Ex-Infosys CFO Launches SME Lender

A former CFO of Infosys, V. Balakrishnan, is entering India’s alternative lending market through the launch of his new company, billionloans.

The company will target SMEs as well as consumers by linking borrowers to investors, reports said Friday (Mar. 3). MicroGraam executive Rangan Varadan is a joint founder of the company.

Reports said billionloans will provide a platform for borrowers on which it will create a holistic credit profile based on banking history and other factors to mitigate lender risk.

“We have integrated a lot of other technologies to ensure better user experience with less manual intervention by creating a 360-degree credit profile,” Balakrishnan told reporters, adding that he has already invested $1 million in the company.

The platform would look to provide small businesses with short-term financing and invoice discounting solutions, reports said, targeting small B2B suppliers. That customer base would then be used to gain traction in the market and expand into other customer bases, including small merchants and individual borrowers.

“This comprehensive credit profiling will certainly give flexibility to both the borrowers and the lenders,.” Balakrishnan added of the platform’s business model. “We are tying up with a few institutions on the lender side and hope they will come to our platform because of the quality of the credit profiling. We have created a website and a feet-on-the-street to get access to the borrowers and also tying up with a lot of large companies.”

billionloans has also reportedly filed for an NBFC license.