New Delhi [India], May 5 (ANI): GIFT-city based AvenuesAI Limited, a listed digital payments and fintech company, is pursuing an unconventional and deliberately cautious strategy to penetrate the nation's lucrative credit market, by strategic equity investments in multiple NBFCs (non-banking finance companies) over outright acquisitions, according to sources familiar with the company's plans.

The firm is looking to build a scalable lending ecosystem by picking minority stakes probably around sub 5-10% in multiple Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs). This 'liability-light' approach marks a significant divergence from the capital-intensive buyout strategies often seen in the sector. AvenuesAI did not respond to a request for comment.

According to sources with direct knowledge of the matter, the company has initiated structured conversations with advisory firms and prospective NBFC partners, with early-stage confidential presentations already circulated to a few investment bankers. The scouting, still at a preliminary stage, signals a deliberate move toward-- what management has internally branded as 'liability-light' business model -- a term that has caught the attention of senior figures in the merchant banking community.

'The standard industry parlance is 'asset-light,' but AvenuesAI management is deliberate in its use of 'liability-light',' said one source familiar with recent pitch meetings. 'The distinction matters, as they are explicitly signalling that financial sector liabilities will not sit on their balance sheet. They want to be the distribution layer -- the loan service provider, the digital front-end -- and nothing more.'

As per the presentation pitched to the merchant bankers, the groundwork, in part, is already laid for last couple of years by its 'express settlement' business. The company's payment gateway- CCAvenue's existing 'express settlement' feature -- which accelerates fund access for merchants -- has served as an early proof-of-concept for short-duration credit products. Formalising NBFC partnerships would allow the company to productise these capabilities into a regulated, scalable embedded finance suite.

The architecture being contemplated is structurally equivalent to Paytm's early credit business model. Under the framework, NBFC partners would supply the regulated capital lending and underwriting infrastructure to originate products such as working capital loans, invoice discounting, and instant settlement financing. AvenuesAI, in turn, would contribute its distribution muscle via its payment gateway business- CCAvenue merchant network, the Rediff consumer platform, and the RediffPay payments rail. The company owns the customer relationship and the transaction data, while the NBFC partners absorb the credit risk. Beyond distribution, AvenuesAI's strategic advantage lies in its control over merchant cash flows via its payments infrastructure--allowing it to embed credit directly into settlement cycles with superior underwriting visibility.

The contrast with MobiKwik is instructive. Where MobiKwik chose to secure its own NBFC licence and build proprietary lending capabilities, while companies like Paytm and AvenuesAI appear to be betting that the higher-value position in digital credit lending lies not in owning the book but in controlling the origination or distribution channel and selectively taking risk to generate profit pool.

It is a thesis that carries global precedent, where both Stripe LLC and Block Inc. (formerly Square Inc.) in the United States have scaled credit lending largely through bank partnerships, reserving their own capital for payments infrastructure and data assets. In China, Ant Group's forced retreat from balance sheet lending under regulatory pressure only reinforced the model's resilience.

For AvenuesAI, the strategic analysis is straightforward, by having minority equity stakes, it preserves capital flexibility, keeps itself outside lending entity regulation, and create alignment with NBFC partners without triggering liability. By taking small equity positions across multiple NBFCs, AvenuesAI could evolve into a multi-lender marketplace, optimising credit supply dynamically rather than relying on a single balance-sheet partner. The minority position also offers optionality, a potential pathway to deepen stakes or formalise exclusive arrangements as the credit business scales.

A recent joint ICRA-ASSOCHAM report projects India's credit growth at INR 25-26 trillion for FY2026, reflecting a year-on-year expansion of 13.7%-14.3%. The NBFC sector's assets under management surpassed INR 50 trillion in FY2025 and are forecast to climb to INR 70 trillion by FY2027. (ANI)