Path Breaking Fintech Startup : Buy Now,Pay Later ,ePayLater 

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Solicitious about buying new stuff promptly?With loads of shopping bags and loads of food, no worries to take the wallet out. ePayLater inflicts you the widest opportunities to order now and pay later within next 14 days.Shop, eat, travel or order wherever or whenever you want with no qualm to buy. Use it for anything including movies, grocery, travelling, etc.Select,enter and enjoy the widest range with secure payments and instant credits, its just a snap away from you.

TechiExpert had opportunity to talk to  Aurko Bhattacharya, co-founder, ePayLater on the future plans … Please check the summary of the discussion 

1. What is the startup about and what is that one problem it solves

ePayLater with its tagline ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ is a checkout lending platform which provides credit at the point of sale. ePayLater uses advanced machine learning techniques to do real-time credit assessment to extend credit limits to individuals either for personal consumption (end consumer) i.e B2C or for purchasing business supplies (in case of self-employed professionals) i.e B2B.

For the B2C segment, ePayLater offers the simplest possible checkout experience in existence today, providing customers with the ability to conclude a transaction with just a click of the mouse or a tap of the touchscreen. Customers can get access to an instant credit limit to make faster purchases, that too without having to pay at the same time. Once signed up, a customer can avail a credit limit of upto Rs. 20,000. A 14-day interest-free period is provided from the date of purchase to settle the payment.

What makes the use of ePayLater more convenient, quick and seamless for users is that they need not type in their bank account/card details or use other modes of payment during the check-out process. Further, the users can easily make the repayment at a later date through simple and minimal online steps. Once a credit limit is sanctioned users can start using ePayLater across an extensive partner merchant network.

ePayLater’s partner merchants span across a multitude of services that include IRCTC, PVR, Box8, Croma, Travelyaari, eVoucher India, Ticketnew, Sports Uncle among many others. ePayLater is India’s first UPI powered credit solution. Currently, ePayLater UPI can be used on Amazon, Flipkart, Foodpanda, Jabong, Myntra, Swiggy and Uber.

For the B2B segment, ePaylater offers short term credit for Individual retailers for their business needs. They get an interest-free repayment period on this credit and the repayment term is either 14 or 30 days. The service involves no hidden cost and the credit line extended is completely collateral free. This allows businesses to continue providing services to their customers and achieve higher sales through faster inventory churns.

2. Background of founders and what’s the journey behind getting this particular idea

ePayLater, the brainchild of Akshat Saxena, Aurko Bhattacharya and Uday Somayajula,  was founded in December 2015, while the concept ideation started a few months prior. We had been working in complementary sub-domains of BFSI and had a consensus on the potential a mass-market credit offering can unlock. We were amazed at the fact that despite the great strides being made by the economy and therefore retail consumption, the credit penetration remained abysmally low.

We have only around 20 million credit card holders in a billion plus population, which in terms of percentage penetration is way lower compared to our western counterparts, and also China. And since credit drives consumption, our combined wisdom pointed us towards the massive multiplier effect we could create if we could crack the code of empowering potentially every fellow-citizen with a credit instrument. And that’s how ePayLater was born.

3. How did you start working on this idea

In order to actualize the same, we chose a path which was non-traditional yet congruent with trends – demographic and technology alike. We decided to build a purely digital credit offering, which would leverage the best of data science and engineering, and deliver an experience which is not just inclusive, but also superior. We developed the capability to underwrite a customer using alternate data, in less than a second, thereby allowing us to be a true checkout credit method at points of sale, whether online or offline. Customers could get a credit limit in real-time, and use it to ‘Book/Buy Now and Pay Later’, irrespective of their geographical presence.

4. What’s the USP

ePayLater’s new-age credit solution is easy to use. The application procedure is completely digital and the credit limit is sanctioned almost instantaneously after the customer fills the application. In just a few moments, customers have access to ePayLater credit, which they can use to transact on an array of partner merchants.

The benefit of ePayLater is threefold. First, it’s ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ functionality; second, the enabling of a single-tap/one-click checkout process; and third, its ability to safeguard consumer information from unnecessary dissemination. By doing so, ePayLater comprehensively solves the digital payments problem for everyone.

5. Early days struggle

We arrived at the solution after intensive market research and interviews with people. Market studies showed us that pay later products result in higher transaction success rate for merchants and it also brings new customers who hitherto did not have access to credit to the merchants.

Successful models in the USA and Europe were studied. Studies clearly demonstrated the fact that pay later products result in significantly higher transaction success, provide better customer experience to users. With India being on the path of an e-commerce revolution, we realized that this is the perfect time to build a “Pay Later” for India and give the much-needed credit boost and checkout convenience to people.

6. Funding received (if any)

Recently, ePayLater closed the Pre-series A funding led by ICICI Bank and GMO Global Fintech Fund, an investment fund of the internet conglomerate in Japan along with family offices like Parekh and Patni and foreign investors from the UK. Previously, the company had raised USD 2 million during the angel round of funding.

7. User base they have achieved till now

Currently, ePayLater has a user base of over a million spanning across 4000 cities.

8. New Areas if they are looking to expand

We are working on a bunch of innovations that would help us further simplify the customer experience, besides making credit more inclusive. Alongside, having solved first set of business challenges our merchant partners were facing, we are broadening the vistas and gearing up for other business metrics that could be achieved.

We are looking at business credit as a major thrust area, as there lies a huge unmet demand for easy credit. We believe solving the said problem would unlock true business potential of micro-entrepreneurs across the country. Having experienced the green shoots of this welcome change already, we feel propelled to drive this with added focus and intensity.

9. Future plans

Since its inception, the company has grown manifold. With a myriad of upgrades in the pipeline, the product is expected to reinvent the way the credit business operates in the country. ePayLater is all set to cement its position as the leading facilitator of Digital Credit aimed at individuals and small businesses.