Priyanka Sangani of ET Bureau writes about Grameen Koota and Artoo partnership. You can read about the partnership here or online.
Rural lending firm Grameen Koota has partnered with fintech firm Artoo to launch individual business loans. Grameen Koota, among the pioneers in rural lending for 17 years is expanding its product portfolio and will work with Artoo to develop a digital lending model. Artoo’s platform will help it go paperless and reduce loan approval and go-to-market time significantly.
Udaya Kumar, Managing Director, Grameen Koota, said, “Post demonetisation, investments in technology and analytics are critical. As we foray into Individual Lending, we believe that it is imperative to adopt digitization into our processes. To this end, we have leveraged Artoo’s expertise in holistic digitization for Individual lending. Artoo’s platform will allow us to build a scalable portfolio while maintaining risk at group lending levels. By improving efficiency and turnaround time, we aim to deliver a significantly better customer experience.”
The products under the individual lending vertical will be the first to be provided through the digital platform.
Grameen Koota estimates that 25–30% of their existing borrower base will be interested and eligible for these loans and plans to graduate these customers out of their existing group and lend to them on an Individual basis. Along with unsecured term loans, borrowers can also avail top-up loans for recurring working capital needs. The plan is to launch this product in 15 branches initially and it is estimated to grow the portfolio to Rs 70 cr in the first year. Sameer Segal,CEO, Artoo, added, “Artoo is bringing its experience of having disbursed Rs 1800 crore in 30 states across India and its nuanced understanding of the MSME borrower to help Grameen Koota re-imagine Individual Lending and deliver value in the rural context. We look forward to helping them continuously increase their efficiency and profitability while keeping risks low and ensuring a seamless experience for their customers.” Grameen Koota is currently operational in five states wiht close to 400 branches. As of August 2016, they had crossed the portfolio size of Rs 3000 cr with a lending base of over 16 lakh.