High-Level Overview
ClickPe (also known as DailyPe) is a fintech startup building a digital lending marketplace for small business owners, particularly micro-entrepreneurs and small shop owners across India. The company’s core product is a tech-enabled platform that offers business loans with flexible repayment structures—most notably daily installments—making credit more accessible and manageable for daily-income earners. ClickPe does not lend directly but operates as a marketplace, connecting borrowers with regulated lenders such as banks and NBFCs, including The Surat People’s Co-operative Bank and Muthoot FinCorp.
ClickPe serves small merchants, kirana stores, and informal-sector entrepreneurs who struggle with traditional loan products that require large monthly EMIs and extensive documentation. By enabling small, frequent repayments (often auto-debited from digital wallets), the platform reduces default risk, improves cash flow management, and helps borrowers build credit history. Since its launch in 2022, ClickPe has gained early traction as a bootstrapped company based in Surat, backed by Y Combinator (W23 batch), and is expanding its footprint across Gujarat and Rajasthan with ambitions to scale pan-India.
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Origin Story
ClickPe was founded in 2022 by Saurabh Gupta and Shashwat Shrikhande, both alumni of IIT Kharagpur, who met during their college years and later reunited around a shared vision to transform small business lending in India. Drawing inspiration from informal credit systems like “khandi udhar” (small, frequent loans common in local markets), they identified a critical gap: while millions of small vendors earn daily, formal credit products are structured around monthly EMIs, creating mismatched cash flows and high stress.
The founders launched ClickPe (branded as DailyPe) to digitize and formalize this daily lending model, using technology to automate collections, underwriting, and risk monitoring. Their early insight—that daily repayment reduces defaults and improves lender visibility into borrower behavior—became the foundation of their lending-tech platform. Joining Y Combinator’s Winter 2023 batch provided global validation, access to networks, and resources to refine their product and go-to-market strategy. From a small team in Surat, ClickPe has grown into a focused lending marketplace with live partnerships with regulated financial institutions.
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Core Differentiators
Daily Repayment Model
- Loans structured around small daily installments align with the cash flow patterns of small merchants and daily-wage entrepreneurs.
- Auto-debit from digital wallets reduces delinquency and builds consistent repayment behavior.
Marketplace Lending Architecture
- Acts as a tech layer between small borrowers and regulated lenders (banks/NBFCs), enabling faster disbursals and better risk segmentation.
- Provides lenders with early warning signals—collection data from day one helps detect potential defaults much earlier than traditional 30–90-day cycles.
Focus on Underserved Micro-Businesses
- Targets small shop owners, street vendors, and micro-entrepreneurs often excluded from formal credit due to lack of collateral or credit history.
- Simplified onboarding and minimal documentation lower barriers to entry.
Tech-Driven Risk & Collections Engine
- Built-in underwriting and risk analytics tailored for thin-file or no-credit-history borrowers.
- Real-time collection tracking allows dynamic portfolio management and faster feedback loops for lenders.
Regulatory & Partnership Strength
- Partnerships with RBI-registered institutions (e.g., Surat People’s Co-operative Bank, Muthoot FinCorp) ensure compliance and credibility.
- Transparent disclosure of loan terms, interest rates, and partner details builds trust with borrowers.
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Role in the Broader Tech Landscape
ClickPe is riding the convergence of three powerful trends in Indian fintech: the rise of lending tech (lending infrastructure platforms), the push for financial inclusion of micro-businesses, and the digitization of small merchants’ operations. As India’s UPI and digital wallet adoption has exploded, millions of small vendors now have digital transaction trails—data that ClickPe leverages to assess creditworthiness where traditional banks see risk.
The timing is critical: post-pandemic, small businesses are more open to digital finance, and regulators are encouraging innovation in responsible lending. ClickPe’s daily repayment model taps into the behavioral economics of small-income earners, making it easier to adopt credit without fear of large lump-sum payments. In doing so, the company is helping to formalize informal credit practices and build a new layer of credit infrastructure for the next wave of India’s digital economy.
By enabling lenders to serve high-volume, low-ticket loans with better risk control, ClickPe is contributing to a more efficient, data-driven SME lending ecosystem. Its model could influence how NBFCs and banks design products for micro-businesses, potentially shifting the industry toward more frequent, smaller repayments as a standard.
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Quick Take & Future Outlook
ClickPe is well-positioned to become a key player in India’s micro-SME lending stack, especially as the country pushes toward a more inclusive, digital-first financial system. The next phase will likely involve scaling the borrower base beyond Gujarat and Rajasthan, deepening lender partnerships, and enhancing its underwriting engine with richer alternative data (e.g., UPI flows, utility payments, and supply chain patterns).
Looking ahead, trends like embedded finance, AI-driven risk models, and the growth of fintech-as-a-service could allow ClickPe to expand beyond loans—potentially into working capital advances, insurance, and even embedded investment products for small businesses. If it maintains its focus on product simplicity, regulatory compliance, and real borrower utility, ClickPe has the potential to redefine how small entrepreneurs access credit in India.
Just as “khandi udhar” once kept local economies running, ClickPe aims to do the same—with data, automation, and scale—turning daily micro-repayments into a powerful engine for financial inclusion.
