Two Indian firms, Light Microfinance and IppoPay, have announced they will work together to offer digital lending services to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in “rural and semi-urban micro-markets” in four states: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
Light Microfinance is a non-banking finance company operating 125 branches in the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan as of September 2023. Founded in 2009, the company offers loans, primarily to women with low incomes living outside of cities. For the fiscal year ending March 2022, it reported a return on assets of 0.53 percent and total assets of INR 10.2 billion (USD 123 million).
IppoPay is a privately held company that is based in the city of Chennai and was founded in 2020. It offers digital financial solutions to small businesses, including via its IppoPay app. The app allows retailers to accept customer payments via the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a system run by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) that enables fund transfers via QR codes. IppoPay also offers an application programming interface (API) through which its partners can automate various processes.
By James Stevenson, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
Live Mint article
https://www.livemint.com/companies/start-ups/light-microfinance-ippopay-to-offer-digital-loans-to-msmes-11692188072067.html
Light Microfinance homepage
https://www.lightfinance.com/
Light Microfinance LinkedIn page
https://in.linkedin.com/company/light-finance
Light Microfinance Annual Report, FY 2021-2022
https://lightfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Small-Annual-Report-2021-22-New.pdf
IppoPay homepage
https://www.ippopay.com/
IppoPay app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ippopay.store
NPCI profile on UPI
https://www.npci.org.in/what-we-do/upi/product-overview
Do you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Download a sample at https://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.
Similar Posts:
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: L-IFT Studying Fairness of Presumptive Taxation in Ethiopia
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Peruvian Fintech Lender Prestamype Concludes $5m Equity Funding Round Led by Acumen Subsidiary ALIVE Ventures, Oikocredit
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: HugoBank, KT, Mashreq, Raqami Islamic, Telenor Microfinance Earn Regulatory Approval to Pilot Digital Banking Services in Pakistan
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: IMBE Using Finbit Technology from L-IFT to Support Child Care Providers in South Africa
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Bankingly, Woodcore Partner to Help FSPs in Africa to Offer Digital Financial Services
