Student micro-loan startup,
KrazyBee has raised $2 million from two Chinese firms - micro-loan/eCommerce player Fenqile and mobile ad network YeahMobi. Founded in 2015 by Madhusudan E and Wan Hong, KrazyBee offers flexible installment-based purchases exclusively to college students with no credit history or credit cards. The startup wants to focus on the student segment and is building a merit-based credit score system. The proprietary credit score will be used to asses a student's capability to repay the installments.
Currently operating in Bangalore, the company is planning to use the funds to expand its services to other cities. The funds will also be used to launch an Android app, besides improving its risk evaluation model.
Madhusudan E (Co-founder & CEO) holds Bachelor's degree in Engineering from National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal and was previously the business development lead at Chinese telecom equipment & smartphone maker Huawei. Apart from that, he has over 5 years of experience in personal finance and lending. Wan Hong is a graduate from Wuhan University of China and has worked for over 10 years of experience in Huawei. The core team also has members from reputed colleges like National University of Singapore, IIM Bangalore and IIM Indore.
The startup has more than 10,000 registered users within one month of operations.
According to Madhusudan, nearly 21% of all the orders placed on Flipkart in 2015 were by students in the age group of 18-22. “College-goers in India today lack the facility for credit, however small it is. We want to empower them to purchase products online,” he said.
“There is a huge opportunity in this sector and the team has the potential. We are looking forward to make more investments in the Indian market," said Jessica Wong, Vice-President, YeahMobi.
KrazyBee helps college students purchase anything online on flexible equated monthly installment (EMI) plans. The majority of the products being purchased are electronics items such as smart phones, cameras & mobile accessories along with apparel such as branded clothes, shoes & watches. A nominal interest is charged per transaction. It has tied up with leading e-commerce players such as Flipkart, Paytm, Amazon & Snapdeal, and offers their products to students on EMIs. The mission of the company is to be the most convenient stepping stone for young adults of India towards their dreams & aspirations.
“India has over 30 million college-going students as of 2015. This number is expected to grow to 65 million by 2020. The students are well aware of the e-commerce ecosystem and that is the market we want to tap,” added Hong.
