An Indian AI-based fintech startup- ‘Lentra’ has raised $60 million to help banks offer their clients with Loans-as-a-Service.
Investors including SIG (Susquehanna International Group), Bessemer Venture Partners, Citi Ventures (a subsidiary of banking giant Citigroup), and others participated in the round. Finally, it bagged an investment of $60M from Citi Ventures.
The Mumbai-based start-up, Lentra works with an aim of helping commercial banks like Federal Bank, HDFC Bank, IDFC First Bank, Standard Chartered, etc. to strengthen their digital loan services.
“We want to help and empower the banks, who are our clients, to lend better, lend completely on a digital platform, and improve on all parameters,” said Venkatesh.
As per Venkatesh, Lentra uses artificial intelligence (AI) to find any suspected fraud attempts made by customers while applying for loan services. Therefore, Lentra offers third-party ‘API connectors’, a ‘Loan Management System’, as well as a ‘no-code Business rules engine’ (BREx) to minimize the rate of fraud and fasten up the loan process. This fintech startup also offers a platform named ‘GoNoGo’ that assists banks to decide whether to grant a loan to a customer after receiving an application.
Earlier the turnaround time for loan processing included the ‘applying, processing and approving/denying’ process, which used to take approx. six to seven days. However, with Lentra’s ‘Loans-as-a-Service’, the TAT of the loan processing can be reduced to just a few seconds.