Tag: Funds

  • Personal Loans for Weddings: The Smart Alternative to Using Your Savings

    Personal Loans for Weddings: The Smart Alternative to Using Your Savings

    Weddings are one of life’s most significant milestones, but they come with significant expenses from catering and venue to photography and décor. Even with meticulous budgeting, costs can quickly spiral beyond expectations.

    With the aspiration to make the events perfect, many people dip into their savings to cover the expenses. However, doing so can strain financial stability in the long run.

    Instead, opting for a personal loan for weddings, or a wedding loan, can be a smart alternative, as it can provide the necessary funds to cover upfront costs without depleting your hard-earned savings.

    In this article, we will explore why a wedding loan can be a smart alternative to using your personal resources.

    1. Quick Access to Funds     
    Instant* personal loans are known for their typically quick approvals and disbursals, providing the necessary funds without the long waiting periods associated with traditional offline loans.

    For instance, SMFG India Credit, a leading NBFC in India, disburses the funds shortly after final approval. This ensures that time-sensitive expenses, such as securing a limited-period discount on your preferred venue or a last-minute home repair, can be managed efficiently.

    Please note that the exact approval and disbursement times may vary depending on the applicant’s eligibility, the accuracy of the submitted documents, and the lender’s policies.

    2. No Collateral Required  
    Secured loans require collateral, which lenders can seize if the borrower fails to repay the loan on time.

    In contrast, personal loans are unsecured, meaning you do not have to pledge any assets. Instead, lenders assess eligibility based on several factors such as credit score, income, employment history, and existing debt obligations.

    This makes personal loans a less risky option for borrowers, as they do not have to worry about losing valuable assets like property or vehicles to finance wedding expenses. Additionally, the absence of collateral speeds up the loan processing time, eliminating the need for asset verification.

    3. Flexible Loan Tenures 
    Personal loans offer flexible repayment tenures, typically ranging from 12 to 60 months, allowing you to choose a duration that aligns with your financial comfort and budget.

    Additionally, with fixed EMIs (Equated Monthly Instalments), you know exactly how much to pay each month. This predictability enhances budgeting, helping you to manage your EMIs efficiently while covering existing expenses.

    4. Minimal Paperwork and Online Application Process 
    Planning a wedding involves multiple expenses and logistical considerations. In such times, traditional offline loan applications involving extensive paperwork and a lengthy application process can hinder your planning.

    Personal wedding loan offer a convenient solution, requiring minimal documentation. Lenders typically ask for only a few essential documents such as proof of identity, address, and income, with specific requirements varying for salaried and self-employed individuals.

    Moreover, personal loan applications can be completed entirely online, eliminating the need to visit a lender’s branch and ensuring a hassle-free borrowing experience.

    5. Avoid High-Interest Credit Card Debt 
    Many individuals rely on credit cards when wedding expenses exceed their budget. However, credit cards usually have higher interest rates than personal loans, which can lead to long-term financial strain.

    On the other hand, personal loans often come with competitive interest rates. Borrowers who have strong credit scores (generally 750+) and meet the overall eligibility requirements are more likely to qualify for lower interest rates, which help reduce the total cost of the loan.

    6. Preserve Savings for Your Future 
    Using personal savings to fund wedding expenses can impact long-term financial goals, such as buying a home or securing a child’s education fund.

    A personal loan can help you finance immediate wedding costs while preserving your savings for future needs.

    However, it is essential to borrow responsibly – you must assess your budget carefully and apply for only the necessary amount to avoid undue strain during repayment.

    To make informed decisions, you can use a personal loan EMI calculator – available for free on the websites of trusted lenders like SMFG India Credit – to estimate monthly payments based on different loan amounts, interest rates, and tenures.

    Conclusion

    An instant* personal loan can be a practical solution for managing wedding expenses while keeping your savings intact and maintaining long-term financial stability. However, before applying, it is essential to assess your financial situation, compare lenders, and ensure that the EMIs fit comfortably within your budget.

