Fintech startup Uni launches India’s longest interest-free credit product: Pay 1/3rd card
India’s first paylater card that automatically splits transactions into 1/3rd with no interest.
- Pay 1/3rd is an innovative product that offers the longest interest-free credit period
- Aims to solve the short-term liquidity issues for consumers without the burden of interest fees
- The Visa powered, Pay 1/3rd card is accepted by millions of merchants across the country
- Uni to target 1mn customers in the next 12 months
Fintech startup, Uni which is aiming to bring a range of differentiated credit products for Indian consumers, today announced the launch of its paylater card Pay 1/3rd. It is India’s longest interest-free credit product. The card automatically splits the transactions into 1/3rd allowing consumers to pay their monthly spends in 3 parts over 3 months for NO EXTRA charges. With Pay 1/3rd, Uni aims to intuitively solve the problem of short-term liquidity without burdening consumers with high-interest fees. It also offers customers the flexibility to ‘Pay in Full’ if they prefer not to pay in parts and in return, customers will enjoy a 1% reward in the form of cashback. Pay 1/3rd was piloted in June 2021 and, in less than two months, has already crossed 10,000 customers. In the next one year, the company is looking to target 1 million customers across India.
Backed by Lightspeed Ventures and Accel India, Uni is one of the few fintech companies in India to raise a significantly large seed round ($18.5Mn) last year in October 2020, while still in stealth mode. The co-founding team consists of seasoned fintech and financial services professionals, Nitin Gupta, Prateek Jindal and Laxmikant Vyas, who have rich experience in building paylater and credit products at PayU, Ola Financial Services and Bajaj Finserv respectively. The team collectively felt the need to develop superior financial products, especially in the paylater space which led them to launch the Pay 1/3rd card.
Commenting on the launch, Nitin Gupta, Founder & CEO, Uni said, “Long term credit period is a felt need. We moved from debit to credit cards as the 40-50 day extension seemed like a smarter solution to our payment needs. However, we believe extending this to 3 months is anything but natural if we want to make credit products more accessible and democratic. We aim to make Pay 1/3rd a lifestyle choice for our consumers. We want to provide utmost convenience and flexibility, and be maniacally focused on making the customer experience richer.”
Pay 1/3rd card is designed especially keeping the mobile generation in mind, who want a highly engaging, seamless, and transparent credit product. On Uni, a customer is instantly onboarded and will have complete transparency of their transactions with zero hidden fees. Currently, there is neither a joining fee nor annual charges. On the Pay 1/3rd app, one can track their spending in real-time, get a breakup of the spends made across categories and receive repayment alerts. Powered by Visa, Pay 1/3rd card is accepted at millions of merchants (both online and offline) across the country. The card can be used to order food, groceries, make e-commerce purchases or simply swipe the card at any offline outlet.
Commenting on the launch, T.R. Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, India and South Asia, Visa said, “With over 220 million credit eligible consumers, there is great potential for expanding access to credit through the adoption of innovative, pay later products, especially amongst a rapidly digitizing consumer base. We are excited to partner with Uni on the launch of the Pay 1/3rd card and on its larger mission to democratize credit and drive affordability in India.”
In the next 2 months, Uni is also expected to launch a direct bank transfer feature, enabling consumers to even pay their rent and school fees of their children. Consumers will also be able to choose affordable EMI plans if they need longer repayment tenures ranging from 6, 9, 12 to 18+ months. An in-app lifestyle store to redeem reward points is also on the anvil.