“We want to be India’s most efficient credit management company, which fundamentally makes us ubiquitous for all things credit,” – Aditya Soni, founder of CheQ.

In July last year, Aditya Soni firmly expressed his belief that his nascent fintech startup CheQ could transform the credit management landscape in India during an interaction with Inc42. And his succinct statement amply captured his vision regarding the startup’s future.

Bengaluru-based CheQ had been operational for about five months at the time, but the founder claimed it had already amassed a customer base exceeding 4 Lakh. Soni attributed the fintech’s growth to a robust organic marketing strategy, which still keeps its overhead costs low.

In a landscape dominated by popular fintech super-apps like Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay or Amazon Pay, CheQ champions a unique niche, making credit management super easy for credit cardholders and borrowers paying loan EMIs. Credit card bill payments are also made extra-rewarding for CheQ users.

Essentially, the fintech startup provides a unified platform to help people streamline monthly payments and monitor their credit scores without the hassles of navigating multiple channels to make payments. (Multiple cardholders having numerous ‘due’ dates and the chances of missing out on a few know the pain point only too well.)

Additionally, in November 2023, it introduced a new rent and education fee payment solution that enables customers to pay their bills using a credit card and in turn, reach their credit card goals and improve their credit score. Customers can easily pay their rent using a credit card in less than a minute, Soni told inc42.

Meanwhile, CheQ has grown more ambitious. Soni is all set to run an overarching credit platform to emerge as the ‘Zerodha’ of credit management. Like Zerodha, one of India’s largest discount brokers with a wide range of investment products, CheQ aspires to attain a similar status for ‘all things credit’.

For the unversed, CheQ was set up by Soni in 2022 and became operational in February next year (2023). Its flagship is Pay Together, a unique feature allowing users to settle multiple bills through a single transaction. Besides, users are offered a 1% reward on every payment. Rewards come in CheQ Chips, which can be redeemed through vouchers from popular brands (Flipkart, Myntra, Swiggy, Ola, Blinkit, Cleartrip, EaseMyTrip, The Man Company, Wow Skin Science, PVR and more). The in-app currency can also be used to pay subsequent bills on the app.

CheQ’s tech stack has two layers. One is integrated with major banks like ICICI Bank and Axis Bank, allowing users to make direct payments. Plus, there is another layer integrated with payment gateways and aggregators like Razorpay and Cashfree Payments, enabling people to pay multiple credit card bills and loan EMIs to various banks through a single payment window.

According to Soni, around 38% of CheQ’s users have witnessed a significant improvement in credit scores since onboarding, which serves as a testament to the platform’s........

© Inc42