FinTech Start-up EarlySalary Raises Rs. 100 Crores as Series B Funding from Eight Roads Ventures and Existing Investors

FinTech Start-up EarlySalary Raises Rs. 100 Crores as Series B Funding from Eight Roads Ventures and Existing Investors
FinTech Start-up EarlySalary Raises Rs. 100 Crores as Series B Funding from Eight Roads Ventures and Existing Investors
Business Wire India
(L-R) Vivek Jain (CTO), Akshay Mehrotra (CEO), Ashish Goyal (CFO) & Vimal Saboo (CBO)
  • EarlySalary is India's 1st FinTech start-up to offer Salary Advances and Instant Cash Loans on a mobile app
  • With this infusion, EarlySalary targets to grow monthly volume to 100,000 loans
  • Instant loan approval can be completed in seconds with the help of social algorithm and artificial machine intelligence
  • Only lender which helps young working professionals to get access to credit without Credit Bureau history, boosting their financial confidence

EarlySalary, India's first FinTech startup to offer Salary Advances and Instant Cash Loans, has announced its Series B funding of Rs. 100 Crores led by Eight Roads Ventures India. Existing investors IDG Ventures India, Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Ltd. (DHFL) and seed investor Mr. Ashok Agarwal also participated in the round.
 
The company will be deploying these funds to accelerate its growth plans and target 100,000 loan disbursements per month by the end of 2018. The venture has disrupted the way young Indians are borrowing, replacing borrowing from friends, family and employers with borrowing real-time through a Mobile App from the comfort and convenience of their homes, and seeing money credited to their bank accounts instantly. The company has, for the first time, provided access to short term loans to young working professionals even without a credit bureau rating, using social media surrogates for risk assessment and machine learning scorecards for faster loans approvals.
 
Speaking on this occasion, Akshay Mehrotra, Co-Founder & CEO Early Salary said, "We are very excited to have Eight Roads Ventures India join our board. We see ourselves as a first line of credit for the young working India. We have three clear focus areas to work towards. Firstly, to further improve our technology stack and work on further investing in machine learning systems for better, faster and more prudent risk management. Secondly, to focus on building additional products and tenure options to help our customers across their varied cash needs. And thirdly, to leverage this better technology and broader product portfolio to grow our monthly volume to 100,000 disbursements by end of 2018."
 
He further added, "The key to our success will be helping more and more people without any human interface. As we scale this, it will be our clear differentiator."
 
Ashish Goyal, Co-Founder and CFO said, "What sets EarlySalary apart is its unique product proposition and its ability to provide customer experience using machine underwriting systems. Our relentless efforts aim to achieve a fine balance between customer experience, risk management and service millennials in a new way. With this additional capital, we are confident in expanding our ability to reach to more customers and have a stronger lending book to support our growth."
 
Earlier in May 2017, EarlySalary had raised $4 Million (Rs. 27 crore) from IDG Ventures India and DHFL. In the last 7 months, EarlySalary received more than 1 million new app downloads and is already working with more than 100 large employers and partners to provide instant salary advances and short terms loans to young working professionals through the EarlySalary mobile app.
 
As a part of this transaction, Dhyanesh Shah, Principal at Eight Roads Ventures, will join the board of EarlySalary. He said, "The financial services market in India is ripe for disruption, and we have been actively looking for differentiated opportunities. EarlySalary has stood out for its unique consumer proposition and exceptional management team. The company has cleverly leveraged data and technology to provide instant affordable loans to an otherwise excluded customer segment. We look forward to working closely with Akshay, Ashish and the management team at EarlySalary."
 
Mr. Ashok Agarwal, Director of Transcorp International Limited commented, "We believed in EarlySalary from day one and we are very excited to see it grow manifold. The Company has demonstrated capabilities to leverage path-breaking technologies to optimize consumer convenience. We are confident that this round of funding will be utilized to scale the business & take the company to the next level."
 
Harshil Mehta, JMD & CEO, DHFL commented, "EarlySalary has been growing at the desired pace and has scaled up the business well. As digital solutions make our lives much more convenient, innovations in customer service will be at the core of business growth. As a fintech enterprise, EarlySalary continues to bring innovative solutions in the lending space by addressing a very relevant consumer need. This is backed by data analytics, consumer insights and strong technology backbone. We continue to look forward to supporting the talented team as they work towards expanding the business."
 
