ZestMoney的1.25亿美元BNPL豪赌以关闭和DMI困境出售告终

做的是什么生意

Buy-now-pay-later lender offering digital EMIs and personal loans at ecommerce and offline checkout points across India, backed by Prosus, Quona, Zip, and Omidyar.

启动资金：$125M+ in debt and equity

起因

Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma, and Ashish Anantharaman founded ZestMoney in 2015 to offer buy-now-pay-later loans at ecommerce and offline checkout points in India. By September 2021 it had raised more than $125M in debt and equity — including a $50M round at a $455M valuation — from investors including Prosus, Quona Capital, Zip, Omidyar Network, and Ribbit Capital.

经过

India's BNPL wave broke when the RBI tightened digital-lending rules, capped first-loss default guarantees at 5%, and raised risk weights on unsecured consumer credit. ZestMoney's biggest partner, Prosus-owned PayU, stopped powering its digital EMI; acquisition talks with PhonePe failed; and the founders quit in May 2023 after the company cut 20% of staff in April. A $4M–5M round from existing investors did not materialize.

结果

At a town hall on December 5, 2023, employees were told operations would wind down by the end of the month and to stay home from December 7. A few weeks later, DMI Group acquired ZestMoney in a distress sale, taking exclusive rights to the Zest brands and making DMI Finance the preferred lender on the BNPL platform.

可借鉴之处

一个热门类别和高估值并不能保护信贷业务免受监管的影响：当风险权重规则改变无担保贷款的盈利模型时，合作伙伴和投资者都会离开。