For many, getting big amounts of money frequently necessitates going to the bank. But until recently, you had to turn to friends or family if you needed a small loan for regular necessities like bills, shopping, or travel. This was mostly because borrowing money from banks may be difficult, especially for those who don't have a reliable source of income or aren't familiar with credit. Thankfully, things have changed.

With innovative fintech startups coming up, getting a small loan is a matter of a few clicks. One such startup that has simplified borrowing for young professionals is KreditBee. KreditBee was started in 2018 to help the NTC (New-to-Credit) population become a part of the Credit Bureau system in India to enable them to borrow from banks & traditional NBFCs.

Know the KreditBee Startup Story, Founders, Business Model, Funding, and more.

KreditBee - Company Highlights

KreditBee - About
KreditBee - Industry
KreditBee - Founders and Team
KreditBee - Startup Story
KreditBee - Mission
KreditBee - Name and Logo
KreditBee - Business Model
KreditBee - Revenue Model
KreditBee - Challenges Faced
KreditBee - Funding and Investors
KreditBee - Growth
KreditBee - Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns
KreditBee - Competitors
KreditBee - Future Plans

KreditBee - About

KreditBee is an Instant Personal Loan platform for self-employed and salaried professionals, where they can apply for a Personal Loan up to Rs 5 lakh as per their requirements. It is a full-stack Digital Lending Platform, with the entire life cycle of the loan, starting with its origin to application to disbursement and repayment, being completely online. People can avail loans from their smartphones directly into their bank accounts at any given point in the day or week.

The platform looks at alternative lending data points beyond salary and bureau score and is hence able to disburse to young professionals who are new to credit and are non-salaried (part-timers, freelancers, and self-employed).

"Financial Inclusion is the key for any ecosystem to thrive. For the Indian Economy to boom to its true potential in the 21st century, every Indian should have easy access to responsible credit at their disposal, and KreditBee aims to bridge that gap for them" - says KreditBee CEO Madhusudan Ekambaram

KreditBee - Industry

The Mordor Intelligence research analysis indicates that the fintech market in India is expected to grow significantly. The market, which is expected to be valued at USD 111.14 billion in 2024, is anticipated to grow at a strong CAGR of 30.55% to reach USD 421.48 billion by 2029. Numerous factors, such as improved regulatory frameworks, growing digital adoption, and technology improvements, support this growth trajectory.

Innovation is being driven by major participants in the Indian fintech environment in the areas of banking, payments, lending, wealth management, and insurance. As seen by recent developments, the Indian fintech business offers a dynamic and exciting landscape for players, with minimal market concentration and plenty of room for expansion.

KreditBee - Founders and Team

Madhusudan Ekambaram (Co-Founder and CEO), Karthikeyan Krishnaswamy (Co-Founder and CTO), and Vivek Veda (Co-Founder and CFO) are the Co-Founders of KreditBee.

Madhusudan Ekambaram

KreditBee Co-Founder and CEO Madhusudan Ekambaram has a BE in Information Technology from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka. He had 11+ years of experience in Product Portfolio Management prior to starting up. Madhusudan also own Rasthrapathi Puraskar (President’s Award) and the Rajya Puraskar (Governor’s Award) for his services as a Scout with the BSG organization.

Madhusudan looks after conceptualization of the business product, strategic initiatives, investor management, and fundraising aspects of KreditBee. He is also the Co-Founder of the Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment.

Karthikeyan Krishnaswamy

KreditBee Co-Founder and CTO Karthikeyan Krishnaswamy has a Bachelor of Computing (Honors) and a Masters of Computing in Computer Science from the National University of Singapore. He had 12+ years of experience in technology and products prior to starting up.

Vivek Veda

KreditBee Co-Founder and CFO Vivek Veda has a CA from ICAI. He has 14+ years of experience in Investment and Retail Banking prior to starting up. In addition, he serves as director of the systemically significant NBFC Krazybee Services Private Limited.

KreditBee has 1001–5,000 employees, as per LinkedIn.

KreditBee - Startup Story

Madhusudan has always been intrigued by the way personal finance and lending work in India, and he wanted to change things for the better. In 2016, Madhusudan, along with his co-founders, started KrazyBee, India's first online installment store for students.

KrazyBee lets students purchase goods online via its flexible monthly payment plans. With its innovative approach, KrazyBee emerged as a market leader within six months of its inception. The team now wanted to scale up to become a 100% digital lending platform, which led to the founding of KreditBee in 2018.

"The initial product (KrazyBee) was lending to college students. The challenge in scaling up was due to physical nature of KYC that was involved (there is no centralised database of college students). Hence, it could never become a 100% digital lending platform in the current ecosystem. Hence, the idea was to work on a full-stack digital lending platform, which led to the inception of KreditBee, a platform for Young Professionals to avail loans online" Madhusudan added.

