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WeRize will launch a social distribution tech platform dubbed “Social Shopify of Finance” where it aims to have 50K+ freelance financial consultants across the country

The funds raised will be used to launch products across the fintech categories — savings, insurance and credit cards — customised as per the needs of the individuals

The startup aims to grow a Meesho-styled social partners’ network to over 50K, covering 4,000 small cities in the next two years

Bengaluru-based fintech startup WeRize, which aims to provide customised credit, group insurance, and savings products to lower and middle-class families, has announced $8 Mn in Series A funding led by 3one4 Capital, Kalaari Capital, Picus Capital and Orios Venture Partners.

The startup will launch a social distribution tech platform dubbed “Social Shopify of Finance” where it aims to have 50K+ freelance financial consultants across the country. “Through this platform, social partners can source customers online and offline and help them in the journey of onboarding them, doing payment and finally providing them post-sales service,” Vishal Chopra, cofounder and CEO, WeRize, told Inc42.

According to the startup, the funds raised will be used to launch products across the fintech categories — savings, insurance and credit cards — customized as per the needs of the individuals. WeRize claims to have collected 1 Bn+ data points across 500K families in 1,000 cities in India. It aims to grow a Meesho-styled social partners’ network to over 50K, covering 4,000 small cities in the next two years.

Founded in 2019 by ex-Lendingkart executives Chopra and Himanshu Gupta, WeRize claims to provide integrated and customised financial solutions in a social distribution model to 500K+ families across 1,000+ cities. It also declared a 10x revenue growth while expecting to become EBITDA positive by early-2022.

Eyeing a $200 Bn Unorganized Fintech Marketplace

The full-stack provider of in-development and in-market services of customised financial products, WeRize aims to serve 100 Mn+ families and 300 Mn+ individuals across 4,000 cities.

“This $200 Bn and growing annual market [of lower-middle-class families] expects a very different [finance] product set as well as distribution model which traditional private banks, insurers, and mutual fund companies are unable to provide. The economics of these products as well as operating in small cities is not feasible for traditional companies due to their high-cost branch-based distribution model,” WeRize said. It added that small towns only have basic bank accounts but not other financial products such as unsecured loans, credit cards, insurances or investments.

India’s fintech market is currently one of the fastest-growing compared to the rest of the world. Despite the first two waves of the Covid-19 pandemic that wreaked havoc across most sectors, the innovations brought about in the fintech space have helped India maintain a cutting edge.

Globally, the country has the highest fintech adoption rate at 87% against a global average of 64%.

WeRize Joins Social Distribution Tech Platform Race

The company further said that the section, where one family usually has a single profit & loss account, needs a deeper risk management capability which can be addressed using a social distribution model like that of Meesho — a platform suitable enough for financially literate people as well as channels to help understand finances.

Social ecommerce platform Meesho, founded in 2015 by Sanjeev Barnwal and Vidit Aatrey, is an online reseller network for individuals and small and medium businesses (SMBs), that sell products within their network on social channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. The startup, which turned Unicorn in April, has a base of 13 Mn individual entrepreneurs and 45 Mn customers pan India.

Meesho’s social distribution model reduces the company’s asset acquisition cost, enables personal as well as assisted shopping and connects small businesses to individual entrepreneurs.

On a similar line, WeRize aims to create a social distribution model for fintech services.

From January 2021 to August 2021, Indian fintech startups have raised $4.6 Bn including $860 Mn and $2.6 Bn secured by lending tech and payments startups, respectively. Startups like OfBusiness, KreditBee and MPOWER were some of the prominent players in the lending tech ecosystem.

While the insurance tech ecosystem saw names like Digit Insurance, IPO-bound Policybazaar and RenewBuy grabbing the headlines, investment tech startups like Groww, Smallcase and 5Paisa also made the news.