Helios is the first peer-to-peer lending and alternative financing platform designed for Sri Lankans using Blockchain technology secured using cryptography. We connect investors with borrowers and allow both parties to obtain competitive interest rates compared to alternative offerings in the market to finance needs such as credit card refinancing, debt consolidation, education loans etc. Blockchain is used for storing the contracts between investors and borrowers. When borrower connect with us, we segment them according to their demographics and the Know Your Customer (KYC) documentation provided by the borrowers and onboard them onto the platform depending on whether they meet our minimum borrower criterion. This process may typically take 2 to 3 days.

The segmented borrowers are assigned risk adjusted interest rates depending on their credit score and registered investors can now view borrower details such as the loan purpose, duration and amount. Helios will manage the collections on behalf of the investor for the duration of the loan. In the case if the loan defaults, we will provide the investor with the ability to proceed with debt collection & recovery or debt refactoring through our platform. Typically, an investor would invest across different segments to diversify their risk similar to any investment portfolio. Helios will be charging an origination fee for processing the loan from the borrower.

There are currently no significant players in the market like us who open the consumer credit industry to individual investors and our closest competitors could be identified as banks and other financial institutions in Sri Lanka. This is in the sense that these are alternative platforms for investors, however our platform for provides attractive interest rates for investors to diversify their risk as well as for borrowers. Compared globally we are somewhat similar to the Lending Club in the US and Yirendai in China. Also as far as our knowledge, we are the first peer-to-peer lending platform to utilize Blockchain technology in the world.

We identified the potential for our product after emerging as the winners of the John Keells X Open Innovation Challenge and validating our business hypothesis through verbal interviews and questionnaires.