Karthik Prabhakhar, Director & Head of Fundraising at IDG Ventures India added, "Over the last two years, EarlySalary has emerged as one of the fast-growing fintech players in the country with its cutting-edge technology platform, and is now amongst the market leaders in the real-time short-term loan business. We strongly believe that FinTech will pave the way for the younger generation to get access to quality credit and EarlySalary will lead the way."About EarlySalary.com

Founded by Akshay Mehrotra and Ashish Goyal, EarlySalary is a mobile app which allows salaried individuals to avail instant loans for an average tenure of 30 days or till the next salary cycle. These loans are similar to salary advances or credit card cash withdrawals, empowering consumers with ready cash when it is most needed. The company conducts prudent risk assessment by leveraging social profiling to go beyond financial underwriting and IndiaStack. Initially operating in 8 metros, EarlySalary is now catering to working professionals in 15 cities across India and seen over 1.4 million customer downloads. The company has been working on introducing multiple products, line of credit functionality, EMIs and other products focused towards helping young working professions with credit needs.
 
Key Features

  • Instant Salary Advance up to 50% of monthly Salary in less than 10 minutes
  • Super fast: 70% loans are granted in less than 10 minutes
  • Instant Cash: Salary advance/cash loans transferred to bank anytime instantly
  • Short duration: Cash loans from 7 days up to 30days
  • Instant Transactions: From Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 2 Lac cash transferred to the customer's bank account
  • Shop now and pay later – ability to use the loan limit to shop online on credit

 * Existing customers get an option to pay over 3 months via 3 EMIs and up to Rs. 2 Lacs limit

About the Senior Management

Akshay Mehrotra, CEO: Previously served as the Chief Marketing Officer at Big Bazaar, Future Retail Limited. Also worked as CMO at PolicyBazaar.com and Marketing Head at Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance.

Ashish Goyal, CFO: A chartered accountant by education and previously served as the Chief Investment Officer at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.

Vimal Saboo, CBO: Previously served as the Business Head of Edelweiss Capital and also served in senior roles at Axis Bank.

Vivek Jain, CTO: Previously served as the Principal Technology Architect at Infosys.

For more information please visit www.earlysalary.com
Like us on Facebook: fb.com/EarlySalary
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/early_salary

About Eight Roads Ventures

Eight Roads Ventures India (ERVI) is the proprietary investment arm of Fidelity International Limited (FIL). ERVI seeks to invest in high-quality, high-growth companies in India across a broad range of sectors. ERVI is committed to making the companies it invests in leaders in their industries through access to patient capital with a long-term investment mindset, a powerful network of resources and a team of investment professionals with a proven track record of success. Some recent investments by Eight Roads in the financial services and fintech domain include IFMR Capital, Akulaku, BankBazaar, China PnR, Paidy and Greenlight Planet, amongst others.
For more information, please visit https://eightroads.com

About IDG Ventures India

IDG Ventures India is a leading technology venture capital fund in India. The fund is part of IDG Ventures, a global network of technology venture funds with over $6 billion under management with over 220 investee companies and 10 offices across Asia and North America. IDG Ventures has been an investor in companies including Funzio, Ctrip, Tencent, Baidu, Netscape, BabyCenter, Sohu, Vancl and VinaGame. In India, IDG Ventures India has invested in companies such as Flipkart, Myntra (acquired by Flipkart), Yatra (NASDAQ:YTRA), Newgen, Brainbees (FirstCry.com), Manthan, Valyoo (Lenskart.com), NestAway among others. More information about IDG Ventures India is available at www.idgvcindia.com

About DHFL

DHFL was founded in 1984 by Late Shri Rajesh Kumar Wadhawan with a vision to provide financial access for Indians to own a home of their own. Today, led by Mr. Kapil Wadhawan, CMD, DHFL, the company is CARE AAA rated and reckoned as one of India's leading financial institutions with a large presence across the country, in addition to representative offices in Dubai and London.

Throughout its years of growth, DHFL has stayed true to its core vision of financial inclusion, especially to the low and middle income customers across India. The company's wide network, coupled with insights into local customer needs, has enabled the company to provide meaningful financial access to customers even in India's smallest towns. With a strong business foundation, an extensive distribution network, proven industry expertise and a deep understanding of the Indian customer, DHFL is a respected and trusted financial services company in India with a concerted focus towards enabling home ownership to the low and middle income customer. For further information, please visit www.dhfl.com.

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