Snapdeal buys online financial services distributor RupeePower

Jasper Infotech Pvt Ltd, which runs online e-com marketplace Snapdeal.com, has acquired a majority stake in Gurgaon-based digital financial products distribution startup RupeePower for an undisclosed amount, the company said in a statement.

Post the acquisition, Snapdeal will offer its customers a financial services marketplace. The marketplace will include a wide range of financial services like personal loans, educational loans, credit cards, auto loans, home loans and extended warranties, etc. Financial services companies will be able to leverage Snapdeal's nationwide reach across more than 5,000 towns and cities.

"Realising the various difficulties that consumers face while deciding and purchasing financial products/services and the challenges that companies face while reaching out to the 'right' audience, we have brought RupeePower into our family," said Kunal Bahl, co-founder and CEO, Snapdeal.

Founded in 2011, RupeePower matches borrowers and lenders in the retail loans space for products like credit cards, personal loans, home loans, auto loans, and consumer loans. Customers are shown the best loan and card offers for comparison and matched with the bank's criteria. The service is free for customers and the company gets paid by the financial institution upon loan disbursal.

The company claims to have enabled Rs 1,500 crore of credit disbursal through its platform in the current financial year.

"The share of digital origination of credit is poised to grow from today's 7.5 per cent to 40 per cent over the next four years, in a Rs 4 lakh crore ($67 billion) retail credit market growing at 20 per cent annually. Our emphasis will be on scaling RupeePower and providing consumers with the best targeted offers and a super-simplified loan process, while ensuring lower opex and smarter credit match for lenders," said Tejasvi Mohanram, founder and CEO, RupeePower.

Snapdeal.com is on a buying spree. Earlier this month, the company bought a minority stake in logistics firm QuickDel Logistics Pvt Ltd, which runs operations under the GoJavas brand. GoJavas was previously a part of Jabong, a lifestyle e-tailer incubated by Rocket Internet.

Before that, it had acquired Indian designer wear and accessories e-tailer Exclusively.com (formerly Exclusively.in) for an undisclosed amount.

In January 2015, Snapdeal picked up a stake in Smartprix Web Pvt Ltd, which runs online product and price comparison site Smartprix.

The e-commerce firm is also expected to close the acquisition of online mobile recharge platform Freecharge for $450 million (Rs 2,800 crore). This is being regarded as the biggest deal in India's consumer internet industry.

Snapdeal, which counts Japan's SoftBank, eBay, Temasek, Myriad, Tybourne, Blackrock, PremjiInvest, Kalaari and Nexus among its investors, recently also roped in Tata Sons' chairman emeritus Ratan Tata as a small private investor.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)