ETtech Explainer: Why are fintechs and their investors going after secured loans?
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More and more fintech lending startups focusing on secured credit products such as loans against property (LAP), and loans against securities like mutual funds, are attracting venture capital (VC) funds.Even home financing players like Vridhi Home Finance, Basic Home Loans, Easy Home Finance and others have been attracting venture investors, with their promise to bring about technology disruption in the sector. ETtech explains:Secured lending business is a financial service that provides loans to borrowers against collateral such as a vehicle or property. While banks and traditional non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) have been offering secured credit like home loans and auto loans for years, fintechs stayed away from these products, given the need for physical operations to evaluate the properties and assets. But now, startups are investing in branches and are building on-street teams to manage these products.This shift comes as unsecured lending platforms witness a slowdown in the market, prompting startups to move towards secured credit products. Fintech platforms, including Paytm and Mobikwik, faced revenue pressure as banks and NBFCs scaled back on unsecured lending over the last few quarters. Even new-age NBFCs like Fibe, Kissht and others have seen stress on their books as new loan sanctioning slowed down. These trends have led to fintechs scouting for opportunities in secured credit.Easy Home Finance, Basic Home Loan, and Vridhi Home Finance together received nearly $150 million in equity capital from venture funds like Elevation Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, Norwest Venture Partners, and Ranjan Pai's Claypond Capital. Mahaveer Finance, an NBFC based in Chennai, has raised $23 million from Elevation Capital and others with the aim of adding LAP and other similar products.Bengaluru-based NBFC Techfino has recently raised around $7.5 million from Stellaris Venture Partners and Saison Capital. Founded in 2019, the fintech company operates secured and unsecured lending models. The company focusses on secured businesses.As more businesses move towards secured products, the unsecured lending startups are jumping onto the bandwagon. Fintech players Cred, BharatPe, and Paytm have announced a similar entry into secured products over the past year. Unsecured lending players like Kissht, Loantap, Fibe, and Kreditbee ventured into secured lending products such as LAP.Startups are reducing their operational costs by making branches more efficient and leveraging technology to save costs and compete with big businesses. 'Traditionally, 70% to 80% of a housing finance company's costs go into running physical branches. We're bringing that down to 40% to 50% by leveraging technology, which enables lower customer acquisition costs and better interest rates,' said Atul Monga, CEO, Basic Home Loan.Unlike banks and larger NBFCs, branch expansions, while keeping costs in control, will remain a challenge for these startups.LAP, while being attractive, tends to show up high non-performing assets (NPAs), which means fintechs will need to invest in strong collection teams. TransUnion Cibil's data released in January showed that LAP books showed among the highest NPA trends. As of September 2024, 1.7% of the LAPs were due for 90 days or more, said the report.'Investments in physical assets and branches would eat into the delta that fintechs can make between the cost of borrowing and rates they can offer their customers,' said Rohit Chokhani, founder, Easy Home Finance. 'This business will be sustainable only when there is a major scale.'
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