Page 32 - Banking Finance September 2019

PRESS RELEASE

Namaste Credit Consolidates Offerings for MSMEs as a Neobank

“Our transition to a Neobank will
not only help the startup get a
firmer grip into the Banking &
NBFC ecosystem but also balance
revenues with customer
acquisition costs to maintain a
profitable growth path,” Mr.
Bianchi added.
Namaste Credit said it is growing
20% month-on-month in the SME
credit segment, as more financial
institutions are adopting the
technology and automation path.
In less than 18 months, the startup
has emerged as the largest SaaS
automation provider for
comprehensive credit underwriting
for India's Financial Institutions.
The startup is leveraging its
proprietary technology powered by
Online lending marketplace Namaste Credit today said that
AI, NLP and computer vision in SME credit application
it is launching its Neobanking solutions for MSMEs, becoming
sourcing and processing, to solve real-world problems of
a full-fledged "Digital-Only Bank" with a foundational SaaS
SME credit.
play. As a Neobank, Namaste Credit aims to become the
first Neobank to offer a one-stop financial services provider Gaurav Anand, co-founder and director, Namaste Credit
for MSMEs, offering automated credit, banking and says, "This transition will help our partner Financial
accounting solutions. Institutions to get real-time insights into their lending
customers, underwrite better and cross-sell other products.
Namaste Credit Neobank will offer numerous tailor-made
products via a soon-to-be-launched “Namaste Biz” app to Cross-selling takes time, and if the revenue model is based
address multiple, inter-related financial needs of MSMEs, on cross-sell commissions and SaaS fee from SMEs, it can
including centralizing their cash flow and banking and credit take a long time to break-even. We saw this across many
management. Neobanks globally and are looking to solve this problem by
overlaying our Neobank over an existing business, which will
“We believe a technology-based integrated platform that
allow us to be profitable from the start".
can bring together banks, NBFCs and other stakeholders
can completely transform the financial services industry, “This innovation in business model will create a substantial
specially from a B2B perspective. As a Neobank, we are competitive advantage for us in three key aspects:
confident to achieve precisely that, which will ultimately put accelerate customer and channel acquisition, reduce
us in a unique position to serve the MSME banking needs operational costs significantly, and finally, allow us to expand
end-to-end, and at lower costs,” says Lucas Bianchi, the co- quickly to global markets,” Mr. Anand added.
founder and Director of Namaste Credit. Namaste Credit raised $3.8 million in Series-A funding led
India has over 50 large banks and NBFCs, who use over by Nexus Venture Partners in 2018. It also plans to grow
100,000 Direct Selling Agents (DSAs) and offline channels the number of its technology licensing partnerships with
to reach the over 30 million MSMEs in India. leading lenders across the globe.

32 | 2019 | SEPTEMBER | BANKING FINANCE