Chqbook: Betting on the market for loan servicing

Abishek Khanna, a non-resident Indian (NRI) based in America, wanted to buy a house in India. He had no idea about loan rates in India and the process involved in approval. So, the NRI turned to Chqbook; he got his house.
 
Chqbook is a Gurgaon-based financial technology start-up. It is a marketplace for financial products, bringing under a single platform – both online and offline — banks and non-bank finance companies (NBFCs), its own loan servicing experts and customers.
 
“Chqbook was founded to ensure a seamless end-to-end experience for every customer seeking a financial product. The current gap in the market is due to the poor experience that existing platforms or offline provides, in spite of the best intentions. Chqbook is using technology to track customer experience from the moment he or she decides to apply, till the time the loan or credit card is provided,” says Vipul Sharma, co-founder.

 

Sharma founded the entity with Rajat Kumar in January this year. It has about 400 experts on its platform in the four cities it operates in. Chqbook claims to have got the best in the country to its platform, to answer customer queries, complete their documentation and be the single point of contact for  loan requirements.
 
“We are the first full-service loan and credit card provider in the country, using both online and offline,” says Sharma. “We have leveraged the existing eco-system of over two million financial service professionals, bank-authorised and further verified by Chqbook.”
 
Chqbook says it has 21 banks and NBFCs on its platform. At present, it only provides home loans. It plans to launch credit cards this month and personal loans. In the case of credit cards, the start-up will have direct tie-ups with banks, to provide customers  quick approval on its website from a lender. The aim is to get card approval in 60 seconds.

 
“Our business model requires Chqbook's experts to have skin in the game for every application they work on. Our monetisation model involves charging the experts for every verified customer who applied,” Sharma added.
 
The company has processed over Rs 500 crore of home loans in the past few months and says the plan is to process another Rs 500 crore by the end of this financial year.
 
Currently live in the Delhi region, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai, it aims to reach 50 cities by the end of the next financial year. This year, it plans to expand to Jaipur, Chandigarh, Surat, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Pune.

 
It has raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A funding. Angel funding has come from, among others, YouWeCan-backed Startup Buddy; from Apurva Chamaria, global head of corporate marketing at HCL; from Sachin Arora, ex-technology head at Myntra; Bharat Gupta, founder of Net Asset Consulting; and Amit Manocha, a private equity professional based out of Singapore. The founders have also invested money in the company.