Faircent today reportedly raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Aarin Capital, a fund led by ex-Infosys CFO and chairman of Manipal Global Education, Mohandas Pai. Faircent is a community loan exchange site that facilitates peer-to-peer lending and borrowing.
Faircent previously raised $250,000 from M&S partners in June 2015 as well as an undisclosed amount of funding earlier in the year from the promoters of Fusion Microfinance Pvt Ltd, Devash Sachdev and Ashish Tiwari. This fresh funding means that Mohandas Pai will join the board of Faircent as an advisor. The start-up currently claims to have over 15,000 borrowers and 3,000 lenders signed up.
Because most banks make most of their revenue from differences in interest rates – what they pay depositors versus what they charge borrowers – loans often come with massive fees. Faircent allows borrowers and lenders to dictate their own interest rates and charges minimally for each transaction.
Borrowers must make a minimum of Rs 300,000 ($4,620) a year. Both borrowers and lenders must be Indian residents and are charged a one-time listing fee of Rs 1,500 ($23) when they sign up with the site. Lenders are charged a small processing fee for every Rs 10,000 ($1,540) that they lend thereafter.