Wonga offers short-term payday loans and is based in London; company has announced a data breach which may include personal information of 270,000 current and former customers; a majority of their customers affected are UK based, but 25,000 customers in Poland may also be affected; Wonga has recently reduced fees and launched 90-day loans after the Financial Conduct Authority instituted a rate cap and forced lenders to apply for authorization. Source
Random
Online Lending
The panel explores consumer litigation funding also known as pre-settlement funding, non-recourse funding or lawsuit lending; provides funding to plaintiffs who commonly have a personal injury case; money is used for life needs such as rent, mortgage, tuition, food, etc. and is not a loan; LawCash has provided funding for around 100,000 cases and has been in operation since 2000; YieldStreet is an investment platform for investors to access these types of investments; other topics discussed are how litigation funding is uncorrelated, how deals are underwritten, transparency of companies in the industry and the evolution of litigation finance. Source
On Friday last week Capital Float struck a major deal with Amazon India to provide working capital solutions to Amazon's sellers. Amazon India is tied for largest e-commerce market share in India (with Flipkart) and Amazon relies exclusively on third party merchants in India. This partnership launched in October 2016 and has already successfully disbursed thousands of loans to businesses in the Amazon network. They will provide financing to companies in the smartphone, consumer electronics, consumer durables and fashion verticals to start with and they will add new verticals over time.
We are big fans of Gaurav and Sashank, the founders of Capital Float, and their mission in India. Capital Float is the largest digital lending platform to small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in India with a specific focus on working capital management. They cater to over 5,000 SMEs and they have originated over $120 million in loans since their inception in 2013. They are one of the best funded fintech companies in India having raised over $40 million in venture capital from SAIF, Sequoia, Aspada and Creation Investments Capital Management. Most importantly, the founders come from large enterprises where they managed SME supply chain finance for years, so they know the pain points for SMEs that must deal with working capital cash flow management.
The Indian SME market is about $250 billion and it is ripe for disruption. Companies like Capital Float are well positioned to use technology to solve financial service infrastructure problems and to provide much needed access to capital to high quality companies. The best way to reach these companies is through established digital networks like the one Amazon India provides. We expect to see many similar deals with additional e-commerce marketplaces, travel portals, taxi aggregators and other online marketplaces. Capital Float already has similar deals with other leading Indian e-commerce players including Flipkart, Snapdeal and Shopclues.
For more information on the Indian fintech market you can watch the video from LendIt USA 2017 featuring Capital Float as well as Lendingkart, Finomena, Indifi, IndiaLends (PitchIt China winner 2016) and Quona Capital.