This Ex-Navigation Officer Aims to disrupt peer to peer funding

INDIANCEO interview with i2Ifunding CEO Vaibhav Pandey

Tell us About Your startup and what made you to start i2ifunding?

i2ifunding.com is a Peer to Peer Lending platform. In common parlance, P2P Lending refers to a disruptive technology led innovation which helps an individual to lend to real people to meet their real requirements. P2P Lending is an established concept in the countries such as the US, the UK, Germany, China etc. It has been growing in leaps and bounds around the world thanks to an increase in the internet penetration and tremendous acceptability of e-payments.

Currently, i2iFunding helps qualified borrowers get unsecured personal loans from investors who are looking for alternative investment opportunities yielding higher returns. As a facilitator we create win-win situation for borrowers as well as investors. Major benefits for borrowers are –

• Attractive interest rates
• No prepayment penalty
• Online process for hassle free, transparent and seamless user experience
• Fast loans
• Security of personal information

Major benefits for investors are –

• Opportunity to earn high returns on debt backed by legal agreements
• Low risks as we provide protection against any default
• Availability of only high quality loans as loans at i2iFunding undergo thorough credit assessment using our proprietary credit scoring model before being available for funding
• Opportunity to build high return diversified portfolio
• Online process for quick, transparent and seamless user experience

We had been working on few ideas, but always wanted to do something which benefits multiple sections of society. We ultimately zeroed in on this idea as it helps a large population of our country to fulfill their dreams by getting timely financial support.

Introduction about you? 

I completed MBA from IIM Ahmedabad in 2009 and for past 6 years have been in Operation & Business Excellence role. I have experience of setting up large scale operations from inception to full fledged implementation and integration. I have also been involved in designing and development of various enterprise level solutions. Before MBA, I had graduated from T.S Chanakya in Nautical Sciences and worked as a Navigation officer on various merchant ships. The discipline and training which I received during this period has helped me immensely in all my endeavors.

3. How different is it from existing models? and How do you want to compete with them?

There are few other p2p lending companies in India. However, none of them have addressed the key concern of investor – how to mitigate risks associated with investing in unsecured loans. Also most of the other platforms allow borrowers and investors to negotiate the interest rate where both lenders and borrowers end up getting frustrated or making wrong financial decisions as they do not have tools and time to assess each of the loans. On the other hand, we provide protection against default and recommend exact interest rates which makes decision making quick and simple. This also ensures borrower gets loans based on his risk profile rather than his negotiation skills! Hence, we think that we provide the highest quality service and believe that our model will be the most successful one as we progress ahead. It has been just 3 months in operation, yet we have received fascinating response from users.

4. What is the traction so far?

We went live in October and have completed around 500 registrations in last 3 months.

5. What is your vision to scale your business?

We understand that there is enough demand from borrowers so the key for success is to get enough investors on our platform. To get more investors we need to ensure that only high quality loans are posted at right interest rate after thorough risk assessment. Therefore, our focus is to continue to strengthen our analytics based risk assessment model so that it is more robust and analyzes all the data imprints created by borrower including behavioral analytics on social media in more detailed manner.

We are looking to expand our presence in at least 50 cities of India in next 3 years.

6. Any other interesting information you would like to share with us? 

At i2ifunding we are not only looking to do the matchmaking of borrowers and investors, rather we would support entire loan life cycle i.e. till loan is fully repaid so that users have hassle free and seamless experience.