Mumbai: CollegeDekho, India’s largest college admissions and higher education services platform has recently forayed into the Ed-FinTech vertical. The foray into a new vertical makes CollegeDekho India’s first and only EdTech company offering end-to-end financial solutions at zero percent EMI for students studying either within India or abroad. This is a single digital journey for students who have their documentation available online as the web-based loan marketplace covers the entire loan sanction process and helps them get instant approval and disbursal within one day.
The company will look to cater to the financial needs of students and parents across India to help them achieve their educational goals. Initially launched as a pilot, CollegeDekho worked closely with Colleges and students to make the Ed-FinTech solution inclusive and easy to apply for. This service today covers almost 1000 partner colleges and is aiming to extend to 2500+ colleges by the coming academic year which will cover 80%+ of the well-known Colleges in India.
Commenting on the launch, Ruchir Arora, Co-Founder & CEO, CollegeDekho said optimistically, “We aim to make the loan process as easy as possible for all the students applying for higher education. The main highlight of our vertical is the zero percent EMI facility for students applying for studies in India or even abroad. This puts us as a front-runner in the Ed-FinTech vertical keeping with our mission of simplifying the higher education journey for students by bringing a positive change.”
This unique zero-interest financial offering is already available with CollegeDekho’s partner colleges and is aimed to ease the financial burden of the students as they have to pay back only the principal amount in fixed installments. CollegeDekho Consultants will also be helping students and parents throughout the loan application process, especially in scenarios where entire data is not readily available or the applicants have their documentation in a physical format. In this case, guidance is provided in terms of the application process along with loan sanctions through follow-ups with the respective NBFCs. This facility covers colleges across India which ensures that even the smallest town or city in the country can avail of this feature.
Leaving no stone unturned, the company has partnered with multiple financial partners to increase approval rates. This feature allows the company to underwrite and successfully service different kinds of borrower profiles. The borrower profiles covered are a wide range starting from the salaried, self-employed, farmers and even Gold loan aspirants among many others. Finally, the working capital product for colleges provides an unsecured working capital loan to a college based on their past performance. This benefits the college as it can increase its capacity utilization without any extra cost being incurred.
Tenzin Thargay, SVP & Head Fintech vertical added, “Our motive is to create a platform which connects students, colleges, Banks and NBFCs to create a seamless borrowing experience. We are using the power of data to help lenders improve risk assessment and hence improve end pricing. This is a space where currently lenders are not able to access meaningful data beyond the top 100 colleges and only a platform like CollegeDekho can bring the stakeholders together.”
