Home Credit scouts for tie-ups with ecommerce companies

KOLKATA: Home Credit India, which has its roots in Prague, is exploring tieups with leading ecommerce players to offer financing solutions to the nextgen Indian customers who are increasingly inclined to online buying.
This is going to be one of the two test projects for the consumer financing company in 2017, chief executive Pavel Maco told ET in a telephonic interview.
A plan to grow business in the home appliances space is another challenge for the company. It looks to finance refrigerators and washing machines more aggressively with an aim to grow its portfolio three times this year from Rs 1,570 crore at the end of December 2016.
In the five years of its existence in India, Home Credit has financed 1.8 million mobile phones, making this 90% of its business. Financing of consumer durables accounts for just about 5% of its portfolio. It also finances purchase of two-wheelers. Indian consumer finance market has grown 16.3% year-on-year to Rs 19,400 crore at the end of December, according to the Reserve Bank of India data.
“Our focus this year would be to test out financing options through online channels. The technology linking the Aadhaar number will be a gamechanger,” said Maco, adding that the company has started discussions with leading players in this space.
Home Credit has expanded footprint to 60 cities across 15 Indian states, acquiring a customer base of over 2 million.