Flyhi loans will be fully digital and paperless, accessible via a 5-minute web based application process, and administered through a network of partnered institutes.
Choice International Limited has invested $0.75M in Flyhi Financial Services Ltd.’s seed capital round, valuing the company at $6.75M. Flyhi is a tech-forward, customer-first, and asset-lite NBFC focused on bridging the financial gaps in India’s burgeoning education sector.
Flyhi will provide personalized and highly affordable education lending products, ranging from loans for K-12 schooling and coaching classes to flexible funding options for higher education, professional and vocational skill development. Flyhi loans will be fully digital and paperless, accessible via a 5-minute web based application process, and administered through a network of partnered institutes.
India’s K-12 education sector is the largest in the world, seeing 253 million enrollments. As per various industry reports, this number is expected to rise to 325 million by the end of 2023-2024. Similarly, education spending in the subcontinent is projected to rise to USD 200bn by 2022-23, growing at an 18% CAGR. These factors create an attractive opportunity for education lending and related ed-tech businesses, today and in the coming years.
“We at Choice group provide one stop shop for all the “Financial Services“ products including Equity & Commodity Broking Services, Portfolio Management Services, Mutual Fund Distribution Services, Capital Advisory, Merchant Banking Services, Non- Banking Financial Services. To multiply our scope in the same sector, the group has always been keen on investing in various growth avenues as a part of their “in-organic” growth strategy and in order to continue such growth initiatives, our holding company M/s. Choice International Limited has invested in “Flyhi” which is a theme based “NBFC” majorly focusing on Educational Loans.
Despite a surge in the number of lenders in the education space, market penetration is still very low and there remains a huge demand. Education is the backbone of any country and Flyhi will be a core part of our growth strategy in this space. Providing study loans to aspiring people will complement our existing initiatives around increasing financial literacy and enabling financial independence through our Investment distribution business. We firmly believe that, together with Flyhi, we can make quality education truly affordable for the masses.” said Mr. Kamal Poddar, Managing Director, Choice Group.
Brijesh Parnami, Founder & CEO of Flyhi Financial Services Ltd. said “We are delighted to announce our foray into the education lending business. Choice Group is a great strategic partner, enabling us to leverage huge growth synergies to build a highly sustainable venture around our common vision. This maiden fundraising round will facilitate the rapid development of our infrastructure across technology, risk, operations, and marketing, significantly advancing our go-to-market trajectory.”
On the road ahead for Flyhi, Parnami further commented, “We aim to democratize and make accessible India’s finest educational avenues. We hope to achieve this through our deeply user-centric core values and technology-first approach. We want to create a meaningful impact in the lives of millions of parents, students, and working professionals and serve as a catalyst in their journey towards realizing their true potential. By offering a quick, paperless solution that incorporates a wide range of ticket sizes and a flexible repayment schedule, we want to help people move past EMI burdens and focus on what is most important. After all, if consumer durables can be financed at 0% interest, so can education loans.”
A 21+ year veteran of the finance industry, Brijesh Parnami has worked at various renowned corporations, including Standard Chartered, GE Capital, HDFC Bank, Destimoney and Essel Finance. In that time, he has built several large and profitable businesses from scratch. In 2019, he turned towards entrepreneurship, acquiring Essel Finance’s wealth and Insurance distribution businesses and rebranded them as CentCart. In the two and a half years since, he has acquired an NBFC license (Flyhi Financial Services Ltd.), made CentCart profitable, and divested its wealth distribution arm, selling it to Choice Group.
Moving forward, Parnami plans to focus solely on Flyhi’s NBFC business, steering it forward into the education lending space.
Source: Business World
