Lender To The Underserved
Olyv is a comprehensive financial wellness platform with products that range from digital gold to credit score checks that primarily serves under-banked Indians
Founded in 2017, Olyv (formerly known as SmartCoin), started out as an app-based consumer lending platform, offering quick personal loans to self-employed and salaried individuals in India. Partnering with RBI-registered Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), Olyv aimed to address the financial needs of the country’s vast underbanked population.
Over the years, the company has transformed from a micro-lending entity to a comprehensive financial wellness platform, offering a range of services that include digital gold savings and credit score checks. Users can avail of loans of up to Rs 5 lakh, with flexible tenures of up to 24 months and interest rates starting at 1.5 per cent per month.
Olyv’s vision is clearly to become India’s leading financial wellness partner, delivering seamless financial products and empowering millions of hard-working, underserved individuals. The company’s mission is to use technology to ensure financial inclusion and help the next billion Indians achieve their aspirations.
Rohit Garg, Co-founder and CEO of Olyv, talks of the challenges startups face and the many reasons why they shut down. He cites reasons like having the wrong product-market fit, team-related issues and lack of funding. He also points out though, that some companies are ahead of their time. Survival in a competitive landscape often tantamount to adapting to consumer behaviour and creating products that stand the test of time. “The startups that do survive go on to create massive companies that capitalise on changing consumer behaviour,” he says.
The FinTech sector in India, in which Olyv operates, has seen tremendous growth in recent years. Garg attributes this growth to both macroeconomic factors and government initiatives. The explosion of smartphones, internet penetration, and the rise of digital payments through UPI (Unified Payments Interface) have driven awareness and accessibility of financial services, not just for the elite but also for small shopkeepers in rural areas.
Garg also emphasises the role government initiatives have played in shaping the FinTech landscape. Frameworks like UPI, account aggregators, OKNO and DCULI have democratised finance and made it easier to serve underserved segments. He praised the regulatory clarity provided by government bodies, which has allowed companies like Olyv to build sustainable businesses within clearly defined guidelines. The combination of data flow, innovation, and a supportive regulatory environment has set the stage for continued growth in the FinTech sector.
In 2023, Olyv’s user-base crossed 30 million. Another milestone it achieved was a revenue of over Rs 250 crore. Garg is confident of Olyv’s ability to scale up its operations even further in the coming years, to be able to evolve as a large, customer-focused enterprise in the FinTech space.
