Rupeek commits to unlocking growth and credit for a billion Indians

Rupeek for India, a first of its kind thought leadership programme, today, in its maiden edition, saw the country's most respected and sought after experts and change makers share their perspectives on how the ecosystem can leverage technology to monetise India’s $2 trillion Gold thereby, solve the credit pain points for a billion Indians.

The programme opened with a special keynote delivered by Former Deputy Governor of RBI, Mr. R Gandhi, followed by an intriguing fireside chat between one of ’The World's 100 Most Powerful Women’, Ms. Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson and CEO of Salesforce India and Sumit Maniyar, Founder & CEO of Rupeek discussing ways to democratise access to credit for all Indians and the need for a dramatic shift in perception of Gold as an investment.

On the sidelines, Rupeek, the country’s fastest growing asset backed digital lending platform gave the audience and industry stakeholders an exclusive sneak peek into their visionary line of tech led product offerings*. Doorstep gold loans are available in the market and Digi Locker and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) are going to be launched soon. Gold Powered cards and Gold Teller Machine (GTM) are currently in the pilot stage. These products are deeply relevant to solving India’s unique credit challenges by unlocking idle gold from Indian households and are well poised to further change the status quo by monetising gold, enabling financial inclusion and accelerating economic growth.

Link: Rupeek’s Vision Product Reel

On Rupeek for India’s maiden edition and giving a sneak peek of visionary GoMon products, Sumit Maniyar, Founder and CEO, Rupeek said, “Technology and Innovation are the two cornerstones for building India’s Gold Monetisation infrastructure. The Gold Teller Machine, Digilocker, the Gold powered Credit Card and the Buy Now Pay Later product put together truly are going to create the foundation on which this country's Gold is going to get monetized.  At Rupeek, we are focussed on this vision and we're very excited to bring this to as many customers as possible.”

Former Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India, R Gandhi, backed the point on the need for monetising Gold for economic growth. He added, “Emerging economies like India need a lot of capital for ushering in consistent high growth, which will lead to higher standards of living for its population. Every rupee saved by households in the form of gold should be funneled towards investment as capital, through the mechanism of Gold Monetisation, thereby reducing the need for import of capital from foreign countries.”

Ms. Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson and CEO, Salesforce India said, “Gold has been a celebrated asset that is owned by most Indian households. With increased digitization, people have evolved in their approach and are open to explore new ways for growth and income generation. As a tech company, Rupeek is building that space for potential customers that are willing to convert their gold assets to gain liquidity in their accounts. This can potentially solve even bigger issues of capital constraints at the macro level.”

Furthermore, the event also saw two exclusively curated panel discussions, with the first one discussing ‘How to build India’s Gold Monetisation (GoMon) Playbook?’ while the second one focused on ‘Bharatech: Unlocking credit at scale’.

The first panel was moderated by Sudheesh Nambiath, Head - India Gold Policy Centre (IGPC) and some of the esteemed panelists present were PR Somasundaram, Regional CEO - India, World Gold Council, Harsh Dugar, Country Head - Wholesale Banking, The Federal Bank, GR Sairaj, GM - Retail Banking, Karur Vysya Bank and Gaurav Kumar, Founder & CEO, CredAvenue. The second panel was moderated by Japan Doshi, Head - Tech and Product, Rupeek with panelists being Manish Bhatia, President - Technology, Analytics and Capabilities, LendingKart, Sahil Kini, Founder & CEO, Setu, RV Ramanathan, Co-founder, Juspay & Hyperface and Prashanth Ranganathan, CEO of PayU Finance.

Emphasising the importance of investing and developing tech-backed products, Japan Doshi, Head - Technology & Product said, “Gold lending has not seen any product led innovation in decades. This has led to most of these Indians being deprived of credit they need despite holding large amounts of gold. It’s time for us to bring product innovations to monetize India’s gold to drive financial inclusion for all.”

Sahil Kini, Founder and CEO, Setu said, “Unfortunately, there isn’t enough women participation seen taking financial decisions in India. As a nation, we are counted among the lowest women labor participation, which has further dropped post the pandemic. I think it is an important area of concern that needs to be addressed as 26% of borrowers are women. With the help of technology, and increased penetration of innovative products, we need to empower this section to achieve macro goals set for the economy.”

In India, where most of the gold is locked away in lockers and is seen as more of a security than an opportunity, Rupeek, a brand committed to Nation building, has shown its intent in creating a Gold powered Bharat future via tech led gold monetisation (GoMon). Its first product, doorstep gold loans, continues to disrupt the traditional gold loan space by making credit available and accessible in a hassle-free manner and at consumers’ convenience.

Rupeek has identified four areas that are important to building an inclusive, asset backed credit future:

• First, scaling from 35+ cities to +150 cities enabling access to all the key GoMon related product offerings
• Second, leveraging technology and AI to monetise gold and build products and services that are deeply relevant to India’s unique credit needs
• Third, empowering individuals and businesses as they continue or embark on their formal credit journey in realising their dreams
• Fourth, playing an instrumental role in nation building by working closely with the Government authorities, RBI and other institutions