In India there are an estimated 100 million salaried workers that do not have easy access to credit. This is not only a problem for the employee, but burdensome for the employer as well, who often becomes an informal lending institution, advancing monthly salaries to employees.
Finwego is a fintech start-up based in India and designed to solve these problems for both parties. Finwego’s artificial intelligence-powered algorithm examines the relationship between employment-based data and credit discipline to create an alternative credit score for employees. It then takes employees five minutes to fill out a credit application, and loan approvals happen within 24 hours.
The entire process is digital, because all Indian adults can be bio-metrically identified through the national Aadhaar system, and in 2016 the Indian government enacted a law requiring salaries to be paid digitally. Therefore, borrower identification, employment history, loan disbursement, and loan repayment can all ride on these digital rails.
Further, Finwego was founded with financial inclusion as one of its major objectives. Therefore, loan pricing is transparent, and repayment terms are flexible. Finwego is putting the missing middle back in finance, by re-imagining the way salaried Indians can access credit. In November 2018, Ulana Insights made a seed investment to help the company scale.