PayU, Kreditech launch instant cardless EMI with PayU Monedo in India

New Delhi: India's leading online payment service provider PayU and Kreditech on Thursday launched the beta phase of PayU Monedo in India.

PayU Monedo will provide card-less EMIs (equated monthly installments) to finance the online purchases of consumers in India. The new offering follows the launch of a strategic partnership between PayU and Kreditech announced in May 2017 to deliver a joint proposition for card-less EMI.

The partnership saw EUR 110 million investment from PayU in Kreditech - the largest ever equity investment in a German fintech company.

With PayU Monedo, PayU and Kreditech aim to bridge the credit gap for the banked and under-banked population in India by offering instant short and medium-term shopping credits for their cart amount at the checkout of popular e-commerce websites. PayU Monedo combines PayU's massive 300,000+ merchant distribution network with Kreditech's expert machine learning-based real-time underwriting capabilities and its lending-as-a service platform Monedo.

This integration allows customers to receive credit in less than two minutes for their online purchases at charges comparable to local banks. Loan amounts are granted at up to Rs. 1,00,000. The duration of the credit line and interest rates for card-less EMI are dynamic and entirely dependent on the likeliness of the individual customer and the merchants to repay the loan.

After the goods are added to the cart, the consumer is offered an option to select card-less EMI as the payment method at checkout. Using its innovative scoring technology combined with state

of the art fraud and eKYC verification process, Kreditech performs a precise credit rating and offers competitive pricing and repayment options. The credit decision requires no manual intervention and is issued in less than two minutes, thus eliminating cumbersome and lengthy procedures. Consumers can also choose from various flexible repayment options, selecting the mode most convenient to them.

By making goods and services affordable for consumers with lower purchasing power, PayU Monedo enables merchants to expand their business to completely new market segments with the chance of significantly higher sales and lower cart abandonment rates.

"Our newest consumer offering of cardless EMI in partnership with Kreditech bridges the underlying gap for credit," said MD and co-founder, PayU India, Shailaz Nag.

"We are already talking to merchants in the e-commerce, travel and other online sectors and are looking forward to providing this innovative technology as an alternative payment method in the checkout process," added Nag.

"Both PayU and Kreditech share the same mission to increase the financial freedom of people with limited access to banking services," said CEO Kreditech, Alexander Graubner-Müller.

He added that this is the first partnership between a payment provider and an alternative lending company and we are thrilled to have kicked-off our joint business in India.

"We are bullish about our foray in India and will be setting up an office in Mumbai," added Müller.

Kreditech India will be operated out of the Mumbai office led by Ashish Kohli as country manager, bringing a total 20 years of experience in financial services with Citibank and Bajaj Finance.