ZestMoney, an AI driven EMI financing platform, has entered into a strategic partnership with Northern Arc Capital, a financial services provider, as part of its aim to address the growing demand for EMI financing in India.

Under this long term partnership, Northern Arc Capital has in the current quarter already deployed $ 14 million and plans to fund various products offered by ZestMoney in a phased manner.

ZestMoney, a technology platform that provides easy access to consumer loans for those with insufficient credit history, is now looking to disburse $ 400 million in the next one year to improve access to credit in India, where credit card penetration remains low.

“We are striving to develop a deeper and holistic ecosystem for expanding our palette of offerings and access to affordable EMI solutions. We have built some great NBFC partnerships over the last three years and are excited to work with Northern Arc that shares our vision for financial inclusion in India”, Lizzie Chapman, CEO, ZestMoney said.

Northern Arc Capital is bridging the gap in serving the underbanked through a combination of capital, products and partnerships. It has been instrumental in enabling financial inclusion in India by providing financial institutions—that target middle income households and small businesses–with critical access to debt capital markets.

Northern Arc partnership with ZestMoney will also span a broad array of both domestic and international structural funding markets in addition to providing direct funding on the origination platform.

Kshama Fernandes, MD & CEO, Northern Arc Capital, said that the partnership with ZestMoney is particularly exciting as the latter reaches out to a large universe of unbanked and underbanked borrowers across the country.

“Building on our decade long experience of underwriting granular retail portfolios, Northern Arc has adopted a digital approach towards direct lending. Nimbus, our agile platform, seamlessly integrates with technology platforms like ZestMoney enabling efficiencies of reach at scale”, Fernandes said.

It may be recalled that ZestMoney had recently announced a $ 100 million worth strategic partnership with Credit Saison, a Japanese financial services company affiliated with Mizuho Financial Group and the third-largest credit card issuer with over 20 million cardholders in Japan.

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