EaseMyTrip cofounder Prashant Pitti is planning to launch a co-lending platform and NBFC to serve the underserved MSME market.

In a tweet, Pitti said the startup would offer collateral-free business loans. “Have been thinking to start something impactful at grassroot level (and run it alongside EaseMyTrip). Finally, starting a co-lending platform (and NBFC), to serve the highly underserved MSME market, by offering collateral-free business loan in rural India,” Pitti tweeted on Tuesday (July 18).

EaseMyTrip was a bootstrapped startup before it listed on the stock exchanges in 2021. It started as a B2B SaaS solution provider for offline travel agents before pivoting to a B2C business.

The traveltech startup’s net profit rose 33.1% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 31.1 Cr in the March quarter of the financial year 2022-23 (Q4 FY23) on the back of a strong growth in hotel and air bookings.

Pitti’s lending in the MSME lending segment seems to be guided by the lack of financing options for such enterprises. According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the credit demand in the MSME space stands at $490 Bn against the overall supply from formal sources at $192 Bn, indicating how this sector remains underserved.

Unavailability of financing options due to inadequate working capital, insufficient bureau score, and lack of documents are among the main reasons behind this demand-supply mismatch.

Although the outstanding micro and small loans as on March 2022 grew 21.5% to INR 4,95,281 Cr as against INR 4,07,675 Cr as on March 2021, the availability of credit continues to remain a pressing challenge for SMEs.

In the MSME lending segment, Pitti’s venture will compete against the likes of LendingKart, Indifi, among others.

Earlier this year, Teachmint’s cofounder and CTO Anshuman Kumar quit the edtech startup to focus on his new venture Duolop. While there have been many instances of cofounder leaving to start another venture, Pitti plans to build his venture alongside working at EaseMyTrip.