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Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
The fintech’s NBFC has seen its loan book decline by 92% in just two years and its global ambition has come undone. The company, though, keeps borrowing, restructuring and diversifying.
CASHe, the ambitious fintech founded to lend to Indians with an inadequate credit score but a regular paycheck, has come a cropper.
Launched in 2016 by V. Raman Kumar—an entrepreneur whose last venture, MModal Inc, was acquired by One Equity Partners for about $1.1 billion—CASHe was Kumar’s next big innings. The company raised around $38 million from its Singapore-based parent (TSLC Pte. Ltd), former Blackstone India co-head Mathew Cyriac and Kotak Mahindra Bank, among others. CASHe wanted to build a lending business by going beyond conventional credit bureau scores and instead using phone and social data to evaluate borrowers, promising …
The loan aggregator keeps sending updates on WhatsApp even to users who haven’t applied for a loan. The company is exploiting a grey area in India’s telecom regulatory framework and WhatsApp’s policies.
The fintech is gearing up to go public at a $5-6 billion valuation. Much like beauty, value lies in the eyes of the beholder, but public markets are rightly cross at obscene startup valuations.
Its Rs 1,050 crore bet on the five-year-old company—valued at an implied 11.2x revenue multiple and a promoter with baggage—raises serious questions around due diligence.
