Paisabazaar.com disburses unsecured loans to 244 cities, towns across India

Paisabazaar.com, India's No. 1 loans and cards marketplace on Monday announced that it disbursed unsecured loans to 244 cities and towns across India last month.

Till last year, Paisabazaar.com disbursed loans to around 90 cities.

Paisabazaar.com said 27 percent of unsecured loan applications on its platform come from Tier II and Tier III cities. These range from Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), Muktsar (Punjab), Nanded (Maharashtra), Bhuj (Gujarat), Dewas (Madhya Pradesh), Beawar (Rajasthan) and Karur (Tamil Nadu) to Jharsuguda (Odisha), Kohima (Nagaland), Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh), Kokrajhar (Assam), Begusarai (Bihar) and Pathanamthitta (Kerala).

"While the smartphone proliferation and easier access to internet are two big reasons behind the expansion of our geographic reach, we have also paid special focus to non-metro cities. It is the residents from smaller towns and semi-urban areas who are in dire need of awareness around personal finance. All our brand campaigns on mass media speak an easy to understand language and have been devised to simplify and demystify personal finance. Slowly, but surely, the semi-urban areas too are catching up with the whole concept of 'comparing before buying'. As they start realizing how easy, convenient and quick lending can be through our platform, our reach will only deepen with time," said Naveen Kukreja, CEO and Co-founder, Paisabazaar.com.

"In July, over 5000 people from 244 locations were provided loans from our platform. The number of cities and towns from where people applied for loans was even bigger. By next year, we plan to reach 20,000 customers a month from 600 locations across India," he added.

"Our Personal Loans are growing at three times annually. Over the last two years, we have seen a big rise in personal loan enquires on our platform. This surge is largely due to penetration in smaller cities and the sharp increase in the use of mobile. Today, 65 percent of our customers use our platform from mobile, as compared to 45 percent last year. In fact, in smaller cities and towns the mobile usage is significantly higher than desktops," said Gaurav Aggarwal, Associate Director and Business Head, Unsecured Loans, Paisabazaar.com.

Paisabazaar.com was the only online financial player to disburse loans worth Rs. 2500 crore last year, 60 percent of which were unsecured loans. By the end of this financial year, it aims to hit an annualised disbursal of Rs. 6000 crore.