Snapdeal has ventured into financial services by acquiring a majority stake in digital financial products distribution platform RupeePower.com. Both RupeePower and Snapdeal refused to disclose the size of the cash-and-stock deal.

Kunal Bahl, Snapdeal Co-founder and CEO, said, “The online financial services market is slated to touch $30 billion by 2020. We want to facilitate easy, cheap and quick consumer loans through RupeePower.” The facility will not be restricted to Snapdeal consumers alone.

Started in 2011 by founder and CEO Tejasvi Mohanram, RupeePower enabled ₹1,500 crore of credit disbursals — loans, credit cards and other personal finance products — through its platform in fiscal 2014-15. It has tie-ups with 12 banks. After this acquisition, the companies aim at enabling disbursement of consumer credit worth ₹6,000 crore in the next two years. “We match borrowers with lenders and verifications such as income, identity and liability are done online. The aim is to help provide loans up to ₹3 crore with a click of a button,” Mohanram said.

Snapdeal had in August 2014 launched a seller liquidity programme, Capital Assist, which has over a dozen banks and NBFCs as partners. It helps provide low-cost financing to Snapdeal sellers. Snapdeal raised $627 million from Japan’s SoftBank last October. On whether it was looking to raise more funds, Bahl said the company had not used the SoftBank money yet.

Related Topics