The joint venture will combine their technological expertise leveraging data to bring digital transformation and reshape financial inclusion in Bharat

Spice Money, India’s leading rural fintech, has entered into a joint venture with Tarya group, Israel’s leading fintech player with 70% P2P market-share in Israel, to bring Bharat to the fore of the ongoing data-led digital revolution by launching a lend-tech platform targeted towards rural India. The synergy between Tarya Fintech and Spice Money will lead to the creation of an innovative, agile, assisted and technologically superior digital lending platform. The JV aims to fill the credit gap in India by offering underserved and underbanked rural India a convenient platform to access credit easily with minimal documentation. This platform will address challenges that have kept rural India financially excluded such as lack of data, limited access and unviable unit economics.

India’s credit gap is estimated to be over $330 billion*. Small businesses and rural consumers find formal credit limited and inaccessible due to the cumbersome application process, lack of financial data, collaterals needed for credit assessment and inappropriate products. This leads to them resorting to often-exploitative informal credit sources. The wide adoption of technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning has turned data into a great enabler for financial inclusion. The credit model in rural India needs to reimagine the products and processes by leveraging AI and ML to enable collection of alternative data, in absence of traditional financial data. This can help to determine a rural business’ credit-worthiness and capabilities.

This new JV would step in with a community lending model enabling rural borrowers to access credit on a digitised assisted platform quickly and seamlessly. The digital lending market in India is expected to grow from $110 billion in 2019 to $350 billion in 2023 on the back of MSMEs’ credit demand of estimated $490 billion along with the increased internet penetration*.

Dilip Modi, Founder, Spice Money, said, “At Spice Money, we serve approx. 20 million monthly transacting customers on an average, through our 7 Lakh Adhikari network across semi urban and rural India. This has helped us observe the multiple financial needs of rural India and the key role that far-reaching technology can play in fulfilling these needs. There is a data and digital-led revolution in financial inclusion waiting to happen in India. Through our joint venture with Tarya, we are confident that we will play an integral role in this revolution in the interiors of our country.” He also added, “One of the major demands has been access to easy loans. Accessible and timely credit is important for the growth of rural India. We have partnered with Tarya to bring in financial inclusion by empowering rural borrowers with access to easy credit. This will further financial freedom in Bharat and lead to overall national development.”

Eyal Elhayany, Founder & CEO, Tarya, said, “India has a huge potential for lending technology, especially in rural areas. India is a great country to diversify and expand in due to the sheer size of its economy and the emerging technological opportunities for collaborations. Technological innovations can easily reach the financially underserved parts to accelerate financial inclusion, as can be seen in the great work Spice Money and its Adhikaris have been doing. Leveraging Spice Money’s rural fintech expertise and experience, we aim to tap into the unaddressed rural credit gap and make it easy for rural India to get loans for their growth and development.”