Rupyy's Namit Jain Aims To Double Annual Loans By FY25

"Let’s cut through the noise and talk about what's really happening in the fintech space in India. It's not a 'revolution' or a 'disruption' it is a pragmatic evolution, driven by entrepreneurs who know that buzzwords don't pay the bills. They're crafting solutions that are as groundbreaking as they are grounded," Namit Jain, Co-founder and CEO, Rupyy lamented.

Rupyy, a fintech subsidiary of the CarDekho Group has forayed into the electric vehicle financing segment as well. In Nov 2022, automobile marketplace CarDekho promised to invest USD 100 million in a mix of debt and equity in tranches. The finance arm will use the supposed funding to scale up its non-banking financial company (NBFC) business.

In an exclusive conversation, Rupyy's Namit Jain focussed on how the category was created when Rupyy started and what dynamics are impacting the exponential growth and demand in India. Additionally, Jain also shared their future plans as well as his take on entrepreneurship. 

Q How does your scoreboard look currently? How was the last year for you in numbers?

From a volume perspective, we ended our last financial year March 2023 with 10,000 crore of annual loans. We are looking to grow that number to almost 2.5 times in the next two years. So, we have been historically growing about 90 per cent year-on-year. We have been fairly profitable for almost two years now. We reached our break-even two years ago, and it is a fairly profitable platform now.

Q What are the current focus areas for Rupyy?

I would reiterate that our focus is to continue increasing the depth of this category in India. We today already have about 14-15 per cent market share in the used car segment. We want to increase that to about 20-25 per cent in the next 2-3 years.

Whichever category we enter into, we aim to capture at least 10-15 per cent market share in 5-7 years’ time. We typically keep technology at the forefront as it enables all our operations across India.

Q The fintech landscape is booming in India with more micro-segments i.e. loan and credit and more addressing various problem statements. What is your viewpoint on this? 

Think rural farmers easily navigating loans without succumbing to the unreasonable demands of local moneylenders, and urban dwellers managing investments without needing a finance degree. It's about building bridges, not barriers, in a financial landscape that's as diverse as our nation itself. So here's to the entrepreneurs who aren't just riding the digital wave but steering it, shaping a future that's not just about technology but about people, understanding, and genuine innovation. It's not just the future of finance, it is the future of how we connect, transact, and thrive. And it's happening right here, right now, one swipe, one click, one connection at a time.

Q What is your take on the government’s intervention? How do you look at the segment’s development from a regulator’s standpoint?

From a support system perspective, everything is positive. What we have to keep in mind is that customer interest is very important. So while growth is important, innovation is important, customer interest has to be kept at the centre of everything. So I believe sometimes when a regulator is trying to introduce these safeguards, they may seem like a little bit of speed breakers to certain people in the industry. I see all those steps as safeguards, they're supposed to give us long-term growth and enable the ecosystem for the long term eventually. 

How do you strategise to tap the growing market, what are your future expansion plans?

We have already started expanding. Last year we started doing new car financing and two-wheeler financing, this year we started personal financing as well so we have started doing personal loans and we are planning to go fairly deep in that category also, this year we are also expanding to get started electric vehicles as well, we call it as Rupyy green product. We are also exploring this point in time commercial vehicles as a segment and we are hopeful that at some time by next year, we will start doing pilots of commercial vehicle financing. 

What is different now from when you started? How do you see this segment evolve going forward? 

When we started doing this business back in 2016, used car financing used to be such a tiny market. We are the single largest player in fact you know it's very difficult to find any other player who would be even a fraction of what we do. We take pride in building for India. Use car financing in the next three to five years we're anticipating it to be a different industry as well. Also about EVs, we are trying to ensure that if customers are willing to buy an electric vehicle, at least financing should not be a roadblock

Q Talking about people becoming technology-friendly in India, how would it help you get deeper?

People adapting to accelerated digital transformations, according to me, is itself a big change, so I see immense opportunities. Even UPI though not directly impact us as a payment tool. But you know, UPI has taught India to use technology and made people comfortable with technology. The big advantage that I see in fact started leveraging that, the base itself on UPI or Paytm of the world taught people to scan the QR code to make payments. It prompted us to launch our QR code-based journey. Last year, we launched India's first QR code-based use car loan where customers can simply scan a QR code and do the entire journey on their mobile phone itself and get a loan.