Flipkart Wholesale, Davinta Team to Offer BNPL Capabilities to Retail Clients

Flipkart Wholesale is pairing with Davinta Financial Services to offer buy now, pay later (BNPL) option terms to Flipkart’s small- to medium-sized business (SMB) customers, Business Standard reported.

The arrangement will let digital B2B marketplace Flipkart Wholesale offer extended payment terms to customers who might be ineligible for traditional credit cards, according to the report.

“We are very excited with the opportunity to partner with Flipkart Wholesale and offer our BNPL product to the over 1.5 million members of Flipkart Wholesale,” Davinta CEO Ravi Garikipati said, per the report. “With BNPL we are now allowing retailers across the country to unlock themselves from cash constraints while purchasing supplies.”

India has more than 60 million SMBs, and many of them struggle to obtain funds through traditional credit vehicles, the report stated.

“Partnering with Davinta will give members on our platform access to credit with a single click,” Flipkart Wholesale Senior Vice President and Head Adarsh Menon said, per the report. “We are confident that this construct will allow more and more of our kirana and [microbusiness and SMB] members to enjoy the benefit of accessible and affordable credit in the pursuit of their growth on our platform.”

SMB lending platform Davinta is based in Bengaluru and was founded by Garikipati, who previously was chief technology officer at Flipkart, and by Raj Vattikuti, who is an entrepreneur based in the U.S., according to the report.

Davinta is two years old, and “its flagship product Vyaapaar Shakti is a BNPL credit facility. It is designed for small retailers to be utilized as an instant credit facility while purchasing supplies from offline wholesalers or on digital marketplaces,” the report stated.

In other news, Flipkart is working toward going public, which could happen in the fourth quarter of this year and value the company at $35 billion.

Read more: Flipkart Looks at Possible Traditional US IPO