Urban Money Aims 30,000 Cr Loans FY24
Urban Money, the fintech and mortgage‑distribution arm of Square Yards, positions itself as a lender‑agnostic marketplace that addresses the transparency gap in India’s home‑loan ecosystem. The press release explains that while India has ample home‑loan lenders, borrowers often receive conflicting “lowest rate” claims from individual bank relationship managers and Direct Selling Agents (DSAs) whose compensation structures are opaque. This can lead to borrowers accepting offers that are not the most favorable for their financial profile.
The platform begins its process by capturing the borrower’s financial profile and instantly presenting every eligible option—including interest rates, processing charges, tenure, documentation requirements, and turnaround time—before any application is filed. Urban Money’s AI‑based eligibility engine matches borrowers to compatible lenders in seconds, a task that traditionally takes days with manual checks.
Operational scale: Urban Money works with over 100 lending partners spanning banks, housing finance companies, and NBFCs. It operates across roughly 150‑250 cities through more than 580 branches and supports upward of 200,000 customer transactions each year. In FY23 the platform facilitated close to Rs 15,000 crore in home‑loan disbursements and has set a target of Rs 30,000 crore for FY24. The company was founded in 2014 and is described by Square Yards co‑founder and CEO Tanuj Shori as having built the country’s largest mortgage marketplace.
The release highlights that loan rejections often occur after weeks of paperwork, even when borrowers meet the basic credit‑score threshold of CIBIL 700‑750. Additional underwriting criteria include a Fixed Obligation to Income Ratio (FOIR) of roughly under 50%, as well as documentation and property‑title checks. By checking a borrower’s profile against live criteria of multiple lenders simultaneously, Urban Money can identify mismatches—such as a FOIR that satisfies one lender but not another—before a hard credit inquiry is made, thereby saving borrowers time and protecting their credit file.
Leadership perspective: Amit Prakash, Co‑founder and Chief Business Officer of Urban Money, frames the shift as one of borrower confidence rather than mere access, emphasizing the need for transparency, genuine choice, and clear justification for why a particular home loan is suitable. The platform’s borrower‑first approach aims to enable informed decisions rather than defaulting to the first recommendation presented.
Overall, the press release underscores Urban Money’s ambition to double its home‑loan disbursement volume in FY24, leveraging technology‑driven comparisons to enhance borrower confidence and mitigate the opacity inherent in traditional bank‑centric and DSA‑driven loan recommendation models.