GaragePreneurs Internet Blog Buddy - Past, Present & FutureBefore starting Buddy, we were...

Buddy - Past, Present & FutureBefore starting Buddy, we were working on a project through which users could access home appliances and furniture on monthly payment plan, and convert it to a purchase if they use it for a long time or return it anytime without owing anything extra to us. After reaching a substantial scale, we saw a really amazing trend that lead us to working on Buddy.We saw many of our customers were using us as an alternative for EMIs, and a major portion of these were students. When we analyzed this further, we realized that access to credit is a very big problem in India and people without a credit card can not buy products online on EMI. We were aware that only a small fraction of students needed appliances and furniture and a much bigger audience would want to use our EMI based platform for purchasing laptops, smartphones etc. As we had already developed a basic process of risk assessment for our student customers, the transition from just a rental platform to something much more fundamental was pretty smooth.Buddy was started to make credit for students as intuitive & friendly a payment method as anything else. Being recent graduates ourselves, we understand our customer base like no one else. Parents of a typical college going student generally do not have credit cards. This leaves little financial flexibility for students while making a high value e-com purchase. They either have to postpone their purchase decision or go for a lower end version, both of which is highly unproductive for a young student with big dreams.We have leveraged technology to ensure that there is easy availability of credit for college students based on their student profile & digital footprints data. We are passionate about the way we are creating an alternative lending platform whose effects would not only be limited to short term access of money but also in various life stages of a student like getting jobs, getting loans for cars & homes. We hope you enjoy our service.