KreditBee - Mission

The company's mission on it's websites states "to deliver exceptional value to borrowers through its online credit marketplace."

KreditBee - Name and Logo

KreditBee's parent company is "Finnov Pvt. Ltd."

KreditBee - Business Model

The KreditBee business model is based on standard digital lending, wherein the interest income from the users serves as a profitability metric in the Unit Economics sheet. KreditBee also works with various partners like Flipkart, Amazon, MakeMyTrip, and Myntra, among others, the affiliate income from which becomes another source of income, some of which the startup passes to its end customers.

The core of KreditBee's business model is providing quick and easy personal loans to a wide range of customers, including professionals with regular jobs and independent contractors. Borrowers can receive loans ranging from modest to substantial amounts, designed to fulfill a variety of financial needs, through their online platform.

KreditBee - Revenue Model

KreditBee makes money from different resources; some of the prominent ones are:

Interest Income: In addition to acting as a digital lending platform, KreditBee earns a substantial amount of money from interest on the loans that it makes available to borrowers. This interest income, which is earned from the interest rates applied to the principal loan amounts given to users, is a crucial component of the business's revenue stream.

Affiliate Income: KreditBee generates extra income by forming smart alliances with well-known online retailers like Flipkart, Amazon, MakeMyTrip, and Myntra, among others. KreditBee generates affiliate revenue by promoting these partner platforms and facilitating transactions. One noteworthy feature of this revenue stream is that KreditBee's customers receive a piece of the affiliate money, which improves the value proposition overall and increases customer loyalty.

Commissions from Lenders: By collecting commissions from the lenders it brings on board for its platform, KreditBee increases its earnings even more. Usually, a number of variables, including loan volume, client acquisition, and loan performance, determine these commissions. KreditBee is essential to loan transactions since it connects lenders and potential borrowers and receives commissions in return.

KreditBee - Challenges Faced

The biggest challenge facing KreditBee is developing their digital underwriting system in order to offer loans to clients who are self-employed and new to credit. In order to get around this, the group will need to keep improving their strategy through the integration of various data sources, the improvement of machine learning algorithms, the analysis of behavioral patterns, consumer education, and regulatory compliance.

The goal of this iterative approach is to increase forecast accuracy and increase underprivileged populations' access to finance.

"The idea behind constant improvisation of the digital underwriting mechanism is to constantly identify parameters which give a good indicator of not just the repayment capability, but also their intent. We have over 6500 data variable identified from over 120 data sources based on which we do our credit decisions." Madhusudan quotes

KreditBee - Funding and Investors

KreditBee has raised a total of $353.25 million in six rounds of funding.

Here are the funding details:

KreditBee - Growth

KreditBee's growth highlights are:

• It has served 10 million customers across the country as of March 2024
• The company has 3.5 million active users as of January 2023
• It has provided over $7 million in loans to customers as of January 2023
• It has provided up to Rs 4 lakh to professionals as of January 2023

Financials

KreditBee - Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns

The idea behind the initiative is to make loans up to Rs 3 lakh easily accessible through a straightforward, mobile-first application process. With a focus on simplicity and speed, it guarantees that the entire process, from application to disbursal, takes only ten minutes, allowing customers to quickly receive funds immediately into their accounts.

The commercial films that go along with it emphasize how unpredictable life may be by showing situations in which people can need extra money out of the blue. The KreditBee app responds to these circumstances by giving customers the ability to obtain rapid loans whenever they need them, offering financial support when it's most required.

KreditBee - Competitors

KreditBee competitors are:

• Slice
• CASHe
• LazyPay
• PaySense

KreditBee - Future Plans

KreditBee is planning to raise more money through a new round by the end of 2025, and that the company is expected to grow significantly in the years to come. The company's objective is to prolong its financial runway for a minimum of 12-14 months, with a strategic emphasis on strengthening its assets under management (AUM) as per news report of December 22, 2023. This suggests a strong dedication to long-term growth and bolstering its market position. The CEO of KreditBee also stated that the company plans to go public in less than three years.

The company's confidence in its business strategy, market potential, and ability to successfully traverse the regulatory landscape is demonstrated by this ambitious ambition. Through the pursuit of these strategic initiatives, KreditBee hopes to establish itself as a prominent participant in the fintech industry and open up fresh avenues for growth and value generation.

FAQs

Who is the owner of KreditBee?

Madhusudan Ekambaram is the CEO and Co-Founder of KreditBee.

What is the kreditbee revenue?

KreditBee's operating revenue was Rs 71,700 lakh in FY23.

What happens if you don't pay a KreditBee loan?

If you don't repay your loan on KreditBee, your CIBIL score will get affected, which will affect your ability to avail loans from any bank or financial institution in the future and you will automatically be ineligible for availing quicker Personal Loans of a much higher value from KreditBee in the future.