Mlakshmi

mLakshmi is a mobile credit and payments startup that received a Grand Challenges Explorations award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. mLakshmi works with Kirana Stores (grocery merchants) to make credit available to their customers for purchases of household items. Only 20 million Indians have credit cards. This low number is a result not only of a lack of technology infrastructure that can support credit cards as designed today but also a lack of clarity of the credit worthiness of consumers. At "Kirana Stores", grocery merchants almost always extend credit to their regular customers, maintaining the outstanding balance in a "Khata", many times maintained only in memory. mLakshmi rewards merchants for extending mLakshmi’s credit to customers. mLakshmi tracks customer’s credit history and makes higher credit lines available to customers with good repayment histories. The service is enabled exclusively through mobile technologies. There is zero new investment and usage cost for the merchant. mLakshmi reduces the merchant’s credit risk and also increases revenue from the transaction fee.