Quiklo helps Indian students get access to EMIs to finance their education, without the pressure of mandates placed by banking institutions.
When Mrigank Shekhar, Rahul Saxena and Kush Shrivastav were studying in IIT-Delhi, there were several students who did not have access to computers. There were several instances where students would pool in money and buy such students a desktop, so that they could keep up with the coursework.
These were still students who managed to afford the fees. There is still a large chunk of population in India, for whom affordability of quality education is a major challenge.
The cost of education has skyrocketed over the past decade by 160%, be it colleges or even elementary and secondary school. This has become a major setback for middle class families in India to provide their children with quality education.
And with rising competition for various courses and colleges, expensive coaching classes, test prep courses too are being seen as almost a necessity.
Moreover, laptops too have become mandatory for students to be equipped with for attending these colleges.
With all this combined, the cost of getting their children educated is huge and arranging for lump sum amounts every year is every parent’s biggest challenge.
Cut to 2015.
Mrigank, Rahul and Kush, now IIT graduates, were brainstorming to start something that solved a real need, a problem that was complex. At this point they were reminded of their time in IIT.
They decided to tackle this problem and founded Quiklo with the idea of giving loans to students for mobiles and laptops.
After garnering a decent customer base, a lot of customers came back to Quiklo with the need of financing semester fees of colleges. And when the founders looked deeper into the market, they realised that it was huge.
There are indeed several parents who cannot afford to send their children to a good college. And not because the child isn’t smart enough, but because the fees are not affordable.
Thanks to technology and the advent of Fintech startups, getting a loan has become a lot easier. Especially for smaller ticket sizes that banks don’t tend to cater to.
In the past couple of years, a number of startups have emerged that are helping improve financial inclusion.
From personal loans, peer-to-peer lending, education loans, travel loans, these…