Committed to bring about a positive social impact and true financial inclusion through lending at the convergence of retail and digital payments, NeoGrowth is among the very few fintech NBFCs to have objectively measured and presented the direct and indirect social impact that they have created.
NeoGrowth, India’s leading digital lender serving underbanked SME businesses, has released the Social Impact Report of 2019, with an objective to measure and evaluate the impact created in the lives of its customers. Committed to bring about a positive social impact and true financial inclusion through lending at the convergence of retail and digital payments, NeoGrowth is among the very few fintech NBFCs to have objectively measured and presented the direct and indirect social impact that they have created. A random sample of 159 customers from NeoGrowth’s base of over 10,000 live customers from cities including Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Lucknow, and Chandigarh were selected for the research and on-field interviews.
The report revealed some interesting insights into the instrumental role played by NeoGrowth in addressing some of the major issues concerning the society. For instance, according to the report, over 35% of the total merchants surveyed were first-time borrowers who had not pursued any other financing option prior to availing loan from NeoGrowth. Moreover, a remarkable count of 80% of the merchants surveyed were revealed to be first-generation entrepreneurs, suggesting how NeoGrowth has been serving even those businesses that are considered ‘risky’ propositions otherwise.
NeoGrowth has also been spearheading the vision of true gender equality in the digital lending segment. In fact, 12% of the total disbursements by NeoGrowth for the year 2017-18 were towards businesses that were run by women either as sole proprietors, partners or directors. These figures indicate how NeoGrowth has been actively leading the charge in bringing about women empowerment and promoting entrepreneurship. Further, NeoGrowth continues to lend in Tier-II cities with 17% of the total disbursements during FY2018-19 originating from these cities. All these figures indicate how NeoGrowth has been actively involved in driving financial inclusion in India.
