SUMMARY
Crediwatch is said to address the digital lending gap in the financial services industry, says Artis
Crediwatch offers an AI/ML platform to help businesses assess credit risk
Funding will be used to improve and scale up their business models for SME lending
Bengaluru-based fintech startup Crediwatch has raised $3.2 Mn in a Series A funding round, led by ARTIS Labs and with participation from Abstract Ventures, the company announced in a press statement Tuesday (October 22).
Meghna Suryakumar, founder and CEO, said that the funds will be used to improve and scale up their models for a dynamic ‘Trust Score’ credit scoring model for businesses, especially for SMEs
Crediwatch claims to have provided insights on over 50K businesses and $7 Bn loan portfolio. It has built an AI and ML tool which is said to minimize credit risk in the financial services industry. The platform collects information from numerous data points that are extracted from several sources, and analyses it to further help lenders assess and monitor borrowers closely in real-time.
Crediwatch’s clients include financial institutions like SBI, KVB and RBL Bank and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) such as ABFL and Capital Float. The Crediwatch’s Insights platform and Early Warning Signals help these customers manage credit lines on a more dynamic basis.
Founded by Suryakumar in 2016, prior to this round, it raised $1.6 Mn from Modern India, the family office of Vijay Kumar Jatia, Contrarian Vriddhi Fund, Vaibhav Domkundwar’s Better Capital, Mekin Maheshwari (former Flipkart executive) and Pithambar Gona (former managing director of Blackstone) for total funding of $5 Mn till date.
Currently having 42 employees, the company plans to hire 20 more, mainly in Bengaluru, thereby expanding its sales team and customer base across India. It will also be hiring on the product side as it is doing a lot of research and development work, she added.
The opportunity in the Indian SME lending market is huge. According to a May 2019 IBEF report, the public deposits of NBFCs increased from $293.78 Mn in FY19 to $4.95 Bn (INR 319.05 Bn) in FY18, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.86%.
Digital lending and credit tech are hot sectors within the fin-tech industry in India. Earlier this month, digital lending startup FinBox raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A round led by Arali Ventures.
Last week, Gurugram-based lending startup RupeeRedee on October 17 announced $6 Mn funding from its parent company Digital Finance International (DFI). As a multinational private equity group, DFI has over 20 fintech brands across several countries.
In September, another Gurugram-based lending startup Clix Capital raised $40 Mn from AION Capital. The company planned to use the funds to further push into the consumer lending segment while continuing to build its own digital platform.
In two rounds of funding held in the months of July and August, Aye Finance, a digital lending company raised $17.7 Mn in debt funding from an undisclosed investor.