    Responsible borrowing, coupled with thoughtful financial planning, allows you to create the wedding of your dreams without compromising your future financial security.

    *T&C apply. Loan eligibility, loan terms, and loan disbursement processes are subject to the lender’s policy at the time of loan application.

  • FirstCry parent company Brainbees files IPO application

    FirstCry parent company Brainbees files IPO application

    Mumbai: According to SEBI (Security Exchange Board of India) filings, Brainbees solutions parent company of Omni channel FirstCry submitted an application for an IPO (Initial Public Offer) on 28 December 2023.

    Launched in 2010 headquartered in Pune, It is an e-commerce company focused on a niche sector of baby products. In 2020 FirstCry raised Rs 1000 crores for series E funding. As per media reports in fiscal year 2023- 2024 the company reported revenue of Rs 1406.9 crores. The IPO fund can utilise procurement, employees benefit expenses, advertising expenses. The startup currently owns more than 300 stores and around 615 franchise based stores across Pan India.

    According to Moneycontrol reported, FirstCry is looking to raise funds of Rs 4200 Crores through IPO, rest 60 per cent fund will garner through OFS (Offer For sale). The company is looking further for expansion and growth.

    Company spent Rs 159.2 crores on Employees Benefit Expenses (EBE) before the IPO. In the fiscal year 22-23 the company suffered losses. According to DRHP filed before the regulator renowned names of institutions like M & M, SoftBank, Apricot, Investments, Valiant, Mauritius, TIMF, Think India will sell its stakes from FirstCry.

    The OFS consists of 5.4 crore of equity shares. In 2021, the company raised funds from equity funding.
     

  • Lightbulb.ai raises $1.5 mn in pre-seed funding round from investors

    Lightbulb.ai raises $1.5 mn in pre-seed funding round from investors

    MUMBAI: Lightbulb.ai, an emotion AI and engagement analytics platform has raised a pre-seed funding round of $1.5 million from investors Chiratae Ventures and 9Unicorns. The other investors participating include Anthill Ventures and AI-led video-editing company, VideoVerse. The funds raised by this early-stage start-up will be deployed to deepen the datasets for their machine-learning technology & expand the product offering of emotion and engagement insights gathered from a user’s video, audio and speech inputs for a variety of industries. 

    Lightbulb is the brainchild of second-time entrepreneurial trio – Ritu Srivastava, Yogesh Sachdeva and Vishal Soni – who have earlier built and exited Obino, a digital health & weight-loss coaching start-up, that offered health-management solutions across a variety of health conditions. Their successful exit to US-based health conglomerate Roundglass Partners in 2017, paved the way for their next venture. With a minimum viable product (MVP) launch in late 2021, Lightbulb has had an opportunity to validate its product and market hypotheses before zeroing in on its go-to-market (GTM) plans.

    With four patents already in the pipeline and datasets spanning millions of faces across geographies and ethnicities, Lightbulb aims to help businesses that offer remote user experiences, to solve for higher engagement by mapping user emotion & engagement in real-time! From analysing user engagement during live meetings/calls to researching the emotional impact of pre-recorded content and asynchronous user experiences on consumers, Lightbulb offers nuanced solutions that are relevant to industries such as online learning, sales enablement and consumer research. 

    With insights from early customers pouring in, Lightbulb is fast-tracking growth on its multi-modal product & this early-stage capital infusion will help accelerate Lightbulb.ai in building its product & engineering teams, particularly in the fields of data science, machine learning and consumer insights and prepare itself for an early launch in the US market. The company was exclusively advised on this transaction by PepperTree, an advisory firm run by ex-bankers Akshi Mehta & Ankur Goyal.

    Lightbulb.ai co-founder and CEO Ritu Srivastava said, “We are privileged to be supported by some of India’s most prestigious early-stage institutional investors, with vast experience in helping deep-tech B2B SAAS companies build & scale global products in international markets. And are deeply grateful for the trust that they have placed in us at this early stage!” 

