Neobanking company Fi’s revival hinges on its credit offerings

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Over the past few months, the company has been changing its user acquisition model to focus mainly on credit-worthy customers as it seeks to double down on the credit card and personal loan business, at least four people aware of the matter told ET.

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Internally, the company is experimenting with a new user onboarding flow called Fi Lite, where customers are not mandated to open a digital banking account anymore, rather they can directly opt for credit products. Fi Lite is not live to users yet.

When Fi was started by Sujith Narayanan and Sumit Gwalani, former Google Pay top executives, in 2019, it was positioned as a neobanking platform offering savings accounts of Federal Bank to users.
Last year, the Peak XV and Temasek-backed neobank diversified to offer investment options to users including mutual funds and peer-to-peer investments (with Liquiloans).

To expand its card base, Fi is planning to rejig its one- time joining fee of Rs 2,000 for credit card customers, in a bid to position itself as a mass product, the people cited above said.


However, lack of multiple credit partners on the supply side, a smaller base of creditworthy customers, reduction in user acquisition spends and depleting cash runway have led to significant obstructions for the fintech firm to fully execute its credit strategy, the people said.

In an all-hands meeting