How Rubique is leveraging technology to disburse loans

Rubique, an online marketplace for financial products, is slowly but steadily making its space in the fin-tech category. The startup claims to have made loan disbursements of Rs 150 crore since launching operations in February last year.

"We have received 10,000-odd applications in total. We have processed 360 loan applications worth Rs 150 crore of disbursement," said Manavjeet Singh, founder and CEO of Rubique.

The firm's core business is disbursing loans across categories such as the retail and small and medium enterprises (SME) segments, and it offers 141 products from across 51 financial institutions, including banks and NBFCs.

Besides loan applications, the firm has received a large number of credit card applications: 3,600 cards have been sanctioned by different banks through the Rubique platform, bringing in revenue of Rs 2 crore.

According to Singh, the loan market is growing 20 per cent year on year. To reach out to more customers, Rubique intends to leverage technology. The company digitises the credit policies of the banks and then integrates them with a bank's systems.

Rubique, which is run by Bestdealfinance.com Pvt Ltd, aims to leverage technology not only to enhance customer acquisition but also to enter new segments. Singh sees a lot of traction coming from the SME space, having already ensured disbursements worth Rs 25 crore. Out of the total loan disbursement of Rs 150 crore, 52 per cent of orders came from SMEs, while 48 per cent came from retail. In the SME segment, Rubique focuses on loans for commercial vehicles, construction equipment and healthcare financing. The retail segment includes home loans, personal loans and two wheeler loans to name a few.

The firm receives a fee from the bank or NBFC for every financial product sold. For the customer, the service is free. "The fee ranges from 80 to 150 basis points depending on the product or financial institution we're dealing with. A product like a personal loan can bring in a commission of as high as 3 per cent. So suppose we disburse personal loans worth Rs 10 lakh, we get 3 per cent on that. For credit cards, it is per unit so it is around Rs 1,000 per card," explained Singh.

Formerly known as Bestdealfinance.com, the firm rebranded itself as Rubique in December last year .

In September 2015, the firm raised $3 million (Rs 20 crore) in a Series A round led by Kalaari Capital, with participation from YourNest Angel Fund, Globevestor and Dexter Angel Circle. Singh said that he is currently not looking for any funding as Rubique is still in the process of deploying revenues it received from the Series A funding. A large part of the funding was used in developing technology. The firm has set up a technology sector in Bangalore. With presence in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata, Singh emphasises that he intends to focus on building the company's technology.

Last December, the company strengthened its top management as it appointed former Myntra executive Anadi Mishra as the chief technology officer and former Reliance Jio executive Manish Aggarwal as business head .