BharatPe aims to facilitate $300 mn loan book for lending partners

Fintech firm BharatPe on Wednesday announced its foray into the 'Buy Now Pay Later' (BNPL) category with 'postpe' and said it aims to facilitate a loan book of USD 300 million (about Rs 2,245 crore) via postpe in the first 12 months for its lending partners.

Customers can download the 'postpe' app from Play Store and avail interest-free credit limit of up to Rs 10 lakh. The product can also be used for micro-purchases.

"postpe is designed for the new-age customers who believe in shopping smart and are also well-versed with digital payment modes...there is no annual fee or transaction charges on payments done via postpe app or postpe card," a statement said.

BharatPe aims to facilitate a loan book of USD 300 million on postpe in the first 12 months for its lending partners, it added.

postpe is Global Sponsor of ICC T20 World Cup to be held in Dubai this year.

BharatPe co-founder and managing director Ashneer Grover explained that postpe is a product built on three principles - consumer should be able to pay using credit everywhere QRs, Card Machine or Online; consumer should be able to convert into EMI at ease not inconvenienced at point of sale; and merchant should not be charged for accepting payments through BNPL.

"Our aim with postpe is to make EMI and credit available for everyday purchases... We find the current BNPL plays in the Indian market suboptimal trying to copy the West for online checkouts whereas the true market in India is offline. postpe will be the leader in BNPL space in India by virtue of being no cost to merchants and universal acceptance, he added.

BharatPe - which had raised USD 370 million in funding (including secondary component) in August this year at a valuation of USD 2.85 billion - is backed by investors like Tiger Global, Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadfast Capital, Coatue Management, Insight Partners and Sequoia Growth.