Capital Float, one of the largest digital lending platform to SMEs in India, has announced partnership with omni-channel travel, retail and fintech company Via.com to unveil the “Via Loan Mela”. This loan festival, targeting 5000 travel agents across India, will provide them access to working capital finance across five cities in the country. This initiative aims at driving the adoption of Capital Float’s collateral free product, Pay Later, which will provide agents the necessary working capital support needed to scale up their operations and reach new customers.
The loan event is being conducted in Mumbai, Delhi, Faridabad this month, while Kolkata and Hyderabad loan festival was organised in November, targeting the travel agent community in these cities. Through the reach of digital lending, travel agents will now be able to access customised working capital finance solutions.
Pay Later, a credit product designed by Capital Float, enables travel agents to make multiple drawdowns from a pre-determined credit facility, increasing their accessibility to instant finance. This revolving credit product can be accessed using Capital Float’s mobile app, which is available for download on the Play Store and the App Store. Agents can make payments to the principal using this app. Interest is charged on the drawdowns only and not the entire credit facility.
“The revenue in the tourism industry fluctuates seasonally. During peak seasons, many travel agents from Tier II and Tier III cities have insufficient working capital to undertake bulk bookings. Through this ‘mela’ we aim to provide travel agents across India with more funds at their disposal to increase their booking capacity and revenue. Our Pay Later product helps small and medium-scale travel agents significantly increase their booking capacity and earn higher income,” said Gaurav Hinduja, co-founder, Capital Float.
During the Via Loan Mela, Capital Float aims to help travel agents by offering a variant of Pay Later, a custom-built loan offering that caters to the needs of travel agents, with loan amounts up to INR 25 lakh. Capital Float is setting up lending kiosks at the event to facilitate the agent with access to credit by increasing their potential to earn more revenue. This product is expected to especially benefit agents during demonetisation, as they will be able to access funds digitally and avoid the liquidity crunch currently prevailing in the market.
“Our objective is to provide a variety of ancillary services to better equip our travel agents with all they need to run a successful business. Through this partnership with Capital Float, we aim to address the challenges faced by our agents in meeting the fluctuating booking demands of tourists in different seasons. The timely working capital finance provided by Capital Float will be key in determining the business growth of the agents on our platform,” stated Sanjay Gupta, business head – India and the Middle East, Via.com.
