Fibe’s next chapter: From personal loans to purpose-driven financing

For much of the past decade, personal loans have been at the heart of India’s rapidly evolving digital lending landscape. They have offered consumers quick access to flexible credit while allowing technology-led lenders to build large customer franchises across the country.

For Akshay Mehrotra, MD & Group CEO, and Ashish Goyal, Chairperson, Executive Director & Group CFO, the opportunity to build Fibe began with a closer look at how young professionals accessed credit and the gap between their aspirations and the financing available to them.

Founded in 2015, Fibe set out to make credit more accessible and convenient for this emerging customer segment. Over time, as consumer needs and financing journeys became more diverse, the company’s proposition evolved beyond its initial personal loan focus.

That evolution eventually took Fibe beyond personal loans and towards Purpose-Driven Financing (PDF), a model designed around financing specific consumption requirements.

Since 2021, Fibe has expanded its product portfolio to include PDF solutions embedded at the point of purchase across categories including education, insurance, healthcare, rooftop solar, travel and e-commerce.

While personal loans remain the foundation of Fibe’s business, the company offers them through organic channels, digital platforms and distribution partners, enabling it to reach customers across geographies. As of March 2026, personal loans continued to account for the majority of Fibe’s assets under management.

At the same time, Fibe’s lending portfolio has become more diversified, with PDF steadily gaining prominence alongside its established personal loan business. PDF’s share of total AUM increased from 14.30 per cent in FY24 to 20.39 per cent in FY25 and 22.62 per cent in FY26, reflecting the growing contribution of the business to Fibe’s overall platform.

The change is also visible in the composition of fresh disbursements. In FY26, 64 per cent of fresh disbursements came from personal loans and 36 per cent from Purpose-Driven Financing, compared with 74 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively, in FY24. The figures point to an important distinction: PDF is not replacing Fibe’s personal loan business but creating a second lending engine alongside it.

Speaking about the company’s strengths and growth, Mehrotra says: “Fibe is a technology-led consumer financing platform serving aspirational, young and digitally native customers through Personal Loans and Purpose-Driven Financing across consumption, education, insurance and healthcare. Our digital model leverages data analytics, AI and ML across customer acquisition, credit assessment, underwriting, servicing and collections.”

Bringing credit closer

The distinction between the two businesses is important. Personal loans provide consumers with flexible credit for their financial needs. Purpose-Driven Financing offers financing solutions for specific end-use purposes, with credit embedded at the point of purchase across multiple consumption categories.

Under PDF, Fibe works with merchants and service providers to embed financing into the purchase journey. A customer accessing an education programme, healthcare service, insurance product, travel offering or rooftop solar solution can encounter financing as part of that transaction rather than having to seek a separate loan independently.

This merchant-led model has become an important part of Fibe’s distribution strategy. By March 2026, its network had expanded to more than 10,387 merchant touchpoints across India, spanning universities, skill development platforms, insurance companies, hospital chains, wellness centres and specialised service providers.

The approach also provides Fibe with another route to reach customers. Instead of relying entirely on conventional digital acquisition, the company can access consumers through the ecosystems in which their financing needs arise. In FY26, approximately 47.49 per cent of new customer acquisition was driven by the PDF vertical, compared with approximately 24.01 per cent in FY24. These customers were acquired at zero customer acquisition cost. PDF has therefore become not just a lending product but also an important customer acquisition and distribution channel for Fibe.

The relationship between Fibe’s two lending businesses extends beyond initial customer acquisition. A customer who first enters the Fibe ecosystem through a PDF transaction can subsequently become a personal loan customer. This cross-selling opportunity has developed over time, with personal loan AUM originating from customers initially acquired through PDF increasing from R51.96 crore in FY24 to R272.24 crore as of March 2026.

This creates a complementary dynamic between the two businesses. PDF can bring Fibe into a customer’s financial journey at a specific point of need, while personal loans can allow the relationship to continue beyond that initial transaction.

