Indel Money, a non-banking financial company, plans to raise funds in the third quarter of the current financial year to support its expansion and innovation efforts. Umesh Mohanan, Executive Director and CEO, says the company wants to invest in technology upgrades, branch expansion in existing markets, and new branches in untapped territories.
Edited excerpts from an interview:
What is your strategy for your planned expansion to the country’s northern markets?
Expanding to key northern markets is a strategic move for us. We will be opening 105 branches this year, bringing states such as Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Delhi, Rajasthan, and West Bengal into our business ambit. Of course, when we enter new markets, we have to differentiate our offerings and introduce new features based on our vast experience in the gold loan segment.
As we know, each region has specific characteristics. Culturally, gold is treated with a delicate distinction in every region. We have to consider them when we launch new products.
The challenges we anticipate include fast adaptation to regional sensibilities, customer preferences and financial practices. To address these issues, we plan to introduce tailored solutions and personalised services, which shall be unique in these markets.
You recently obtained an RBI licence for forex business. Do you expect a substantial contribution from this vertical to your overall business?
Obtaining an RBI licence to start a forex management business is a significant opportunity for us. While gold loan remains our core business, diversifying into the forex market will help enhance our ancillary products and services. We believe this new vertical has the potential to contribute substantially to our overall business. Certainly, it can be an independent revenue stream and will cater to the emerging needs of our customers. We are very optimistic about it.
Can you outline some of the digital innovations undertaken by the company?
We have been investing in digital innovations to streamline our operations and enhance customer satisfaction. We have developed a user-friendly mobile app for customers to conveniently access their loan information and make payments. We have also introduced hybrid gold loans that allow branches to virtually reach the customer’s premises to make loan processing more convenient, secure, faster and transparent.
Our aim is to make gold loans more attractive, safe, convenient and accessible to the public.
In what way does your gold-backed loans help achieve your stated goal of promoting financial inclusion and empowering individuals and small businesses?
Financial inclusion is one of the broad objectives of gold-backed loans. We have designed our services in such a way that it can be accessible to a wide range of customers — individuals as well as businesses — even if they are out of the traditional banking network. Letting them access institutional credit is a significant step forward.
We handhold start-up MSMEs to establish and mature themselves to the banking sector by the end of the gold loan tenure. When we provide loans against gold, we allow them to unlock the value of their assets and access organised channels without being subject to extensive documentation or credit history checks. This approach has been helpful in lending to people who would have otherwise been excluded from the formal banking system.
Here, fast delivery of cash and security of the collateral (gold) are paramount. Only organised players can ensure both. So we serve customers in many ways.
Your personal loan segment lends to existing customers. Do you plan to extend this coverage to new customers?
Our personal loans are pure digital loans and extending this service to new customers is part of our growth strategy. We plan to leverage our existing customer base to offer personalised loan products and add-on services. We aim to diversify and cater to a large pool of customers by cashing in on the trust and relationship that we have nurtured over the years.