Oct 16, 2021 · 24m · top-founders
India Fintech + SaaS Zero to $60k MRR in 3 Months Helping SMB's Fund Inventory
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Nathan Latka interviews Anubhav Jain, co-founder and CEO of Rupify, exploring how the Indian B2B fintech platform scaled monthly loan disbursements to $7.5 million and generated $60,000 in monthly net revenue through embedded zero-cost inventory financing for micro-enterprises.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 39.7% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Nathan as informed peer 5.7 Guest teaching 3.4 Guest disagreement 0.9 Nathan pushing back 2.4
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 14:56 Anubhav demurs on disclosing exact valuation
When Nathan probes for the exact pre-Series A valuation multiple, Anubhav firmly declines to disclose the number directly, citing only standard Series A ranges.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 23:29 Nathan clarifies and restates the misunderstood promptAfter Anubhav misunderstands the rapid-fire question about what he wished he knew at 20, Nathan interrupts to clarify the question rather than accepting an unrelated tangent.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 20:31 Anubhav explains SMB retention dynamics and stickinessAnubhav educates Nathan on the lending cohort curve, demonstrating that while churn occurs in months one through three, users who stay past 90 days exhibit almost zero subsequent churn.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 18:58 Nathan analyzes annualized APR yields on short-cycle creditNathan demonstrates high-level credit finance expertise by rapidly annualizing a 2% 15-day facility into a 48% effective APR and challenging Rupify's balance sheet strategy.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rupify's Business Model and Zero-Cost Financing | 6 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Nathan seeks to understand the mechanics of zero-cost merchant financing, prompting Anubhav to explain that merchants pay a supplier fee rather than the buyer paying interest. Nathan works through the unit economics using a banana store example. | |
| Scaling Volume to $7.5M and Marketplace Partnerships | 6 | 3 | 0 | 2 | Anubhav shares their rapid scale to $7.5M in monthly loan volume, and Nathan rapidly breaks down the 60/40 revenue split with balance sheet partners to calculate net revenue of $60k per month. | |
| Sponsor Break: Flatfile Data Onboarding Platform | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Following the mid-episode sponsor read, Nathan asks about customer data ownership and long-term expansion plans, with Anubhav explaining their omni-channel offline BNPL rollout. | |
| Funding Journey, Valuation, and Venture Debt Facility | 7 | 4 | 2 | 4 | Nathan presses on round valuations and Indian venture debt norms, calculating dilution and estimating pre-money valuations while Anubhav keeps the exact figures directional. | |
| Lending Economics, Balance Sheet Strategy, and Team | 8 | 4 | 1 | 4 | Nathan highlights the mathematical leverage in short-term financing, calculating that a 2% fee on 15-day turnover equates to a 48% annualized return and questioning why they do not hold debt directly. | |
| Retention Dynamics and the Transition Toward SaaS | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Anubhav breaks down SMB churn curves, explaining how retention stabilizes after month three, while Nathan probes their plans to layer a SaaS subscription model onto embedded fintech. | |
| Rapid-Fire Questions and Founder Insights | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | During rapid-fire questions, a brief comprehension mix-up occurs regarding lessons learned at age 20 before Nathan re-explains the prompt and delivers the recap. |
Statements from this episode (19)
Rupify operates an off-balance-sheet marketplace model for SME lending
“We are a managed marketplace. So this is not set on our balance sheet. We work with a lot of banks and non-bank institutions across the country where we have a revenue and a risk sharing arrangement with them so that we onboard these customers. We provide the …”
Rupify has transacted with approximately 25,000 small businesses
“So as of today, we have close to around 25,000 odd small businesses that have transacted with us.”
Rupify grew over 200% month-on-month during the previous quarter
“We, we've been growing at more than 200% month on month for the last quarter or so.”
Rupify approves average $1,000 credit lines with $150 average transaction sizes
“So an average credit line that we approve for these small businesses is something of the order of a thousand dollars, right? And that thousand dollars they utilize over multiple transactions. So the average transaction size for us can be as low as 150 dollars.”
Rupify offers zero-cost credit to retailers on 14-to-60-day terms
“So this is a very short tenure transaction. It's typically for like, 14 days, 30 days, maximum 60 days. And we make money through the supplier. So it's a zero percent interest or a zero cost credit to the retailer.”
Rupify facilitated nearly $7.5M in lending volume in September 2021
“So so we've done close to seven and a half million dollars of lending this month in September.”
Rupify expected to double monthly lending in October 2021
“And it's festive season coming up in India next month. So we're looking to almost again, double this in October.”
Rupify is deployed across all Indian Walmart stores and Flipkart B2B
“So we work with the Flipkart Walmart group. So all the Walmart stores in India, we are present today. I see. Entire Flipkart e-commerce platform on the B to B side, we are present today.”
Rupify disbursed $7.5M in monthly loans to roughly 15,000 SMBs
“That must be around 15 or a thousand.”
Rupify is launching offline BNPL for physical point-of-sale purchases
“So we are now launching an offline BNPL as well. So we want to be omnichannel.”
Rupify raised an under $1M pre-seed and a $4M pre-Series A
“That was a little less than a million. And earlier this year, we raised a pre-series A that was around four million dollars.”
Rupify diluted 10% to 15% at its idea-stage pre-seed round
“Again that was also at an idea stage with not a single line of code written. So between 10 to 15% dilution there.”
Rupify's three co-founders split their equity equally
“Yeah. It's a, it's an equal split between the three of us.”
Indian startups typically raise 25% of their equity round in venture debt
“So we raised a four million equity and in India, it's a, when you raise X equity, you get 25% of that in venture debt. So this is a million venture debt.”
Rupify gave roughly 1% in warrants for its venture debt facility
“No, we were in the, yeah, in the one percent range.”
On-balance-sheet lending would add 300 to 400 bps in capital costs
“If I were to do this with my own balance sheet, it would have been at least 300 to 400 basis points higher in terms of math.”
Rupify's monthly SME borrower retention is 80% to 85%
“So we keep on looking at how many of the active transacting SMEs transacted again next month. That number for us is around 80, 85%.”
Rupify's borrower churn stabilizes completely after the first three months
“Churn typically happens in three months. After that we don't see much churn. So let's say I acquire you today. There will be a 10, 15% churn month two and another 10, 15% month three and month four. So that three months we'll see a churn, but after that, the p…”