AI and some money: How lending start-ups are helping students
What's the story
According to a KPMG-NASSCOM report, the Indian fintech market will touch $2.4 billion by 2020, up from the current $1.2 billion.
In the past few years, the country has seen the advent of several student-focused fintech start-ups that are arming young Indians with accessible and affordable credit using AI algorithms for risk management.
Let's look at 5 start-ups that provide 'intelligent' loans to students.
Eduvanz
Eduvanz uniquely provides loans for skill development
Eduvanz is a Mumbai-based financing company that provides loans to students for skill development.
It has partnered with training and certification providers across 16+ industries to offer innovative financial solutions to students.
The education technology start-up, founded in 2016, uses AI-based algorithms and predictive analytics to gauge the financial and socio-economic standing of loan-seekers and accordingly makes lending easier for them.
SlicePay
Buy now, pay later on Flipkart/Amazon with SlicePay
Founded in 2015, SlicePay allows students to purchase products on credit without any collateral.
Through the SlicePay card, students can avail services and products like phones/laptops and cab rides/food delivery and pay back in small amounts over several months.
The micro-financing platform uses mobile data and social-media data for risk profiling. The SlicePay bill is generated on the 16th of every month.
KrazyBee
Month-end woes, Enter KrazyBee
Bengaluru-based fintech start-up KrazyBee offers small-ticket loans to students through which the latter can fund short-term requirements like buying online products.
The company said, "Our lending to these professionals will be nothing but a salary advance kind of product."
Students can procure a loan from KrazyBee and repay it over a period of 3-12 months in installments. KrazyBee's existing investors include Xiaomi.
GyanDhan
Affordable education loans for your dream college abroad
Founded in 2015, GyanDhan provides education loans for students who want to pursue higher studies outside India.
The founders of the start-up themselves "experienced financial constraints" when they were studying and hence, want to "democratize education" for all.
So far, the financial online marketplace has helped several students procure large-ticket education loans using proprietary logic.
RedCarpet
Finance your e-commerce, travel needs with RedCarpet
RedCarpet provides instant credit to students for online purchases which can be repaid in easy installments.
The Delhi-based start-up uses mobile and social media data to give loans to users who are not profiled customers and don't have a credit score yet.
The company eventually aims at unlocking its services for bigger loans to all kinds of users, and not just students.