IIFL Finance and ZestMoney partner to boost digital EMIs, aim to build $1 billion loan book

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IIFL Finance and fintech start-up ZestMoney on October 21 announced that they have entered into a partnership to offer credit to customers.

Through this partnership, both the companies believe that the business can be scaled up to build a $1 billion worth of loan book over a period of 2-3 years.  IIFL Finance has a loan AUM of $6.5 billion and ZestMoney has disbursed $1 billion through their platform so far.

"IIFL Finance as a dedicated partner will get access to a new customer base on the ZestMoney platform and play a crucial role in driving financial inclusion for a large section of people in the country," the companies said in a joint statement.

IIFL Finance is a non-banking finance company (NBFC), offering products such as home loans, gold loans, and business loans, including loans against property and medium & small enterprise financing, microfinance, developer and construction finance. It also offers capital market finance; catering to both retail and corporate clients. On the other hand, ZestMoney is a digital EMI/checkout financing platform.

Commenting on the partnership,  Nirmal Jain, Founder, IIFL Group and Managing Director, IIFL Finance said, “ZestMoney has built a solid technology platform and captured a strong customer base through deep integration with more than 10,000 online merchants and 75,000 physical stores. With 5G and India stack, people in small towns or even rural areas can get credit in a completely paperless and without any human contact to meet their consumption or working capital requirements.”

Adding to this, Lizzie Chapman, CEO & Co-founder, ZestMoney said, “ We have been seeing a solid demand across our online and offline partners and this partnership will help us service demand and learn from the deep financial expertise and Digital Underwriting Capabilities that IIFL has built over the last three decades.”

Meanwhile, shares of IIFL Finance on Friday (October 21) closed 1.16 percent lower at Rs 354 apiece on BSE.

Earlier this year, IIFL Finance had said that it was planning to raise debt capital worth Rs 5,000 crore by issuing bonds on a private placement basis.

The bonds will be offered through public issue, subject to regulatory and statutory approvals, IIFL Finance said in a regulatory filing.