Buying a house in India involves lots of paperwork and going through several offices and banks to get a loan, which costs both time and money. The pandemic has made the process even more cumbersome due to reduced bank staff and COVID-19 protocols.
Founded in 2021, based in Mumbai claims to alleviate these home loan bottlenecks by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI).
Easiloan claims that the turnaround time for customers who apply for a home loan through its platform is less than a week while the lead time for overall loan disbursement is reduced by 70%. Usually it takes about three to four weeks for processing home loans, and this time frame may be extended if there are documentation issues.
The platform says it acts as an intermediary between lenders and borrowers, and suggests the best home loan deals based on certain metrics.
Easiloan has integrated SBI, LIC, HDFC, PNB Housing finance, among others, as lenders. The platform also helps lenders to offer loans to different customer segments such as AAA customers, non-salaried employees, etc.
The platform was founded by Pramod Kathuria and Vishal Dawda in April 2021.
The Easiloan team
After being in stealth mode for three months, Easiloan launched operations in July 2021. Pramod brings with him two decades of experience in property finance and real estate, having worked with groups like L&T, GMR Group and Lodha Group. Vishal, who had worked with groups like Lodha Group and HDFC Realty, left Easiloan in January 2022.
With a team of 50 people, Easiloan claims to have processed over 750 home loans in two months. The startup says it reached out to real estate developers because more than 50% of top home loan buyers could be tapped through these channels.
Since, the number increased to 1,500 home loan applications, amounting to more than Rs 500 crores, across the three cities.
The startup’s revenue model is based on a percentage commission that banks pay it on every disbursement case that occurs through its platform. The service is free for Easiloan.
It raised Rs 8 Crore in its first funding round led by Tomorrow Capita in September 2021. From then to February 2022, the number of loans disbursed saw a cumulative increase of 75%.
Commenting on his investment, Rohini Prakash, CEO of Tomorrow Capital, told YourStory: “We are very pleased to partner with Easiloan as it aims to address some of the major issues plaguing the mortgage lending industry, by delivering a customer experience dramatically improved by enabling customers to make informed decisions about their home loans, and much smoother digital home loan processing.
A platform for all stakeholders
At first, the platform functioned as a matchmaking engine to help customers compare and choose the best lending partner. For this, he contacted real estate developers to capture the most leads from home loan customers with the highest conversion percentage.
Since its first funding round, it has evolved into a complete home loan solution provider, making it simple and easy for all stakeholders in the home loan process.
Its unified onboarding application, launched in October 2021, collects customer data, analyzes and verifies it, then provides advice before sanction.
“This is a comprehensive yet simple online journey that matches you with the best deal, opens the digital home loan application submission portal and the core engine then issues a required sanction after studying your finances. Our platform also gives developers or channel partners real-time visibility into sales success and therefore inbound cash flow,” Pramod tells YourStory.
As of March 31, 2021, Easiloan had an approximate turnover of Rs 4 lakh, according to RoC filings made by the company. The team did not disclose revenue details for the last fiscal year.
Easiloan
Take advantage of fintech
According to reports by Allied Market Research, the global fintech lending market size was valued at $449.89 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $4,957.16 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR ( compound annual growth rate) of 27.4% from 2021 to 2030.
With market competitors such as , and , Easiloan is one of the few startups harnessing the potential of automating the home loan process. Pramod believes that the pandemic has played a pivotal role in increasing demand for fintech platforms that have reduced loan sanctioning hassles.
However, building a one-stop platform comes with its own set of challenges. One of them is to integrate banks and real estate agents who would trust the process of new age mortgage services.
“For us, engaging and integrating banks, credit institutions and real estate experts into Easiloan was one of the biggest challenges. But thorough market research helped us get the mandate from all stakeholders, including customers,” says Pramod.
Easiloan plans to create more products across the home loan chain, such as balance transfers, home loans, among others. They also plan to take a significant majority market share of digital home loans in India by FY23.
