BENGALURU:  Samir Kazi, 32, a first-generation Mumbai businessman, was in a need of a work capital loan. However the absence of collateral prohibited him to advance to a bank. Lendingkart, a non-banking financial company (NBFC) came to his rescue that lent him a short term capital, reports TOI.

Lendingkart also lent Kazi, son of an autorickshaw driver, who started his own venture after quitting his job at a call centre. Kazi’s Gadget Budget Online is an e-commerce business that deals in electronic products. His business now also offers home decor, apparel and gifting items. Kazi got a loan of 10 lakh in May last year. The repayment followed four weekly installments including an interest of 15,000. The repayment for the last six months has made Kazi eligible for 30 lakh loan. "Working capital is the most important requirement in my business," said Kazi. 70 percent of business in taking place in Flipkart, Amazon and eBay.

Lendingkart, Capital Float and NeoGrowth are such new-age NBFCs emerged in 2013 that attend to need of work capital of small venture which operate online. E-commerce biggies like Snapdeal, Flipkart and Amazon have drawn lakh, 30,000 and 25,000 sellers so far. And this count is rapidly increasing and attracting more sellers to the online marketplace.

More than 200 sellers under Capital Assist, Snapdeal, have received loans from NBFC having tie ups with the firm. "The sellers are able to get funds in an efficient manner and the financiers are able to expand their coverage significantly through this platform," said Vijay Ajmera, senior VP, Snapdeal.

The NBFCs with the aid of analytics and propriety software evaluate the credit value of sellers. The examination includes scanning metrics likes sales and feedbacks on e-commerce platforms. CEO and founder, Lendingkart, Harshvardhan Lunia, said credit risk analysis is processed digitally hence loans can be given out in less than 48 hours. Lendingkart started off in March last year and has 100 customers so far.

Capital Float, Bengaluru, has provided a loan of more than 60 crore.

Lokesh Govindaramu, who sells on Flipkart after being refused loan by banks, approached Lendingkart for capital. The health and wellness products seller in Bengaluru earned Rs 2 lakh last December and the sales escalated from 3 lakh then to 30 lakh now.

These NBFCs are playing the role of microfinance institutions offering faintly above the actual lending rate within 18-24 percent.

Samir Bhatia, founder and CEO of SMECorner, finds these lending businesses risky since "there is no security and no way to monitor the end user.”

"Because of the amount of data that is available on these sellers, we are able to leverage and underwrite it," said Sashank Rishyasringa, co-founder of Capital Float, contrarily.

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