Executive Summary 

Credila Financial Services engaged Redseer, India’s leading strategy consulting firm, to support its IPO through a comprehensive market study. Redseer conducted a detailed industry and financial analysis, which included developing market models, detailing the current and future view of the industry, and identifying levers that will enable NBFCs to win the overseas education financing market. 

About the Client 

Credila is India’s largest education-focused NBFC, with a model built around education specialization, a differentiated underwriting model, and direct-to-student engagement. Its sharp focus on the education segment has enabled it to build strong underwriting frameworks, maintain low NPAs, and respond quickly to evolving student needs. Credila has delivered strong growth, profitability, and asset quality. It witnessed a 48.33% year-on-year growth in its Asset Under Management between FY2025 and FY2024, and its Restated Net Profit After Tax was INR 9899.58 Mn in FY2025.   

The Strategic Imperative

• Understand the key macroeconomic tailwinds both from the supply and demand side, and also understand the market evolution due to the changing geopolitical scenario and consumer behaviour.
• Estimate the size of the market across various destination countries and split it into relevant expenditure buckets. Based on the current market understanding, model the growth estimates for the next 5 years.
• Assess the right to win for NBFCs operating in this market vs banks, both from a backward- and forward-looking point of view.
• Benchmark various education-focused and non-education-focused NBFCs on scalability, profitability, growth, asset quality, and operational excellence metrics.

Outcomes & Impact 

Redseer delivered a clear path to unlock non-user conversions: 

• Uncovered key macroeconomic and demographic trends (e.g., rising middle class, urbanisation, youth population) that underscore long-term demand for higher education and the rising need for formal education financing in India.
• Developed a granular understanding of market potential by student cohort (undergraduate/postgraduate), destination country, and funding requirements, allowing identification of high-growth education corridors. Additionally, developed a view of long-term growth factors at a destination country level that will enable this growth.
• Analyzed the international education trends, global policy shifts (e.g., post-study work visas), and India’s student outflow to arrive at the industry growth narrative.
• Provided key rights to wins in the market, including the role of digital underwriting, flexible repayment structures, and deep academic partnerships in enhancing student access and lender reach.
• Flagged potential scale barriers, including rising cost of funds, geopolitical uncertainties, and regulatory shifts, aiding investor risk assessment and supporting disclosures on resilience and mitigation levers.
• Benchmarked key metrics across scale, profitability, growth, asset quality, and operational excellence across education-focused and non-education-focused NBFCs.

What This Means for the Industry 

India’s overseas education financing had a total addressable market (“TAM”) of INR 3,422 Bn in CY2024 and is expected to reach INR 7,500-8,000 Bn by CY2029, growing at a 17-19% CAGR. Additionally, the Finance Penetration stood at 10.5% of the overall TAM, suggesting a large growth headroom for financing players. As India’s overseas education financing landscape enters a phase of rapid transformation with student aspirations rising and newer destinations gaining prominence, financing institutions must evolve from being transactional lenders to becoming lifecycle partners in the student journey to successfully capture the headroom available. Education-focused NBFCs are well-positioned to lead this shift, given their robust network partnerships in destination countries and the extensive student data they have built over the years.

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