CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Mr. Sandip Chhettri, CEO, TradeIndia.com
- When and why was TradeIndia formed? What was the objective when TradeIndia started and what was the strategy adopted to reach out to the 6 cr+ MSMEs in India today?
Launched in the year 1996, TradeIndia.com started as an online directory service to the global export-import community. It has been widely used to search for manufacturers, exporters, suppliers across the globe. In its journey of more than 33 years, it has evolved a lot. With over 80,000+ product categories and over 120 Million inquiries every year, it is known for being India’s leading B2B e-commerce portal connecting buyers and sellers globally.
At TradeIndia.com, we have digitally transformed 10 Million+ SMEs and are working with a vision to make 63 Million SMBs digitally empowered. Everyday we are working to simplify the process for our buyers and sellers.
- Kindly give us an overview of the challenges TradeIndia has faced initially and how did you overcome those?
The first and the foremost challenge was to bring businesses online. There was lack of awareness about digital platforms. Businesses were apprehensive. The online penetration was low as the decision makers of MSMEs during those days were not internet-savy. Plus, a lot of SMEs were operating from small cities where the internet connectivity was a challenge.
As a strategy, TradeIndia first began with sending inquiries via fax. We reached out to each business associated with us on the call and replied to their queries manually. Our service teams used to visit the customers to understand their individual business needs and educated them on the importance of going digital in today’s age. We extended all the required support, from creating their email IDs to helping them understand to how to use the email as a channel to communicate, etc. It was an excellent collaboration between us and businesses and hats off to these business people who come forward to embrace the new concept of taking business online so positively.
- What’s TradeIndia’s growth Y-o-Y in the last 3 years? Can you give the growth as per the top 5 business categories?
User registrations have grown from 5 Million to 10 Million in the last three years. Additionally, there has been a surge of 41% in the inquiries over the last three years. Agriculture, Chemicals, Industrial Supplies, Hospital & Medical Supplies, and Electronics & Electrical Supplies are some of the top performing categories.
- What is TI Lending ? Tell us more about this offering & what is it solving ?
TI Lending is an exclusive digital loan solution initiative by TradeIndia.com, India’s largest B2B e-commerce portal. TI has collaborated with leading lending platforms like ICICI Bank, Flexiloans, EFL, Moneywide, Arthmate, IIFL, Faircent to offer seamless loan credit to its customers. TI Lending, India’s first digital lending solution for SMEs, announced the disbursement of loans totalling more than INR 500 million to SMEs and MSMEs in the country within six months of its launch.
Launched in July 2022, this offering is a complete digitised solution with zero paperwork. It offers instant business loans up to 50 lakhs within a disbursal time of 24 hours. In just 6 months of its launch, it has received over 50 thousand loan applications from SMEs and MSMEs.
TI Lending aims to solve the financial requirements of businesses by:
- Providing loan to SMEs for their business capital so that they can grow their business seamlessly.
- Offering complete end to end digital journey for loan processing and aims to disburse loan within 4 hours.
- Serving unserved SMEs using alternate data.
5. Can you share more data & information on the kind of loans disbursed via TI lending ?
Various Loan offering by tradeindia lending:
- Business loan
Our major offering is a business loans, offered up to Rs. 50 lac also can exceed depending upon business requirements. The repayment tenure for a term loan is finalized by the lender at the time of loan application.
- Subscription fee finance
When a user is buying any paid subscription on TradeIndia, he/she can choose an option of coverting that amount to zero interest emi through TI lending.
- Overdraft
Overdraft facility is a funding type offered by tradeindia through its lenders wherein customer to withdraw cash from his/her account even if the account balance is zero.
- Personal loan
A personal loan can be availed of to cater to your individual needs. The interest rates of personal loans are generally higher than secured loans.
- Supply chain finance
Supply chain finance provides a lower cost of capital to keep supply chain costs in check, optimize working capital for both the buyer and supplier.
