AbleCredit Secures Funding To Automate Credit Apps, Detect Frauds

AI-powered fintech startup AbleCredit has secured $1.25 Mn (INR 10.4 Cr) in a seed funding round led by Merak Ventures, along with Venture Catalysts and Helios Holdings (Suraj Nalin).

The Bengaluru-based startup plans to use the fresh funds to  scale up its artificial intelligence stack and operations.

Founded by Utkarsh Apoorva, Harshad Saykhedkar, Ashwini Prabhu and Anubhab Bandyopadhyay in 2023, AbleCredit is an AI-driven credit underwriting platform, which aims to streamline the lending process and help businesses make informed credit decisions.

Leveraging AI products and solutions, the startup helps lenders automate credit applications, analyse cash flow, determine loan terms for borrowers, and perform risk assessments.

AbleCredit claims its AI systems can generate detailed credit reports under 3.5 minutes, as per the lender’s credit policies, ensuring compliance.

“At AbleCredit, our AI system leverages voice, vision, and language capabilities to extend credit analysis into traditionally overlooked sectors. This approach enables us to serve a wide range of industries by analysing alternative data sources to produce comprehensive credit assessments,” Apoorva said.

Further, AbleCredit is developing GenAI tools, which the company claims can expedite credit underwriting process for lenders by 20X and significantly reduce their operational costs.

The development comes at a time when India is witnessing a rapid surge in AI adoption in credit assessments. 

Inc42 earlier reported that a number of new players have sprung up in the sector over the past few years, aiming to make credit more accessible, especially for the country’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

In a shift from the traditional collateral-based loans offered by banks, fintechs such as Lendingkart, RING (erstwhile Kissht) and KreditBee among others are leveraging AI and machine learning and data analytics to disburse loans and check creditworthiness.

Lendingtech startups are also attracting significant investor interest. For instance, RING raised INR 100 Cr ($12 Mn) in debt funding from Trifecta Capital last month.

Prior to that, in March, KreditBee raised $9.4 Mn in funding from a clutch of investors, including Advent International, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) Bank, Premji Invest, and Motilal Oswal Alternates among others.

KreditBee is also said to be mulling a reverse-flip to India from Singapore ahead of its initial public offering (IPO), expected to be launched in 2027.

As per Inc42’s analysis, India’s digital lending market worth $270 Bn in 2022 is projected to exceed $1.3 Tn by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 22%.