Home Credit India Partners With Pine Labs to Build Omnichannel Transactions Network

Home Credit India (HCI), a local arm of the global consumer finance company, is partnering with Pine Labs, which works with payments and merchant commerce, a report says.

This will enhance the access to the Home Credit Ujjwal Card’s digital equated monthly installment (EMI)-financing options, which will offer service to Pine Labs point-of-sale terminals around India.

The platform will allow Home Credit India to be integrated with those terminals and offer omnichannel connections.

That will provide more outlets where customers can transact and increase acceptance of the Ujjwal EMI card, as well as add potential customer acquisition for HCI with Pine Labs.

HCI will angle for customer loyalty, giving customers more access to large point-of-sale networks.

The report notes that EMI options have been surging in popularity as an enticing selling proposition for merchants who can convert a regular purchase into 3, 6, 9 or 12 month-EMI options.

The first phase will see Ujjwal EMI available at 18,000 stores with an introductory offer of flat 5% cashback on mobile purchases, consumer electronics and more.

“Our joint offering will bring more customers under the growing Buy Now, Pay Later category and help merchants drive sales through easy-to-avail and quick EMI offers during checkout,” said Mayur Mulani, business leader of Pay Later at Pine Labs.

Mulani added that Home Credit is “differently positioned in the way they give credit to a new to credit customer or customer who does not have a card or is not underwritten.”

“The analytical skills they bring to the table to underwrite a customer on the fly is something we have been looking for,” Mulani said.

Pine Labs is an Indian merchant platform dating back to 1998.

PYMNTS wrote that earlier this year, Pine Labs was reported to be buying Setu, an API infrastructure company, for over $70 million.

Related: FinTech Unicorn Pine Labs May Acquire Bangalore-based Setu