We have all grown up learning that gold is the safest asset. It has a negative Beta and offers liquidity and returns when all other asset classes fail to perform. Real Estate and Gold together make up 2/3rd of an Indian household’s average portfolio.The world global council estimates that the demand for gold has been growing over 5% y-o-y and the use of gold in weddings and religious ceremonies. Although gold has been valued as a highly liquid asset, it wasn’t until recently that consumers leveraged it effectively to meet their liquidity needs.

A decade earlier, most of the lending was through brokers and through moneylenders. This scenario changed with the entrance of organized sector players such as banks and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) which now command more than 25% of the market.

Could you ever imagine gold loans being provided at your doorstep?

Rupeek, a gold loan fintech startup has been bringing gold loans to your doorstep on demand and has further revolutionised the way gold loans are being provided to the Indian household. Rupeek is an asset backed online lending platform, disrupting the traditional brick-and-mortar lending mode that uses proprietary tech hardware to ensure standardization, fairness, and scalability in gold purity assessment.

Their newest product is a “gold overdraft” product that lets users store their gold beforehand, take out a loan against it anytime, then repay at will with interest.

It disbursed $16 million of loans in September and is currently at a monthly pace of $28 million, up from $1.5 million in Jan last year.

Jcurve is an early stage investor in Rupeek. What we guys find fascinating is how Rupeek has found a discreet homestop solution, customised for the Indian borrowers who are ashamed of being seen taking loans against their family heirlooms. Currently, Rupeek offers its service in 10 Indian cities and is funded by Sequoia Capital, Accel Ventures, Tanglin Venture Partners, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal’s BTB Ventures and Korea’s KB Investment.
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