Paisabazaar.com announced that it has raised additional funding of Rs 200 crore in funding from its parent company EtechAces Marketing and Consulting Private Limited. This was a part of the pre-IPO fundraising that EtechAces had carried out last year. The company had raised Rs 500 crore from existing and new investors including True North and IDG Ventures, as a part of its broader plan to get a public listing by early or mid-2019.

Paisabazaar.com is a digital marketplace for loans, mutual funds and credit cards. The company plans to use the latest influx of funds to strengthen its technology platform as well as build in a new decision making system to improve the rate of conversion rate (which measures the number of people who were sanctioned a loan as compared to the number of applications received for the same), in addition to building its brand and promoting its lending products. Currently over 6 million people visit the website per month, the company plans on reaching a target of 9 million by March and 27 million by the end of financial year 2019.

“We are planning to build artificial intelligence and machine learning based systems into our decision making engines and also introduce chatbots for a better experience of our customers,” said Naveen Kukreja, CEO, Paisabazaar. In addition to this, the company also plans to use the AI technology to not only recommend the right lending product to a particular consumer, but also recommend related products to increase sales.

The company has tripled its business every year since it was founded. “It’s been an exciting journey for us to reach where we have today. While we have achieved market leadership for lending products, we are at only around 2% of the total unsecured lending market. Our goal over the next 4 years is to reach 10% of this market,” Naveen Kukreja was said.

Last year, the company had launched its mutual funds and digital savings offerings so as to expand its product line. Till date it has opened over 1 lakh new savings accounts and achieved an AUM of Rs. 1000 crore through Mutual Funds.

Furthermore, till date, the company has disbursed loans worth Rs 3800 crore and plans to raise the figure to Rs 5000 crore by March of this year. Over the coming financial year, the company is also aiming to triple its business and achieve a disbursal target of Rs 15000 crore. To achieve this, however, there must be an improvement in the conversion rate on its online platform. “We have improved our conversion rates to 5.5% at present from 3.9% in the beginning and plan to take it to 8.2% by the end of 2019 with the use of improved technology platforms and systems,” said Naveen Kukreja when speaking on the topic.

The company has a sister concern, Policybazaar, which was founded by Yashish Dahiya. Both of the companies were founded under EtechAces, whose prominent investors include Wellington Management, IDG Ventures and True North.

“Paisabazaar has tripled its business every year since inception. The focus now is completely on creating an unparalleled consumer experience, through technology, innovation and strong customer service, and expanding Paisabazaar’s reach further,” Yashish Dahiya (Group CEO of Policybazaar.com) was quoted saying about the funds raised by Paisabazaar.

(Picture courtesy: customercarehelpdesk.com)