KANKA KULKARNI

ROLL NO. 026/ MMS FINANCE

ASSIGNMENT 2

EARLYSALARY.COM

Startup year:

Founded in 2015.

EarlySalary is a salary advance mobile application that enables Indian users to borrow money for urgent
cash requirements before they get their monthly wages. It aims to help individuals who face month-end
and mid-month financial crisis by providing small loans until they receive their salaries. Users of the
application are able to login though their Facebook accounts, communicate the amount they need as a
loan and a date they could settle it, submit basic documents, and get the money credited to their bank
accounts. EarlySalary offers loans between 1,000 INR and 100,000 INR with payback terms ranging from
7 to 50 days.

Management Team:

Akshay Mehrotra, Chief Executive Officer at EarlySalary

Armed with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Symbiosis Pune, Askhay Mehrotra is now
spearheading his own Start-up venture EarlySalary along with two other partners. Prior to this, Akshay
was associated with brands like Future Retail Ltd, PolicyBazaar.com, Big Bazaar and Bajaj Allianz Life
Insurance Co. Ltd. An exemplary leader, Akshay brings with him a rich experience of 12 years in strategic
planning and marketing. He has been conferred as one of the Most Talented CMO of the year award in
2013 – 2014 in the retail space, by CMO Asia.

Ashish Goyal, Chief Finance Officer at EarlySalary

One of the co-founder and The Chief Finance Officer of EarlySalary, Ashish Goyal leads the company’s
finance department. He is a finance professional with over 14 years of experience spanning the entire
gamut of finance including business finance, controllership, risk management and strategic initiatives.
Ashish is a qualified Chartered Accountant with an All India Ranking of 37. He has also been conferred as
‘Most Astute Bond Fund Manager’ by Asset Magazine, Singapore in 2011. Prior to joining EarlySalary, he
was associated with Bajaj Allianz for 14 years as the Chief Investment Officer.

Other key Founding Members Include:

Vimal Saboo, CBO, previously served as the Business Head of Edelweiss Capital and also served in senior
roles at Axis Bank.
Vivek Jain, CTO, who previously served as the Principal Technology Architect at Infosys.
Based where and its reach in India:

It is headquartered in Pune. The company aims to deliver a revolutionary new business model which is
set to change the lending market in India.

With two months EarlySalary.com already has 105000 app downloads already is successfully offering
loans in Pune, Bangalore & Chennai and will soon expand operations in more towns.

Most of their marketing is linked to company tie-up where they offer salary advance to companies’
employees and App store marketing. They are already live with 20+ large corporates where they offer
salary advances to company employees in our operative markets. Moreover, at Google Play & Apple
Store, their app is one of the top Finance Apps with over 100000+ downloads and growing at 1000+ a
daily.

Key investors and amount invested in the past:

It had raised $1.5 million (around Rs 10 crore) seed capital from Ashok Agarwal of Transcorp Group. The
seed raised will be used towards building a mobile app-based lending platform.

It has announced its Series A funding of $4 Million from IDG Ventures India (IDGVI) and Dewan Housing
Finance Corp Ltd (DHFL).

The Series A capital will be primarily deployed in three particular areas, viz:
1. Build leverage on capital deployed for building products and lending book
2. Expand team specifically in skill sets of machine learning.
3. Grow customer base and provide 200,000 loans in this FY

Business Market Share:

 Monetization Model & Traction Details

Their revenue model is primary interest on deployed capital and digital systems helps them
reduce cost of operations, while in shorter tenure helps to revolve capital better, while other
revenues include fees, charges on default etc. similar to other financial institutions.
Most importantly like a financial institution their core model is to borrow institutional debt at
low rate and lend at higher rate and earn on the spread income. Currently, they are equity
funded but as they grow, their book debt will be instrumental in their growth.

 Future Plans
They are currently focusing on improving their business model and building volume. They have
been investing in building acceptance and large tractions in the market. They are optimistic that
in the next 24 months’ time, we can build a lending book size of 200-300 cr monthly, which will
require funding in future.
Competitors:

There are other startups in the market working on the model of payday loans, including names like
InstaPaisa, and ReBase, among others.

1. ZestMoney

Private funding raised - $8.5m

Location - Bengaluru, India

Sector - Consumer lending, Fintech, Bigdata

Provides EMI without Credit or Debit cards for buying consumer goods such as Mobiles, TV,
Laptops, Jewellery.

2. LoanTap

Private funding raised - $3.04m

Location - Pune, India

Sector - Financial services

Loantap is an online platform committed to deliver flexible loan products to salaried

professionals. The idea is to use technology for building flexibility in products, without adding
cost to it.