India e-commerce company Snapdeal has acquired a majority stake in RupeePower, a provider of loans and credit cards.
The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but it is a controlling stake. Snapdeal said that it will launch a financial services marketplace using this acquisition, and projects that it will provide USD 1 billion of loans over the next two years through the platform.
RupeePower uses an online tool and algorithms that work in the background. RupeePower gives users the ability to apply for loans that will take many no more than 5 minutes to get approved.
The San Francisco-based techcrunch.com website quoted Kunal Bahl, cofounder and CEO of Snapdeal as saying, "Realizing the various difficulties that consumers face while deciding and purchasing financial products/services and the challenges that companies face whilst reaching out to the 'right' audience, we have brought RupeePower into our family, to help solve the distribution challenges of the financial services ecosystem and make it more inclusive. The same way Snapdeal has democratized retail in India, now we aspire to democratize access to credit."
RupeePower, founded in 2011, has financed INR 1,500 crores (USD 24 million) in the current financial year. It's tapping into the bigger trend in India of services like moving online, plus the growing middle class in the country that wants to borrow more money, and in this way specifically.
