Solving Problems Of Young Professionals Gives EarlySalary Edge Over Others

With lots of other players in the consumer lending application space, Akshay Mehrotra, Co-founder and CEO of EarlySalary in an interview to Aparajita Gupta said the company has an edge over others by focusing on solving a singular problem faced by its core target group – young salaried working professional. It also serves as financial wellness partners for more than 350+ companies and employees.

There are lots of online lending platforms. What is your edge over others?

EarlySalary differentiates itself by focusing on solving a singular problem faced by its core target group – young salaried working professional. It introduced the concept of instant digital salary advance for the first time in the country. The company also provides flexible loan amounts on various loan categories – shopping, travel, education and medical. EarlySalary also serves as financial wellness partners for more than 350+ companies and employees.

Today, while we are leaders in the digital salary advance and instant loans space, they have also integrated into many company’s HR systems to help even first jobbers and blue-grey collar employees borrow instantly. Focusing on consumer credit needs has helped the company build additional products like EMI Credit for shopping and travel with leading online partners with low-cost EMI offerings. Also, with a special focus on education and skill upgradation EarlySalary has introduced education loans on the app.

What is the interest percentage that you charge? What is the minimum and maximum ticket size of the loan that you offer?

EarlySalary provides flexible loan amounts starting from Rs 8,000 to Rs 2 00,000. The interest percentage that is charged on the loan amount is Rs 9 per day.

Which age group comprises as your biggest subscriber?

EarlySalary is widely accepted by its customers, especially by the underserved salaried professionals. Such young professionals and job beginners experience month-end cash crunch and due to lack of credit-score knowledge, they are unable to borrow money from the traditional credit facilities available. EarlySalary helps them with an easy line of credit, instant cash loans, salary advances, interest-free EMIs for shopping and long-term loans.

EarlySalary has partnered with nearly 350+ corporates and serve more than 1 million employees of these employers in addition to 9 million customers who have downloaded EarlySalary. EarlySalary focuses on helping the customer with its different loan categories like shopping, travel, medical emergencies or education with partnership with Amazon, Flipkart, MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Big Bazaar and nearly 100+ education institutes.

Which are the geographies in India that you are present?

Headquartered in Pune, EarlySalary has a presence in 17 cities across the country. It includes Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Jaipur and others.

Since when have you started operation and what is your capital raising plan?

EarlySalary raised Series B funding of Rs 100 crore led by EightRoads (Fidelty) Ventures India in January 2018. Earlier investors IDG Ventures India, Dewan Housing Finance Corp (DHFL) are the ones who helped EarlySalary raise $4 Million as Series A in May, 2017. The company also has raised debt of Rs 300 crore from leading banks and NBFC.

What is the total amount of money that the company has disbursed so far?

EarlySalary, India’s largest consumer lending platform has disbursed loans amounting to Rs 1,650 crore and is close to completing one million loan disbursal.