Snapdeal buys majority stake in RupeePower

New Delhi, March 31

E-commerce major Snapdeal has picked up majority stake in digital financial products platform, RupeePower, for an undisclosed amount through a stock and cash deal.

The move will help Snapdeal to enter the Rs 4,500-crore online financial services market in the country.

"Consumers often face difficulty while deciding and buying financial products/services. This partnership will help solve distribution challenges of the financial services ecosystem and make it more inclusive," Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl said.

He declined to comment on the financial terms of the deal.

Founded in 2011, Gurgaon-based RupeePower offers a digital distribution platform for loans, credit cards and other personal finance products. At present, it has 40 employees.

"Over the next one year, we plan to ramp up our headcount to about 200 people. Most of these will be engineers, who have an understanding of the financial services market," RupeePower founder and CEO Tejasvi Mohanram said.

RupeePower, which counts SBI, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finserv among its partners, claims to have enabled credit disbursal worth Rs 1,500 crore through its platform in FY2014-15.

"In the next 24 months, we expect this number to grow to about Rs 6,000 crore ($1 billion)," Bahl said.

He added that going ahead, there will be integration of the platforms to allow Snapdeal consumers to make purchases using the finance options offered through RupeePower. PTI