on September 14, 2016)What’s stopping you from buying that smartphone you’ve had your eyes on for years? If you’re a student or a young professional, chances are you simply don’t have enough money to spare for groceries. While the former do not have regular income channels, the latter may find it difficult to save enough after paying the bills. A convenient solution is to settle it in EMI. However, this is easier said than done, as bank loans have their own terms and conditions in stores. EMI The schemes require credit cards and offer only limited options in terms of inventory.Finomenato start-up with a single verification system and loan approval, offers an alternative. It is a customer-driven experience. fintech platform that enables inclusion by offering easy access to credit for people who have never applied for a loan before and therefore do not have a credit scoreFurthermore, it allows you to register online and simply browse e-commerce sites and choose the device you want. After that, you can choose between financing and EMI options and apply with a single click.Deposited but not eligible The phrase “financial inclusion” evokes the idea of a sector of people without access to basic banking services. That is why one of the government’s major initiatives to facilitate financial inclusion has been to open bank accounts through Jan Dhan Yojana. However, a bank account alone does not guarantee access to credit. A sector that is largely left out in terms of access to loans and credit cards, despite having bank accounts, includes students, young professionals and the self-employed. More than 75% of Indians do not have a traditional credit bureau score. “We cannot rely too much on traditional models to measure a potential customer’s credit score as traditional data for these people does not exist. They may not have traditional proof of income, but with the power of a smartphone, they are leaving a massive digital footprint,” says Abhishek Garg, co-founder of Finomena. The platform uses this big data to create machine learning-based credit and risk scoring systems that take into account more than 20,000 data points to assess a borrower’s creditworthiness. Shashank Singh, 26, may be a lawyer at the Delhi High Court, but getting a loan from a bank was almost impossible. “As an advocate, my income fluctuates month to month, so banks are reluctant to issue me credit cards or approve my loan applications,” he says. When he wanted to buy an iPhone 6S, Singh approached several banks for a loan, but was rejected each time. He started looking for alternatives and came across Finomena. “They had a one-on-one conversation with me about their processes and sent someone to collect the documents from my house. My loan was approved within a day,” says Singh.What’s in a credit score? A credit score is a three-digit numerical summary of your entire credit history. It is prepared based on the information provided in your Credit Information Report. The credit score typically ranges between 300 and 900. Most banks and financial institutions rely on this figure to determine the creditworthiness of potential borrowers. In fact, 79% of approved loans are for people with a score above 750. However, this is a setback for the young unbanked population as they may not have any credit scores, resulting in a vicious cycle. Finomena founders Riddhi Mittal and Abhishek Garg conducted extensive research on loan disbursement mechanisms and borrower demographics, which revealed that most banks and NBFCs stay away from students and young professionals because traditional modes of KYC data collection do not work for them. “The majority of our clients have their first job or are self-employed without any traditional proof,” says Mittal.speechd, comfort and flexibility While there are some options available for customers to purchase high-end devices on EMI basis, they often come with hidden clauses. In-store EMI programs require the customer to have a credit card. However, less than 2% of Indians are credit card holders. These schemes have also established tenures and amounts of EMI payable by the customer. Finomena has gone one step further by introducing FMI or flexible monthly installments. Viren Makwana, an IT student who also has a part-time job, was pleasantly surprised to learn that he could choose the amount of the down payment, as well as how much he wanted to pay each month for the purchase of a laptop. The 21-year-old accepted a monthly payment of Rs 2,000 to pay off the loan over a period of 12 months. “At first I didn’t believe online EMIs were possible, but once I spoke to a Finomena representative, he assured me that the process would work,” he says.