FREED, a platform that helps people with their debt issues, has teamed up with Castler, a digital escrow platform, to create a solution that would assist individuals with their monetary stress relief and reduce their debt burden. The partnership aims to address the rising number of personal loans in India, which increased by 84 percent to Rs 35.98 lakh crore in September 2022 from Rs 19.55 lakh crore in September 2018, according to Reserve Bank of India data. FREED, founded by Ritesh Srivastava in August 2020, has aided more than 75,000 customers in lowering their debt by 56 percent by working with banks and other lenders to establish a repayment plan. Rajiv Indimath, CSO of FREED, praised Castler’s commitment to making business transactions more accessible and secure, saying that the collaboration would be critical in achieving their shared goals. Castler, which is supported by Zerodha and Venture Catalysts, has over 500 enterprise customers and over $500 million in transactions under management. Escrow banking, which is projected to become a $200 billion market by 2030, has over 100,000 enterprise users and is growing at a CAGR of 10 percent. The partners are committed to working together to address India’s $16 billion consumer debt relief market.
