Bhasker Kode
Founder/CEO
Bon Credit
Bon is a digital lending start-up that provides micro-credit for the gig economy that tend towards temporary contractors and freelancers instead of full-time employees. These include professions such as radio taxi drivers, as well as freelance writers/ data scientists etc. Bon follows a b2b2c strategy, under which it has tie-ups with corporates and market places such as Swiggy that employs contract workers. Majority of Bon’s target customers have variable income and do not have a credit score and hence cannot apply for traditional personal loan or credit card.
Bon Card aims to fill-in the everyday ‘working capital’ need for professionals in flexible/contract work employment. To make it suitable for the sector, Bon Card has following features:
- Simple Application process: since Bon has a b2b2c model, any applicant working with a partner firms needs to provide just an identification proof and basic income details.
- Bon score card makes it inclusive: Bon has developed its own score card that they use to determine the credit limit for each customer. Amongst other features, the frequency of use and repayment on BonCard determines the Bon Scores. For customers who have low or no credit score, the BonScore eventually helps them in improving their overall credit score as well. The scores are updated every 100 hours.
- Credit cycle corresponds to the customer’s income cycle: Bon links the repayment cycle to the actual income cycles of the customers- ranging from weekly, fortnightly to monthly. Linking repayment to actual income cycle,makes it easy and convenient for customers to repay.
- Limited Merchant access: BonCard can technically be used at any POS machine that MasterCard or Visa, however to ensure the card is used only for work related expenses, Bon uses its backend technology to limit the transactions to work expenses. For e.g. petrol pumps and toll for radio taxi drivers. Customers are made aware of the same at the time of signing up for the Card.
