In 2019, the consumer products to real estate major Godrej Group launched a sustainable retail financial services business called Godrej Capital. The company combined its HFC license (Housing Finance Company) with its NBFC license (Non-Banking Financial Company) to launch Godrej Capital. Currently, the company offers a diverse range of financial solutions, including Home loans, Loans Against Property, and Business loans. Says Nalin Jain, CMO, Godrej Capital, “The first thing that people taking the loan this about is payment of EMIs. From Day one, this became our core proposition – initially with the home loan customers and then with MSMEs – is to solve the flexibility in the way we lend and also in the way in which the customers repay us. That’s been the ethos of everything we do, whether it is product, policy or innovation, everything revolves around the word flexibility for us
Despite being a late entrant to the lending ecosystem Godrej Capital has also been able to leverage the 127-years legacy of the Godrej Industries Group. Jain says that it is the rich legacy of the group that evokes the value of trust and excellence among customers and helps build a connect.
He further says, “The legacy of the Group plays a very important role and we leverage it daily. It's a part of our branding. One of the initial campaigns that we did, after the launch of Godrej Capital, was with the stand-up comedian Rahul Subramaniam. This had the line, ‘Godrej ka Hai’ to draw the attention to the legacy of the Godrej Group.” The company’s campaign, ‘Hum samajthe Hai’ was based on the insight that consumers want a trusted partner and the campaign also evokes the value of being a trusted partner. Talking about the brand’s latest campaign ‘Iss Loan Mai Load Nahi’, Jain says, “Based on the insight that customers wanted flexibility on loan repayment, we did an innovation. We came out with design your EMIs for the self-employed where you only pay the interest and take an EMI holiday by not paying the principal for some time. For example, you need additional money during festivals to stock up, and post the festival season when you have extra cash loan, you pay us back.” The company has also launched the Nirman platform for the SMEs and MSMEs sector, which is the focus area for Godrej Capital. Nirman provides the smaller SMEs and MSMEs with opportunities – such as training, consultancy, guidance in compliance, tax laws etc. - so that they can grow. Jain says, “To address the missing piece we created a platform called Nirman – an ecosystem-based platform. We tie up with partners who can provide any kind of service to these MSMEs. The MSMEs can choose whatever service they want directly with the partners. We've developed an ecosystem for the partner or the MSMEs to grow. When the MSMEs grow, they will become more creditworthiness.”
Currently, Godrej Capital is present in 41 cities (53 offices) and covers around 180 markets in and around these cities. Says Jain, “In the near term, we are looking at expanding to about 100 physical cities.” The company is also looking to enter the affordable housing space. Commenting on growth drivers, Jain says, “MSMEs is our focus segment and will be a big growth driver. We will continue to innovate on flexibility, on products to support this growth, and see how we can innovatively lend to the MSMEs. How do we figure out their credit worthiness? Is there a way we can help them in their growth so that they become more credit worthy and drive growth for us.”
At the moment, Godrej Capital’s AUM (Assets under Management) stands at approximately about Rs 12,000 crore, of which about Rs 5,000 crore is in home loans and about Rs 7,000 crore in MSMEs. Off the Rs 7,000 crore in the MSME segment, it is split between loans against property and unsecured business loans. Looking ahead, the goal is to be around Rs 17,000 crore to Rs 18,000 crore by end of this financial year.
