Peer-to-peer lending platform LenDen Club saw loan disbursals more than triple over the past year, climbing from `70-80 crore in April to around `250 crore now. This marks a sharp turnaround for the company, after months of disruption triggered by stricter Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulations in August, 2024.
“Current disbursal levels are slightly higher than pre-regulatory era,” Chief Executive Officer Bhavin Patel told FE. “After a few months of disruption following the new regulations, things stabilised by March-April last year, and with nine months of FY26 already behind us, the business is largely back to normal.”
The rebound comes after a turbulent period for the P2P lending industry, which was forced to overhaul its operating models. P2P platforms connect borrowers and lenders online, bypassing traditional institutions for direct transactions.
Under the revised guidelines, the RBI prohibited P2P lending platforms from taking on any credit risk, offering credit enhancement or guarantees, and from promoting peer-to-peer lending as an investment product with features such as assured returns, liquidity options, etc.
Operational Flow Changes
Patel noted that under the new framework, lenders have to manually authorise each borrower instead of allowing platforms to automatically deploy capital. Additionally, repayments should go directly to the lenders’ bank accounts on a T+1 settlement basis, often resulting in multiple small credits rather than a single consolidated transfer.
While it did not change the economics of the loan, the shift created psychological resistance among lenders wary of frequent bank entries and reconciliation concerns, he added. As a result, the company saw lender activity drop sharply after the regulations, with monthly active users falling to about 10% of current levels.
“Any shift in user behaviour, especially in a technology business, takes time to sink in when it involves changes to payment flows. Between September and December, we spent considerable time on the ground educating customers and explaining what the changes meant and why they were necessary,” Patel said.
Monthly active lenders have now rebounded to around 55,000-60,000, with an average ticket size of about `1.5 lakh. Delinquency levels are also improving and trending below the 4% projected for FY26. Its current asset under management stands at `1,259.6 crore.
Market Dominance Established
The new regulations also triggered an industry-wide consolidation, where several P2P platforms exited the market, leaving only a handful of active players. Patel estimates LenDen Club now commands about 95% of the market.
In FY25, the company’s parent Vartis Platforms reported a 28% year-on-year rise in revenue to `236 crore, and profit of `34 crore compared to a loss of `14 crore in FY24. The group company also has an instant personal loan app InstaMoney and a lending technology platform that helps banks, NBFCs and digital distributors integrate faster.