Tag: LendenClub

Chennai: Demand for Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) loans from new borrowers rose 35% on an average in September as more Indians stepped out of lockdown and indulged in revenge purchases.

This surge in new customer acquisition is much higher than the last three months. With the festive season kicking in, lenders expect disbursement to double in the next two months.

ZestMoney’s CEO & co-founder Lizzie Chapman said, “We expect this to be a (festive) dhamaka festive season and the signs are already visible. In September alone, we had 50% more new customers sign up and transact with us.”

There is an increase in interest from retailers wanting to enable BNPL at their stores. BNPL offers at physical stores doubled in September, with new customer applications rising by 10X over the last three months, Chapman said. Besides metro cities, tier-2 and 3 markets have recorded three times more demand compared to metros. “As for consumer demand, we expect TVs and smartphones to be one of the largest categories followed by home appliances, online fashion, home decor etc. Demand for electric vehicles is also high and we are expecting to double our electric two-wheeler business next month,” she said.

Most borrowers come from the age category of 22-36 years.

With a month-on-month customer growth for new loans at a healthy 35%, fintech lender CASHe anticipates the next few months to witness higher demand for products led by the BNPL offering. Its CEO Yogi Sadana said,“We have approved over 40,000 loans in September which has been its best month of the year so far. Around 70% of the demand is currently from metros. However, new customer acquisition from tier-2 & 3 cities is rapidly increasing.”

LenDenClub saw the average ticket size of BNPL loans increase from Rs 9,500 in July to Rs 13,000 in September. Its co-founder and CEO Bhavin Patel said, “We have disbursed about 3.5 lakh loans given till now, of which 80% of loans are completely closed or repaid. We have received over 1.60 lakh applications in September month, of which 18%-20% from new customers, higher august growth 10%-15%.”

Capital Float’s co-founder & MD Gaurav Hinduja said they saw a 30% increase in new customer acquisition in September. “We find the number of new customers signing up for BNPL very encouraging. About 50% of our customers are from non-metro cities,” Hinduja said.