IIFL Finance partners with FinBox to offer digital credit products to merchants

The investment services company will offer digital credit avenues to its merchants, B2B e-commerce traders, using FinBox’s embedded buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) and working capital credit products. Through this partnership, IIFL and FinBox will disburse ₹1,000 crore in loans over the next 2 quarters, through a completely digital model, the statement said.

Rajat Deshpande, co-founder and chief executive officer FinBox said that the FinBox Embedded Finance Platform powers credit on multiple B2B, e-commerce and retailer aggregator platforms.

“Partnering with IIFL provides us with the flexibility and agility to launch innovative credit products for merchants at best-in-class rates. BNPL credit is the lifeblood of B2B e-commerce and trade. Just like cash-on-delivery kickstarted the Indian B2C e-commerce story, seamless access to cash flow-based BNPL financing is fuelling B2B e-commerce,” said Deshpande.

According to Sanjeev Srivastava, chief risk officer at IIFL, the company has collaborated deeply with FinBox’s low-code platform to make the lending process entirely digital and hassle-free.

“Additionally, FinBox’s proven artificial intelligence and machine learning-powered underwriting capability enables us to extend credit even to MSMEs with thin-to-no credit history. We are launching multiple new-age credit products for the retailer and MSME space through the FinBox Embedded Finance Platform,” Srivastava added.

The statement said that B2B BNPL is garnering increasing attention globally as people shift their purchase and expense habits owing to covid-19’s repercussions on liquidity. BNPL products enable merchants to manage fluctuations in demand, keep a well-stocked shop, and expand as needed during the festive season, all the while reducing cash collection and logistics complexities for their distributors.