Flipkart is ready with the tech stack to start lending

Walmart-owned Indian ecommerce giant Flipkart is working on a video Know Your Customer (KYC) solution to offer instant credit to customers who buy through its platform, after Aadhaar-based eKYC for private entities was struck down by the Supreme Court last year.

Flipkart, whose plans to enter into digital financial services had been in a limbo for some time, had worked with smaller fintech partners to enable ‘cardless credit’ and checkout finance. However, it now plans to start lending again and underwrite customers to create a preapproved line of credit.

“I think applying for an NBFC licence is a natural progression to enable credit for our customers and we’re committed to moving in that direction,” said Ranjith Boyanapalli, vice-president of fintech and payments at Flipkart, without actually specifying whether it had applied for a non-banking finance company licence from the Reserve Bank of India.