Prudent Finance

India’s debt markets are still in the early stages compared to developed countries. It hasn’t really taken off because of the lack of underlying infrastructure and transparency, and inefficient price discovery. In addition, there is also the fact that a lot of discovery is still happening one on one.

The issue is even more persistent the moment you look beyond the top-rated corporations. For such entities, access to debt markets is way more difficult than their counterparts in developed and other emerging economies. Yubi (erstwhile CredAvenue) has championed these problems to make debt markets more efficient and inclusive.

CredAvenue rebranded as Yubi recently to provide a richer, more consistent brand experience in accordance with the company’s mission to enable customers to ‘Go Get Great’.

“We aim to rewrite the lending equation by acting as a facilitator between lenders and borrowers, helping them discover each other, fostering trust, and providing a full-stack lending ecosystem to both. Our mission is to create a unified lending interface for loans to do what the Unified Payments Interface did for digital payments in India,” says Sudha Rangarajan, Senior VP, Strategy & Capital Raise, Yubi.

Redefining Global Debt Markets With almost no competition in India, Yubi is thinking on a global level. It is working hard to deepen and power the $120 trillion global enterprise debt market to unlock a GDP multiplier and create massive economic value.

In fact, this drive has made them one of the fastest companies to claim the coveted ‘unicorn’ status within 18 months of inception. “But that hasn’t changed our end goal, which is about constantly innovating, increasing access, and building the country’s credit infra-structure,” says Rangarajan.

“However, becoming a unicorn has helped us expand and unlock the significant potential to advance our and the nation’s economic growth,” she adds.

Last year, the flavour of the season was ‘growth at all costs’, but it has lost a lot of its appeal since the beginning of 2022 as the funding winter set in. “It is essential to focus on your core offering, its monetisation, scalability, and sustainability rather than becoming sidetracked by tangential market prospects if you want to beat the funding winter,” says Rangarajan when asked about the perfect strategy to get through the current market conditions.

With a few acquisitions in its recent past, Yubi is now setting its eyes on expanding internationally. The company recently set up its first office outside India in the UAE to focus on the Middle East and North Africa region. Looking ahead, Yubi will also explore opportunities to grow in South-east Asia.