Kissht parent’s AUM crosses Rs 4,000 crore in FY25

*This article is adapted from * Financial Express

OnEMI Technology, the parent company of digital lending platform Kissht, has grown its assets under management (AUM) by 55% in the financial year 2024-25, to more than Rs 4,200 crore, founder and executive director, Krishnan Vishwanathan, said. In FY24, their AUM had doubled to Rs 2,700 crore.

He added that while the overall unsecured loan industry is expected to grow at 20% for the larger digital lenders, who are anywhere from Rs 4,000-15,000 crores in AUM, a 30-50% annual growth rate is very sustainable. 

Kissht, like other digital lenders in the unsecured lending space, is navigating through the RBI’s increased scrutiny on unsecured loans over the past year. “The relationship between the digital lending industry and the RBI normalised in the latter part of last year, as there is now a broad consensus on what constitutes a healthy and quality digital lending business in India,” Vishwanathan said in an interaction with Fe.

During the first half of fiscal 2025, OnEMI’s AUM moderated to Rs 2,707 crore, as the group discontinued its short-term product and increased focus towards longer-tenured and higher-ticket size loans, according to a Crisil Ratings report published in January.

Vishwanathan added that loans with a tenure of six months or higher are now 98% of the business. The company has also made a segue into secured lending last year by offering loans against properties, which he believes is a segment that is ripe for disruption.

“Today, 50% of our unsecured loan customers are small business owners or self-employed individuals who own properties eligible for a loan against property (LAP) but are unaware of it. This makes it easier for us to serve this segment with the right financial awareness and guidance,” he said.

Founded by Vishwanathan and Ranvir Singh in 2015, Kissht offers unsecured loans to salaried and self-employed individuals. The firm is backed by investors such as Vertex Ventures, Endiya Partners, Trifecta Capital, and Innoven Capital, among others. In FY24, OnEMI Technologies reported a net profit of Rs 197 crore on a total income of around Rs 1,700 crore.

Kissht is among the earlier wave of fintech companies in the digital lending space, which is now crowded with players such as KreditBee, CASHe, Fibe, Stashfin, and MoneyTap, among others. However, Vishwanathan added that for companies starting out in the unsecured digital lending space today, the entry barriers are higher.

While competition is a factor, the bigger challenge is the capital-intensive nature of lending. Early-stage lenders typically face losses as their underwriting models evolve, but unlike before, they can no longer compensate by charging higher interest rates, he said.

This makes it essential to have deep-pocketed equity backers willing to absorb losses to the tune of Rs 500-800 crore before building profitability. As a result, poorly capitalised digital lending startups will struggle, not due to market saturation, but because of the challenging unit economics of this space today.

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