Sweden-headquartered TrueCaller, a company that runs a caller-identification system, is further expanding its financial services business. The firm is piloting a new program to offer credit to small business owners based in India, which reportedly make up around 20 million of the total 140 million users in the $2.5 trillion economy.
The program will be offered via local financial partners, and is scheduled to launch in early 2020, company CEO Alan Mamedi confirmed.
Truecaller has been focusing on providing the latest information about incoming calls, however, it has now started to offer messaging and other types of call functionalities, in addition to an ad-free subscription and mobile payments service.
Mamedi says that in the next three years, the firm’s revenue should be split evenly between its subscription business, advertising, and Fintech-related products.
Indian SMBs make up a significant portion of the country’s multi-trillion dollar economy, however, they continue to be financially underserved. There are reportedly more than 42 million SMBs based in India that employ nearly 70% of the nation’s workers. Despite being vital to India’s economy, only around 3% of SMBs have access to business loans through the traditional route.
Because of these challenges, small and medium-sized firms experience a significant credit gap that stands at around $230 billion, according to the latest World Bank data, referenced by the CDC Group. Since almost 50% of India’s SMBs are Truecaller customers, the service should see steady adoption.
But India also has a large number of tech-savvy users, which makes its SMBs ideal candidates to use Truecaller’s products. The country reportedly has one of the highest Fintech adoption rates in the world (87%) among the digitally active members of the population. The global average stands at around 64%, according to estimates from Ernst & Young.
The nation’s Fintech sector has experienced a 60% increase in overall business activity through smartphone apps, which indicates that SMBs have been eager to try out new technology. It appears that these firms would be open to the idea of obtaining loans from Truecaller to expand their operations and support their ongoing development.
