UdaanCapital enables credit of over Rs 1,600 crore to kiranas in a year

New Delhi: Fintech firm UdaanCapital has provided credit of Rs 1,600 crore to grocery stores registered on the Udaan platform. It has collected 99.8% of the disbursed amount within 180 days, a senior company official said on Thursday. UdaanCapital head Chaitanya Adapa said that 40% of the retailer who availed access to credit had never borrowed from any financial institution before.

"We have been able to develop a deep understanding of this segment -- and built underwriting and collection capabilities to serve them effectively. As a result, we collected 99.8% of the disbursed amount within 180 days of disbursal," he said.

According to data shared by the fintech firm, it collects over Rs 140 crore from more than 55,000 kirana stores across 200 cities every month.


"I am particularly pleased to note that our approach has given formal credit access for the first time to many shopkeepers -- about 40% of the retailers that we work with haven't borrowed from a financial institution before. This validates our belief that it's possible to build a strong lending operation in this segment," Adapa said.

UdaanCapital claims that 58% of retailers that use its services have adopted digital means of payment, which represents an almost three-fold jump in digital adoption compared to about 20% in 2020.

As per the company data, more than one-third Udaan's overall gross merchandise value is enabled by UdaanCapital.

Adapa said unlocking credit implies that buyers (kiranas) can buy more, sellers can sell more, and overall the platform becomes stronger.

"This is evidenced in the fact that credit buyers have clocked 45% more purchases than other buyers. In fact, in 2021 alone, UdaanCapital helped over 100 credit buyers in this segment record purchases of more than Rs 1 crore on the Udaan business-to-business (B2B) platform," Adapa said.

UdaanCapital claims to have onboarded about 15,000 kiranas to credit within 24 hours of application.