Forget Cibil! Paytm invests in CreditMate to bring urgent loans in a jiffy

Fintech major Paytm has acquired a stake in CreditMate, a Mumbai-based start-up in the lending space that enabling its dealer partners to seamlessly assess, approve, process and distribute two-wheeler loans to customers with no formal credit history. With this investment, Paytm hopes to provide loans for cars, appliances, medical treatment, emergency loans among others. 

Paytm will leverage CreditMate's proprietary credit and asset valuation technology to create a loan management system in collaboration with its lending partner for its customers.

With Paytm expanding its services and entering various areas of financial tech, it will offer instant access to credit based on transaction history and not necessarily the CIBIL score. The company will continue to innovate new financial products to drive financial inclusion in India.

"Paytm intends to change the course of the Indian financial ecosystem by enabling hundreds of millions of deserving consumers to avail long-term credit based on a proprietary loan management system that will cover small-scale entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals. We believe that CreditMate will be a valuable and long-term partner towards our effort to cater to the unorganized sector to bring inclusive financial services for the masses. About 65 per cent of CreditMate customers are already Paytm users. Over time, we will use CreditMate's platforms to make credit available both offline and online to our users", Madhur Deora, SVP & CFO, Paytm said.

Paytm recently introduced an interest-free short-term credit 'Paytm Postpaid', offering its users an instant credit based on their transaction history on the platform.

Customers can get credit limit ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 10,000, which can be extended to Rs 20,000 based on their usage. Paytm Postpaid offers up to 45 days of interest-free credit to customers who want instant cash for everyday use-cases ranging from movies, utility bill payments, school fees, flight bookings and e-commerce transactions. 

'This will allow us to expand our operations, distribution, lending partnerships and technology investment to help a wider set of consumers to access and leverage this key life-enhancing asset' Jonathan Bill, Co-Founder and CEO, CreditMate said.

Paytm has in the last one year made a number of investments. It acquired a majority stake in Insider.in, India's leading ticketing platform for events and properties, including NH7 Weekender, EDC and The Grub Fest. 

It also invested in Mobiquest Mobile Technologies, a Noida based start-up in the mobile loyalty and data analytics space.