Digital lending start-up Happy gets $20-million funding

Digital non-bank lending start-up Happy has raised $20 million (₹140 crore) by way of fresh capital to grow small business lending in India. Its AI-powered lend-tech model will make flexible digital loans to micro and small businesses in over 500 locations across India, the start-up said in a statement.

In its first two years of operations, Happy has disbursed over ₹140 crore through 32,000 loans to more than 80 different kinds of businesses, with most loans taking only minutes from application to disbursal. With access to 25 lakh micro enterprises across 20 business partners, Happy is now ready to make an orbit shift with digital lending in India, it said.

The fresh funding includes a mix of equity from Indian and US investors, and financing lines from institutions including DMI, a leading India-based non-bank finance company. Happy’s latest investors have recognised the company’s access to more than 25 lakh potential small borrowers across India through partnerships with nearly 20 payment and other commercial networks. With its new funding, Happy will grow its loan portfolio multiple-fold disbursing over 10 lakh loans over the next fiscal and will reduce loan fulfilment times to below one minute.

Happy was founded by Manish Khera, Gautam Ivatury and Shweta Aprameya with experience in delivering and designing alternate financial services in markets from India to Kenya and the US. The company’s loans for small businesses are less costly and more reliable than informal borrowing. Its mission is to support and increase the financial strength of small and micro-entrepreneurs, the heart of Indian commerce.

Micro-enterprises contribute 37.5 per cent to India’s economy and employ 20 per cent of India’s workforce, over 10 crore people. Small flexible loans help create greater business opportunities, stabilize cash flows, and enhance livelihoods for small business owners and their employees. Making 10 lakh small loans means building a loan portfolio of over $500 million and catalysing economic wealth of $10 billion for micro- and small enterprises in a single year, Happy’s Co-founder and MD Manish Khera said.

Gautam Ivatury, Co-founder, said every leg of the lending process is digitised to offer a simple and easy borrowing experience while managing risk with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. “With the infusion of more resources, we plan to explore more advanced technology such a blockchain in the credit underwriting process.”

Besides growing the lending operation, Happy will also expand its technology platform, which enables instant API-driven lending with over 20 partners. The platform is designed for the simplest customer experience and instant availability of credit through standardised technical integrations with partners, ML-based credit decisions, and recently loan records on blockchain.

COMMENT NOW