<div><em>The PolicyBazaar subsidiary is open to both financial or strategic investors and is in talks with a host of private equity and e-commerce companies, writes <strong>Paramita Chatterjee</strong></em><br><br><br>Loan comparison website PaisaBazaar, a wholly-owned subsidiary of insurance comparison site PolicyBazaar, is in talks to raise up to $50 million ahead of its plans to foray into a whole new space of financial advisory, said a person familiar with the matter.</div><div> </div><div>The online portal which currently helps compare diverse range of loans including home, auto, education, business and even personal, and other credit cards products is looking to expand into more categories in the financial sector like mutual funds. Going forward, the startup has plans to become a financial destination for both lending and investment products. So far, it has tie ups with over 35 financial institutions across different categories and reportedly gets around 20,000 visits per day.</div><div> </div><div>The capital will be used to fuel PaisaBazaar’s expansion plans, said the person, a senior executive within the insurance industry, privy to the matter. PaisaBazaar is open to both financial or strategic investors and is in talks with a host of private equity and e-commerce companies. However, Yashish Dahiya, CEO & Co-Founder at PolicyBazaar, declined to divulge any details on PaisaBazaar's fund raising plans. “We are in talks to induct a partner but nothing is finalised yet,” he told Businessworld. It is understood that investment banking firm Avendus Capital has been given the mandate to facilitate the transaction.</div><div> </div><div>PolicyBazaar incubated PaisaBazaar in February last year and in less than two years, it has disbursed loans worth Rs 1,200 crore annually and is aiming to reach Rs 1,800 crore annual loan disbursal by March 2016. This does not include credit card transactions. Currently, it has around 1.5 lakh credit card applications going through its platform on an annualised basis.</div><div> </div><div>In today’s day and age when the consumers are increasingly taking steps to integrate the digital experience in their daily lives, e-commerce finance firms are trying to replicate the model of Flipkart and Snapdeal in order to help consumers find the best deals. Further, they are also facilitating transactions online to tap the growing digital market. PaisaBazaar, for instance, is working to move the entire loan process from offline in the past to online in future with respect to categories like e-application, online credit bureau approval, working with banks to have features like e-kyc and e-income verification.</div><div> </div><div>In fact, sensing the growth opportunity in this sector, investors – both financial and strategic – are also evincing interest to fund startups operating in this area. Earlier this year, BankBazaar, a startup that aggregates information about online loans, credit cards, and fixed deposits, raised around $60 million from Amazon, Fidelity Growth Partners, Mousse Partners, and its existing investors Sequoia Capital and Walden International. There is growing chatter in the insurance industry if PasiaBazaar is actually talking to Flipkart but this could not independently be verified.</div>
