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Digital lenders tap bond markets to diversify borrowing channels
Digital lending startups, seeking to rein in costs, are increasingly diversifying their borrowing channels by tapping the public bond markets.
Industry insiders told ET that the rise of OBPPs (Online Bond Platform Provider) and higher retail participation in these platforms are making these new-age companies explore NCDs (Non-convertible debenture) as a fundraising tool.
These market-linked instruments significantly reduce their borrowing costs vis-à-vis funding from non-bank lenders – hitherto the primary financing source for fintechs.
“A third of my raise is now through NCDs, and we intend to double down on NCDs to raise funds,” said Rohit Garg, cofounder, Olyv.
He added that the emergence of the bond distribution platforms is helping firms raise these funds.
“Two to three years ago, this route did not exist; now there is regulatory push to get more retail investors to participate in the corporate bond market,” Garg said.
NCDs are fixed-interest-rate investments raised from public investors, and the instrument is often the borrowing mainstay for established NBFCs. The net interest margin, or core profitability at lenders, is determined by the spread between the cost of borrowing and the interest earned through onward lending, and the spread often has a direct correlation to the lowest borrowing costs.
New-age non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) had hitherto relied mostly on their larger peers to borrow money for term loans for onward lending.
NBFCs typically offer interest rates around 13 to 15% and even higher; banks offer cheaper capital. Now as digital lenders mature, they are moving towards the NCD route since this reduces the effective rate of interest and brings it at par with banks, say between 9 to 12%.
Digital lending platforms such as Fibe, Kreditbee and Olyv (formerly Smartcoin), have all started increasing the share of funds they are borrowing from the public market.
For Kreditbee, the funding through NCDs makes up around 42% of the total borrowing as of March 2025, compared to 30% a year back, a credit rating document issued by Care Edge shows.
Another Care Edge report on Earlysalary Services shows that its borrowings from banks and NBFCs constituted 18% and 31%, respectively, as on June 2025, compared to 16% and 32% as on March 31, 2024. The share of NCDs in the same time frame went up to 41% from 38%.
Cost benefits
This has lowered the blended borrowing costs, industry insiders said.
OBPPs like Stable Money, Wint Wealth and Grip Invest are playing a pivotal role in enabling these transactions, industry insiders pointed out. These digital platforms are helping bring interested retail investors to these platforms, getting them to participate in these issues. Additionally, with these NCDs being listed in the stock exchanges, adequate disclosures help investors take an informed call.
“The OBPP market is definitely scaling and demand for such products among retail investors is very high, lenders are also diversifying into sourcing funds from multiple sources and bonds are definitely one of them,” said Saurabh Jain, cofounder, Stable Money, a registered OBPP.
The changes in the regulatory landscape have also helped expand this market. Anshul Gupta, co-founder of Wint Wealth, another registered OBPP, pointed out that the stock market regulator Sebi is keen that more companies raise funds through bonds. Sebi has reduced the size of retail bond issuance to Rs 10,000 last year from Rs 1 lakh and Rs 10 lakh prior to that.
Commenting on the risk factor for retail investors, Gupta said that typically retail investors do not invest in companies which are not highly rated by credit rating agencies.
“Asset pages of all these issuances have all the details and disclosures which can help the investor take an informed decision,” Gupta added.
Source: EconomicTimes
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