Airtel announces plans to double the size of its finance platform

Telecom company Airtel has said that it will invest upto ₹20,000 crore into a non banking financial services company arm, with 70 per cent of its own money and the rest from its promoter Bharti Enterprises.

The company claims to have disbursed over ₹9,000 crore in loans so far, while managing to keep delinquencies low.

“We have built one of India’s most trusted and scalable digital credit engines—reaching millions with high-quality credit supported by industry-best performance metrics,” said Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice Chairman, Bharti Airtel, in a press release. The company’s digital strength is supported by a data and analytics team of over 500 data scientists.

Airtel Money received its NBFC licence from the Reserve Bank of India on 13 February.

The company also runs Airtel Payments Bank which has had a licence to operate since 2016, having started out as an 80:20 partnership between Bharti Airtel and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Unlike small finance banks or full-service (universal) banks, payments banks have stricter rules and can’t lend money freely to customers.