFC disburses loan within 72 hours from the time of application.

What are the charges of your services?
Harshvardhan Lunia: We charge nominal processing fee and interest rate that depends on the risk profile and credit worthiness of the applicant.

Your website says, "Instant. Simple. No Paper Work. No Collateral". How you keep check on frauds?
Harshvardhan Lunia: We have developed technology tools based on analytics and big data to facilitate lenders to evaluate client’s business. There is enough data available to determine a customer's intent to pay back a loan, quality of his product/service, financial health of his business, and ability to survive with competition etc. There is no requirement to ask customers to ‘Fill large forms', the data could be scraped from public/private sources, APIs.

We have identified various variables and algorithms which assist lenders in credit score calculation. These variables could be gathered from various online/offline footprints of vendors for an accurate evaluation. This helps our NBFC in keeping any fraudulent activity under check.

Our NBFC assesses financial health, comparative market performance, social reliability and compliance practices to determine the credit worthiness of SMEs.

Who can take the benefits of this platform?
Harshvardhan Lunia: We have pan India presence. Therefore, anyone who is in need of working capital loan and has internet access on his smartphone/computer can reach out to Lendingkart Group. 

How do you see the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector in India?
Harshvardhan Lunia: India's SME sector is critical to the health of the economy and continues to grow at a robust rate. It contributes 17% of India’s GDP; 45% of India’s manufacturing output and 40% if its exports. It has also outperformed IIP and GDP over the years, providing employment to 106 MM people in the country. Considering the massive potential that the sector has, Government is focused on creating a business-friendly atmosphere to promote entrepreneurship. They are, however, unable to realize their full potential as access to finance often becomes a roadblock. By tapping this sector, we are certain that we can catalyze the growth of SMEs, further increasing their efficiency, productivity and profitability.

Why Lendingkart? What makes you different from Banks and NBFCs?
Harshvardhan Lunia: Lendingkart Group enables SMEs to apply for loans on basis of only an online application. Our NBFC has algorithms, using their proprietary knowledge to do credit scoring. Those algorithms use 2100 + raw data points to generate a lending decision almost instantaneously resulting in loan approval within 72 hours from the time of application. We offer a highly accessible, simple and flexible online platform to the SMEs.

Our NBFC assesses the credit worthiness for ecommerce vendor/market places sellers based on their online foot print. Without any collaterals, physical offices or physical verification staff members on the ground, the digital lending platform provides short-term working capital loans of INR 50,000 to INR 10 Lakhs based on an online form filled by the borrower in a short span of 15 minutes. Since our inception, we have been able to assess SME’s in more than 135 cities across 22 states in India. The idea is to cover all towns and cities in India.

Enough data is available to determine a customer’s intent to pay back a loan, quality of his product/service, financial health of his business, and ability to survive with competition etc. We don’t ask customers to ‘Fill large forms’. Our NBFC scrapes this data from public/private sources, APIs.

You are now partnering with B2B e-commerce platforms to provide financing options to sellers and buyers on this marketplace. Please tell us more about this.
Harshvardhan Lunia: Our tie-ups with several B2B e-commerce platforms have widened our consumer base while ensuring that maximum retailers and e-commerce vendors can avail our services. This has received a positive response as they now feel more strengthened and are working towards enhancing their services and businesses rather than worrying about gaps in their cash flows.

How crucial this B2B segment is and why?
Harshvardhan Lunia: The current Indian B2B marketplace is to the tune of $300 billion which is enormous. We believe there is a massive untapped potential in this segment and through partnerships, we can help them grow further. In fact, the current B2B marketplace in India is 6 times higher than B2C and as per a recent report by Walmart, India’s B2B e-commerce is expected to increase to $700 billion by 2020.  At Lendingkart Group, we have a synergetic relationship with B2B e-commerce players and work towards building a long-term association with mutual benefits. Considering the abundant potential that it has, we certainly see this sector growing immensely in the near future.

What are your future plans?
Harshvardhan Lunia: Our long term goal is to facilitate to fulfill working capital requirements of the highly underserved MSMEs of the country, therefore, the Group’s vision is to expand its presence across all towns and cities in India so that SMEs can focus on business without being worried about gaps in their cash flows.