Embedded consumer-lending fintech Niro, which had raised capital from Rebright Partners and GMO Venture Partners, has ceased operations.
Its founder, Aditya Kumar, said, “$20 million in funding, $200 million in loan disbursements, 30 partnerships and 4.5 years later — we’ve had to shut down Niro,” in a LinkedIn post.
The Bengaluru-based startup cited regulatory headwinds and failing to secure further funding as reasons for its shutdown. Founded in 2021 by Kumar and Sankalp Mathur, Niro to date has raised close to $20 million, as per Tracxn data. It offers embedded lending to customers of consumer internet platforms such as Snapdeal, Quikr, and Housing.com, among others.
“Despite scouring the globe for capital and the country for suitors — I was unable to bring this one home,” Kumar wrote. Niro did not respond to a request for comment.
The company is known for its instant personal loans, ranging between Rs 50,000 to 7 lakh, delivered through partner platforms like L&T Finance and Muthoot Finance. Such personal loans are typically unsecured credit given by financial institutions without collateral.
This comes at a time when unsecured lending has faced multiple regulatory headwinds, leading to many platforms moving towards secured products (loans against collateral). Over the last eight months, venture capital funding in digital lending has dropped nearly 50%, as reported by ET last month.
Like Niro, there are many fintech players that provide instant personal loans online, including Accel-backed Money View, Premji Invest-backed Kreditbee, and so on.
While accepting the regulatory challenges, Kumar also pointed to the issues with distribution and data in financial institutions. “Financial institutions (FIs) lack proprietary distribution and differentiated data for underwriting, which fundamentally makes their distribution low quality and expensive, and the underwriting commoditised,” Kumar said.
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"On the other hand, consumer internet platforms have solved this, but don’t speak (or understand) the language that financial institutions with ultra-low risk appetites, low product capabilities, and increased regulatory scrutiny do. FIs’ inability to innovate and build products contextually compounds these issues,” he added.
Its founder, Aditya Kumar, said, “$20 million in funding, $200 million in loan disbursements, 30 partnerships and 4.5 years later — we’ve had to shut down Niro,” in a LinkedIn post.
The Bengaluru-based startup cited regulatory headwinds and failing to secure further funding as reasons for its shutdown. Founded in 2021 by Kumar and Sankalp Mathur, Niro to date has raised close to $20 million, as per Tracxn data. It offers embedded lending to customers of consumer internet platforms such as Snapdeal, Quikr, and Housing.com, among others.
“Despite scouring the globe for capital and the country for suitors — I was unable to bring this one home,” Kumar wrote. Niro did not respond to a request for comment.
The company is known for its instant personal loans, ranging between Rs 50,000 to 7 lakh, delivered through partner platforms like L&T Finance and Muthoot Finance. Such personal loans are typically unsecured credit given by financial institutions without collateral.
This comes at a time when unsecured lending has faced multiple regulatory headwinds, leading to many platforms moving towards secured products (loans against collateral). Over the last eight months, venture capital funding in digital lending has dropped nearly 50%, as reported by ET last month.
Like Niro, there are many fintech players that provide instant personal loans online, including Accel-backed Money View, Premji Invest-backed Kreditbee, and so on.
While accepting the regulatory challenges, Kumar also pointed to the issues with distribution and data in financial institutions. “Financial institutions (FIs) lack proprietary distribution and differentiated data for underwriting, which fundamentally makes their distribution low quality and expensive, and the underwriting commoditised,” Kumar said.
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