Australian NBFC Pepper Money looks to set up NBFC business in India

Australian non-banking finance company (NBFC) Pepper Money is looking to set up a payments and lending business in India. To this end, it plans to apply for an NBFC licence here in the next year or so.

Speaking with ET, Pepper Global Group CEO Mike Culhane said that the parent company has committed $150 million to the India business with the aim of addressing the financial requirements of Indian consumers across small towns and cities in the country.

“I believe there is massive headroom to grow in India, but we will be happy with a modest 500,000 customer base here in the short term—a small but engaged base should be a good starting point,” Culhane said.


Pepper started operations in Australia and has expanded into multiple geographies. It runs a full-service bank in South Korea, runs lending operations in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and other countries. The company recently shifted its headquarters to Singapore. Currently, it manages assets to the tune of $76 billion across multiple geographies. The Australian business has a market cap of AUD 609 million ($394 million).

Launching from Lucknow and Indore
With Abhishek Kothari as its CEO for the India business, Pepper Money India is looking to launch its first product in Indore and Lucknow. The company will offer a prepaid card to its users and any expenses incurred on the card will be backed by cashbacks and rewards.

Kothari explained that he intends to study the spending pattern of his users and eventually open credit as an offering to the right set of users. In the next 6-12 months, Pepper Money India should be able to offer credit to its users, he added.

Culhane said that he did not intend to build any hard and fast rules around whom to offer credit, but eventually the idea is to look at spending and consumption data, on the basis of which credit will be rolled out.

“We have evaluated the best way to start our operations in India, whether it is credit cards, prepaid cards or personal loans. Of the three options, we thought of starting with a prepaid product, which can help our consumers build trust with the Pepper brand,” Culhane said.

Physical connect
Unlike many of his peers in the fintech world who rely solely on serving customers digitally, through a mobile app, Pepper Money India wants to build a physical presence in the country as well.

“We might not have branches but definitely we will have some people presence in the cities we are looking to operate in. We already have teams in Lucknow and Indore but then we are not going to be a brick-and-mortar product,” Culhane said.

Kothari said that currently Pepper has a 35-member team in India, which can be scaled up to as much as 100 in the next year or so. But the company wants to run a lean operation.