Known as Capital Float at that time, the company focused on technology-driven easy credit access and customized finance products to bridge the credit gap for small businesses. In 2018, the company entered the consumer lending space, becoming a full-fledged digital consumer financial services organization over the next two years.
ndia boasts of the highest fintech adoption rate in the world at 87 per cent, yet 160 million Indians had insufficient access to credit at the end of 2021. India is also home to 250-300 million online shoppers, yet only 75 million have active credit cards. With a passion for fintech and an aim to “make credit worthy for all,” Sashank Rishyasringa and Gaurav Hinduja founded axio in 2013. Known as Capital Float at that time, the company focused on technology-driven easy credit access and customized finance products to bridge the credit gap for small businesses. In 2018, the company entered the consumer lending space, becoming a full-fledged digital consumer financial services organization over the next two years. The fact that the fintech startup concluded FY22-23 with an impressive 2x growth in its customer base and GMV (in comparison to FY21-22) is testament to its customer-friendly offerings. So, how did axio achieve this growth?
The founder duo met at Stanford University as batchmates in the MBA program. Their mutual desire to make credit a tool for growth rather than a trap brought them together on a mission to “make credit a force for good in India’s growth story.” axio aims to empower the huge aspirational population of India to use credit responsibly to achieve their ambitions. The company has made this process quick and seamless by enabling credit at checkout across 4,000 brands.
axio has been able to cut down loan approval time to as little as three seconds by harnessing the power of data analytics. It collates and analyzes real-time data from multiple sources, including the credit bureau, RBI defaulters list, partners, and internal data sources. The online checkout finance product is available across leading brands in segments such as e-commerce, travel, electronics, home and kitchen, personal care, education, and health. Some of these brands include Amazon, Makemytrip, Razorpay, Policybazaar, and Titan.
A pioneer in the embedded finance space, axio has served the credit needs of over 7.5 million customers till date. About 1/5th of its customers are new-to-credit and 2/3rd of its customers are based in tier 2 and 3 cities.
“As we continue to scale this credit product, we are mindful of not overleveraging our customers, as evidenced by our industry-low NPAs of 1%-2%,” shares Gaurav Hinduja, Co-Founder & MD, axio. Traditionally, this segment is avoided by credit card companies and lenders due to the associated high risk and acquisition costs. axio, through strategic partnerships in the space, can underwrite such customers and offer them an entry point into the formal credit system.
“We are targeting a non-prime customer segment, often ignored by the industry as they have little to no credit footprint. This segment will rapidly increase over the next few years as digital infrastructure and e-commerce continue to develop,” states Sashank Rishyasringa, Co-Founder, axio. The decade-old startup is adding 15,000 customers daily to its platform.
“With our checkout finance product, we follow a ‘low and grow model’. We offer our customers access to even small credit amounts to finance their purchases online and scale these amounts based on the customer’s usage and repayment journey. By following this approach, we can control risk and acquaint our customers with how to responsibly use credit,” notes Hinduja.
In 2022, axio unified its pay later, personal loans and personal finance management offerings under one brand. The startup has raised $174 million over the past eight years through equity funding and has grown into an organization of 500 employees. The fintech firm has been demonstrating robust growth even in the face of macroeconomic adversity.
So, what is axio’s future roadmap? “Our aim is not just double but triple our customer base over the next few years. We intend to go deeper into Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns, where we’re witnessing a surge in consumption. We are also focusing on building two-three large partnerships for our Pay Later product, which would cement our position as the market leader in the segment,” concludes the founder duo.