In this way, the two businesses work together across different stages of the customer’s financing journey: one anchored around a specific purchase or service, and the other providing flexible credit for broader financial requirements. This is also supported by Fibe’s customer-led model, with repeat borrowing continuing to contribute significantly to AUM. In FY25, 83.92 per cent of borrowers who were eligible for a repeat loan after closing their previous loans availed themselves of another loan within 12 months. Customers acquired through the PDF vertical also provide a source of subsequent cross-selling into personal loans.

A broader view

Fibe’s expansion into PDF also reflects the company’s broader approach to consumer financing. Its target customer base includes young working professionals and aspirational customers, while its product portfolio now spans both flexible personal credit and financing linked to specific consumption categories.

Education, healthcare, insurance, travel, e-commerce and rooftop solar represent different consumption journeys, but each can create a distinct financing requirement. Through merchant relationships and financing solutions around these categories, Fibe is positioning credit closer to the underlying transaction. This gives the company a broader proposition centred on the consumer rather than a single loan product, complemented by a wider product portfolio that includes loans against mutual funds, co-branded credit cards, third-party fixed deposits and third-party insurance products.

The company’s technology-led operating model supports customer acquisition, credit assessment, underwriting, loan processing, servicing, fraud management and collections. AI, machine learning and data science are used across key parts of the lending lifecycle.

This technology layer becomes particularly important as Fibe operates across different products, customer segments and distribution channels. Its proprietary credit models use more than 27,500 variables, while its technology ecosystem includes systems supporting loan origination, loan management, fraud detection and collections.

Fibe has also integrated AI into its internal operations through Fibe Sense, a suite comprising Fibe GPT, Fibe Mind and an AI engineering agent. These tools support internal productivity, data analysis, management decision-making and software development.

The technology infrastructure therefore acts as the common layer connecting Fibe’s products, customers and distribution channels.

The changing shape of the business reflects a gradual broadening of Fibe’s activities rather than a shift away from personal loans. Personal loans continue to represent the larger share of the company’s portfolio, while PDF’s contribution has increased steadily, supported by the expansion of its merchant network and its point-of-sale financing model.

PDF contributed approximately 10.03 per cent of total disbursements in FY24, rising to 15.25 per cent in FY25 and 19.29 per cent in FY26.

Taken together, these trends show how PDF has become an increasingly important part of Fibe’s overall business, both in terms of portfolio contribution and customer acquisition. The evolution is therefore not simply about adding another product. It reflects a broader change in how Fibe acquires customers, distributes credit and participates in their financial journeys.

Fibe’s evolution reflects a broader transformation in digital consumer finance. The first phase of digital lending was largely about making traditional credit more accessible and convenient through technology. An increasingly important next phase is about embedding credit into the ecosystems where consumers already study, travel, access healthcare, purchase insurance, shop or make other consumption decisions.

Fibe’s expansion from personal loans into Purpose-Driven Financing places the company within this evolution. Its two businesses now perform complementary roles: personal loans provide flexible credit and remain the larger part of the franchise, while PDF enables Fibe to participate directly in specific consumption journeys through merchant-led distribution.

The significance lies in the combination. Fibe is building a model in which personal lending, point-of-sale financing, merchant distribution, digital acquisition and repeat customer engagement work together as interconnected parts of the same consumer financing platform.

The figures illustrate how that platform is evolving. PDF’s share of total AUM increased from 14.30 per cent in FY24 to 22.62 per cent in FY26, while its share of fresh disbursements increased from 26 per cent in FY24 to 36 per cent in FY26.

Speaking about Fibe’s financial performance, Ashish Goyal, Chairperson, Executive Director & Group CFO, says: “Our consistent growth in AUM and disbursements, alongside improving profitability, reflects the strength and scalability of our business model. We remain focused on delivering sustainable growth while maintaining financial discipline and strengthening our credit profile.”