    Co-founder & CPO Vishal Soni said, “Customer decisions are emotional & not rational! Since current feedback modes are post-facto, by the time actionable intelligence reaches decision makers, opportunities are lost. Lightbulb enables businesses to measure emotion data & transmit actionable insights to decision-makers in real-time, helping them acquire and retain better.”

    Co-founder & CTO Yogesh Sachdeva said, “Our focus is now on developing a powerful platform that can power significant value-adding emotion ai products with high accuracy levels across ethnicities and age groups & applicability across multiple industries.”

    “Leveraging an intelligent emotion recognition platform through video interaction, Lightbulb is leading the next wave of innovation in this space. We are excited to partner with the founding team at Lightbulb, as they disrupt leading industries like education, banking, mental wellness etc,” said Chiratae Ventures India Advisors founder & chairman Sudhir Sethi.

    9Unicorns Accelerator Fund co-founder & managing director Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma said, “While emotion ai is at a nascent stage, it is an exponentially growing technology with a wide variety of use-cases across multiple industries. Lightbubl.ai holds the potential to be relevant across multiple market verticals and that is a strong indicator of how valuable the company will be in the future. As the world becomes more chaotic, the importance of emotion AI will only grow. We are excited to support the team as they enhance the accessibility and utility of emotion AI.”

    “We are excited to support Lightbubl.ai at this stage of its growth trajectory. They have shown great promise so far and we are deeply interested in the solutions that they are building for media and consumer research markets. Media tech is an explosively growing field and we are sure that Lightbulb will be able to make a clear space for itself in this market and scale with speed!”, said Anthill ventures CEO Prasad Vanga.

    “As a company that also harnesses the power of AI, we recognise the potential that emotion AI has as a technology. We are thrilled to be a part of this journey and are confident the team will build a long-term product solution with strong fundamentals,” said Videoverse strategy lead Siddhant Bhandari.

  • P&G pledges Rs 50 crore for vaccine doses, as Covid2019 batters India

    P&G pledges Rs 50 crore for vaccine doses, as Covid2019 batters India

    Mumbai: As India struggles to combat the record spike in Covid2019 cases, Procter & Gamble (P&G) announced on Monday that it will contribute towards the vaccination of over five lakh Indian citizens by pledging Rs 50 crore in partnership with government and local authorities in India.

    For every P&G employee in India, the company will contribute towards the vaccination of 100 Indians, it said. The FMCG major said it will also cover the vaccination cost of its 5000+ employee force in India, and their eligible immediate family members.

    With as many as 3,52,991 fresh Covid2019 cases and 2,812 deaths, India witnessed a new record high on Monday as the deadly second wave took a toll on the people. This is the fifth straight day that over three lakh cases have been recorded by the country. 

    P&G brands Whisper, Vicks, Pampers, Oral-B, Head & Shoulders and Pantene are partnering in this vaccination drive through their brand programs and will also continue to raise awareness on safety and hygiene in the country.

    P&G Indian subcontinent CEO Madhusudan Gopalan said, “P&G is committed to playing an active role in India’s fight against Covid2019. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, through our #PGSurakshaIndia program, we have stepped up to support the health, safety, and wellbeing of our employees, our consumers and the communities. In the current situation and going forward, vaccines play a critical role in containing the spread of the virus.”

    Contribution towards vaccines will be on top of P&G’s earmarked CSR funds for the current year. Under its #PGSurakshaIndia program, the company will also continue to donate products, in-house manufactured masks and sanitisers specially to aid frontline and essential workers who are tirelessly working to combat the spread of Covid2019.

    The company said it will also continue to leverage its advertising and brand voice responsibly to increase awareness on health, safety and hygiene measures among consumers and the community.

    It has so far donated more than 35 lakh health, hygiene and cleaning products (which include Whisper, Ariel, Tide, Vicks, Pampers etc) to the communities it operates in. P&G stepped up its manufacturing capabilities to produce masks and hand sanitisers to donate more than 15 lakh masks in the country’s fight against Covid2019.

