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mPokket, a digital lending platform that offers short-term personal loans to college students, is eyeing portfolio expansion.
Plans are afoot to lend (mostly personal loans) to first-time job aspirants, primarily in their 20s.
Based out of Kolkata, mPokket began operations in December 2016. The company does not lend to college students, nor does it have a non-banking financial company (NBFC) licence. It only acts as a platform that connects end-users to a lending company and earns from the service fees.
According to Gaurav Jalan, Founder and CEO, mPokket is now looking to expand lending operations to those who are in their first job, particularly those who are in their mid-to-late 20s.
Work has begun on the loan products, which are likely to be introduced over the next six to nine months. “By the end of this year, we should expand the platform’s offerings for those in their first job. We are working on the product details,” he told BusinessLine .
Disbursal run rate
At present, mPokket has an annual disbursal run rate (current disbursal multiplied by 365 days) of ₹500 crore, and it reported 15 times growth over the last 12 months.
The lending platform operates pan-India and has around four lakh users who transact through its mobile app. The average ticket size, or lending size per college goer, is around ₹1,000, and is for a duration of 45 days. Interest charged starts at 3 per cent a month.
A college student can get a “micro personal loan” between ₹500 and ₹10,000 (depending on his credit ratings). In banking parlance, these are unsecured loans and carry a default rate of around 3 per cent. While the market size is not known, it is estimated that there are four to five crore college students in India.
Some of the other student microfinance companies, or student-focussed lending ones, include the likes of SlicePay and Krazybee. Jalan maintains that mPokket turned profitable in FY19, and that it has been able to wipe out previous losses. “We have had a strong focus on profitability. And neither do we burn cash like some start-ups,” he said without sharing turnover or profit details.
The company had, over the last few months, raised undisclosed amount through seed round and pre-Series A round. As of now, there are no immediate fund-raising plans.
According to Jalan, mPokket may explore the possibility of having an NBFC licence in the long run. Such a licence will help in “vertical integration of the business”.
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