LenDenClub, an online peer-to-peer lending marketplace for salaried borrowers, has received its Certificate of Registration from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to officially operate as an NBFC-P2P.
Bhavin Patel, Chief Executive Officer at LenDenClub said, “Registration as NBFC-P2P was one of the most important stepping stone for us. This is the altogether different era for us compared to the time when we started with the hope to be regulated one day. This will help us establishing LenDenClub brand more strongly as this will boost lenders’ confidence.”
LenDenClub was founded by Bhavin Patel and Dipesh Karki in 2015 with its headquarter in Mumbai. It connects lenders looking for high returns with creditworthy borrowers looking for short-term personal loans. LenDenClub aims to reach the 20-25 million salaried individuals who remain out of the ambit of the traditional credit-providing institutions.
The various categories of loans provided on the platform include wedding loans, travel loans, advance salary, education loans, debt consolidation, among others. The loans are offered for a fixed duration of 18 to 36 months, and the interest rate ranging from 12.5% to 35%.
The company has over 22,000 registered borrowers on the platform, along with more than 6,000 lenders, providing an average return of nearly 27% on investments.
LenDenClub last raised ₹3.5 crores ($500,000) in equity investment from Venture Catalyst, Anirudh Damani, and an Indian venture capital fund in October 2017.
Online P2P lending space in India is still in the early stage of its development with a vast potential. LenDenClub will be looking to establish its foothold in the market and become an industry leader. Both the lenders and borrowers will be more confident in its business model now that it is equipped with the license from RBI to operate as an NBFC-P2P.
Other online P2P lending platforms that received an NBFC-P2P license from the RBI recently include, Monexo Fintech, Faircent, OML Technologies, Finzy, among others.
In related news, Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has applied for NBFC license making thing complicated for the smaller players in the online lending domain.