  • Funds-starved BCCI may move SC citing England series urgency

    Funds-starved BCCI may move SC citing England series urgency

    MUMBAI: With England’s tour of India just a day away, the BCCI plans to move the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking an order allowing it to enter into contracts for the sake of Rajkot Test. Saurashtra’s premier city is to host the first India-England Test from Wednesday.

    The BCCI, as per protocol, has informed the Justice RM Lodha committee that the Supreme Court would be moved because of the urgency with which it needs to act as regards the Rajkot Test.

    With the apex court and the Justice Lodha committee disallowing the Board of Control for Cricket in India to use its funds until an independent auditor goes through them, the latter is getting desperate. If the IPL media rights auction had gone ahead as planned, it would have reportedly fetched BCCI around Rs 30,000 crore (US$ 4500 million approx).

    BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke told The Telegraph that their hands were tied as the Justice Lodha committee had neither set the threshold limit for them to award contracts nor had it appointed an independent auditor as per the October 21 directions of the Supreme Court. They were, therefore, filing an interim application, he added. Certain basic agreements with specific vendors had to be entered into by the BCCI, and each of them would become a contract.

    If the Supreme Court doesn’t pass an order allowing BCCI to engage in contracts, which in any case won’t be big, then the board does not see how the first Test could be played, Shirke said.

    In fact, in its interim application, BCCI would also be praying that the needful be done by the Justice Lodha committee before the start of the second Test in Visakhapatnam from November 17 so that the same issues did not come up again.

    The New Indian Express meantime reported that the BCCI will file an urgent petition seeking relaxation on releasing funds to state units that are scheduled to host the five-match Test series. Moreover, the BCCI will also ask the court to allow it to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the England and Wales Cricket Board for the series to go ahead. The BCCI will argue that an adverse decision from the court will force it to call off the series.

    Last week, Shirke had written to the Lodha panel seeking directions on signing the MoU with ECB. However the panel informed the board that MoU is not a mandate for the series to go ahead and it cannot release the funds until all the necessary details are furnished.

  • Funds-starved BCCI may move SC citing England series urgency

    Funds-starved BCCI may move SC citing England series urgency

    MUMBAI: With England’s tour of India just a day away, the BCCI plans to move the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking an order allowing it to enter into contracts for the sake of Rajkot Test. Saurashtra’s premier city is to host the first India-England Test from Wednesday.

    The BCCI, as per protocol, has informed the Justice RM Lodha committee that the Supreme Court would be moved because of the urgency with which it needs to act as regards the Rajkot Test.

    With the apex court and the Justice Lodha committee disallowing the Board of Control for Cricket in India to use its funds until an independent auditor goes through them, the latter is getting desperate. If the IPL media rights auction had gone ahead as planned, it would have reportedly fetched BCCI around Rs 30,000 crore (US$ 4500 million approx).

    BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke told The Telegraph that their hands were tied as the Justice Lodha committee had neither set the threshold limit for them to award contracts nor had it appointed an independent auditor as per the October 21 directions of the Supreme Court. They were, therefore, filing an interim application, he added. Certain basic agreements with specific vendors had to be entered into by the BCCI, and each of them would become a contract.

    If the Supreme Court doesn’t pass an order allowing BCCI to engage in contracts, which in any case won’t be big, then the board does not see how the first Test could be played, Shirke said.

    In fact, in its interim application, BCCI would also be praying that the needful be done by the Justice Lodha committee before the start of the second Test in Visakhapatnam from November 17 so that the same issues did not come up again.

    The New Indian Express meantime reported that the BCCI will file an urgent petition seeking relaxation on releasing funds to state units that are scheduled to host the five-match Test series. Moreover, the BCCI will also ask the court to allow it to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the England and Wales Cricket Board for the series to go ahead. The BCCI will argue that an adverse decision from the court will force it to call off the series.

    Last week, Shirke had written to the Lodha panel seeking directions on signing the MoU with ECB. However the panel informed the board that MoU is not a mandate for the series to go ahead and it cannot release the funds until all the necessary details are furnished.