Saw EarlySalary (Fibe) doing another round of secured NCDs, so putting down what I found while going through their KID and rating note.
This is the same EarlySalary app that gives small-ticket personal loans/EMI loans to salaried individuals. Mostly ₹10k–₹1.5 lakh kind of loans, short tenure, urban borrower base. Seems like they’ve scaled pretty fast over the last few years.
The NCD in question is the one with 10.70% monthly payout, maturity around Aug 2027, and rating CARE A- Stable. Minimum application is ₹1 crore so obviously not retail-friendly, but for research purposes still worth understanding how the business is doing.
A few things stood out:
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The NCD is secured, backed by their loan receivables. Given they lend very short-tenure loans, the underlying book keeps rotating every 45–120 days, so security cover moves constantly.
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There’s a corporate guarantee from the parent entity (Social Worth Tech).
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There’s a condition that the two founders (Akshay & Ashish) must remain in control. Didn’t expect that but interesting to see it written into the terms in the document.
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Step-up coupon if the rating is downgraded.
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Proceeds are allowed only for onward lending and refinancing existing debt (standard NBFC stuff).
Didn’t find very detailed financials in these docs, but a few things worth calling out:
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These short-tenure consumer lenders need consistent refinancing because loans churn every month. So ability to raise debt in cycles is critical.
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Profitability historically hasn’t been very high (margin business, heavy marketing spend, etc.).
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Borrower segment is slightly riskier — young professionals with limited credit history.
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On the plus side, collection efficiency for this segment is usually high in good times.
My only concern is we haven’t seen how their book behaves in a genuine slowdown. The GNPA data in the public domain isn’t alarming, but small-ticket personal loans typically spike quickly when job markets tighten.
Their rating letter does mention comfortable liquidity and adequate provisioning, but the challenge with these models is always scale vs risk: if growth continues too fast, underwriting quality becomes a question. If growth slows too much, cost ratios run up.
Also curious how they compare with peers like KreditBee, MoneyView, StashFin etc. since all of them target the same customer.
If anyone here has more updated numbers — AUM, GNPA, Stage-2, disbursement trends — please share. This is one of those businesses where the trend matters more than the absolute numbers.