Banker-turned-entrepreneur wants India to shop online in installments

Photo credit: Pexels.

Remember the mobile phone upgrade you’ve been putting off for the past several months in the hope prices will drop?

Or, how about that international holiday you’ve been eyeing, but have not yet come to realize?

Today, when people dream with their eyes wide open – and these days that could be in front of laptop and mobile screens – they’re getting used to waiting for mega sales events or similar gimmicks to make that dream purchase.

In India, a country with fewer credit cards than phone connections, a large number of people are automatically left with no alternatives to convert already discounted, yet hefty price tags to monthly finance schemes, popularly called easy money installments (EMIs).

People want to buy aspirational products.

Vikas Sekhri and his startup CashCare is trying to take care of exactly that.

In a humble office in a Mumbai suburb, the demure entrepreneur talks about his personal journey – as well as about his 15-month-old baby.

When he describes CashCare, his shyness is gone and he takes on the air of someone who knows his trade.

Vikas explains that he found out there was tremendous opportunity in the gap between the number of credit cards (around 22 million) and the number of debit cards (more than 600 million) in the country. “People want to buy aspirational products. That’s where we’re helping,” he adds.

Gimme some credit

With CashCare, shoppers can make their purchase through ecommerce partners and get the transactions converted into a three to 12-month easy financing scheme. CashCare charges customers an interest rate between zero and 24 per cent on the loans depending on an individual’s risk, Vikas says.

In other words, if you cannot afford to buy the latest iPhone because you don’t have a credit card, you could use CashCare to buy it from one of the ecommerce partners and pay over the next few months instead of paying for it upfront.

Photo credit: Vendhq.

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