In this exclusive interview Nitin Sharma, CPO of CredAble & MD of UpScale (by CredAble) shares insights on how FinTech companies have become a necessity for businesses in India to scale.
Question 1: What are your plans when it comes to leveraging fintech partnerships for growth development?
The synergy between banks, NBFCs, and Fintechs is a much-needed one!
In today’s fast-paced technology environment, the ‘buy versus build’ conversations are being driven by talks of leveraging strategic collaborations. There is a growing need for businesses to collaborate with FinTechs—not just to avoid stagnation but to be able to deliver tailored, scalable products that customers have come to expect. Small businesses need digital solutions that are faster, more intuitive, and less admin intensive. Considering the significant unmet need of today’s MSMEs, collaborative ecosystems that offer a broad range of services in a single integrated platform are key.
We see tremendous opportunities to accelerate growth by collaborating with the right Financial Institutions partners. We have established strong partnerships that will give businesses access to the kind of technology an financial support they need to truly scale their potential when it comes to cost efficiency and customer delight.
At CredAble, we are building a world-class working capital infrastructure ecosystem that’s focused on leveraging cutting-edge digital solutions and accelerating revenue through trusted FinTech partnerships.
Question 2: CredAble’s future road map for creating an effective yet smooth credit journey for the entire ecosystem. Please comment.
We were one of the early players to understand that digitisation is key in shaping the future of working capital financing. As we fast forward to a new frontier, we believe taking a digital-first approach will be paramount in solving the growing working capital challenges of businesses both big and small.
With supply chains only getting more complex and in dire need of operational advantages, we are working with key FI partners in re-engineering supply chain processes to make them more robust and agile.
As India’s only holistic working capital tech platform, we have built a 360° tech-enabled solutions suite to cater to the unique needs of every stakeholder that is involved in the credit journey.
To be able to offer more holistic and tailor-made solutions for different business models, we will be integrating scalable Fintech products into our solutions suite. We are also ramping up with additional offerings and value-added financing solutions that will automate and digitize the entire credit journey, providing a unified experience to every participant in the ecosystem.
Question 3: How the fintech industry is reviving itself and building the digital way forward. Please share your views.
As financial services are increasingly gravitating toward a more technology-driven landscape, we have witnessed a huge influx of FinTech companies in the system. The Fintech industry’s market size in India is projected to be nearly $150 Bn by 2025.
Digitization has played a key role in sparking this growth in the FinTech sector. Digital innovations have had a massive impact on financial services, redefining the way we pay and removing the hassles of traditional banking.
By accelerating the adoption of secure and robust digital technologies, FinTech companies are enabling greater transparency and convenience in accessing financial services. FinTech players are also offering a wide range of market opportunities for traditional and new-age lenders by enabling faster underwriting, quicker turnaround times, and significantly improving access to working capital with end-to-end digital lending solutions.
Question 4: CredAble (UpScale) has been using technologies like AI and ML algorithms, please highlight some of the implementations for the same in CredAble’s ecosystem.
We truly believe that advanced cognitive technologies present massive opportunities such as enhanced efficiencies and operational optimisation in the working capital and trade finance space. At CredAble, we enable end-to-end digital processes powered by technologies like AI and ML to help our users automate manual efforts, detect fraud in real-time, and quickly conform to regulatory requirements.
By deploying sophisticated machine learning algorithms, we also empower financial institutions to better identify and anticipate risk. Our AI-backed invoice discounting solution and dynamic scorecards are designed to optimise supply chains and ensure higher participation from both the enterprises and their associated vendors.
The AI and ML solutions enable to us to offer Financial Institutions an advanced credit underwriting model, that goes beyond a borrower’s credit score and credit history. Our platform looks at the overall creditworthiness of the borrower to give a complete analysis of a loan application.
In addition, the technology also helps a borrower choose the right lender and lending product for themselves that matches their need and borrower profile.
Additionally, our digital lending solutions are powered by AI to enable seamless and quicker onboarding, improved risk management mechanisms, and better credit underwriting at reduced costs.
Question 5: How would AI affect MSMEs or business professionals, given the recent advances in the fintech industry?
In recent years, revolutionary technologies like AI, ML, and big data have been yielding positive results and greater flexibility, in critical areas like MSME lending. With the assistance of AI, complex and unstructured data can be re-modelled to create efficient workflows and drive accurate decision-making.
Built on the foundations of a data-driven digital footprint, we’ve developed a robust digital lending ecosystem to bridge the credit gap for MSMEs. Our super app for MSMEs, UpScale comes with transformative solutions and tools to meet the diverse needs of small businesses in India.
AI-powered advanced data engines are used to process multiple financial and operational data points and assess the creditworthiness of a borrower. By doing this, we automate KYC process, policy checks, and credit risk assessments and offer instant access to both short and long-term collateral-free working capital.
Question 6: What is CredAble’s vision for the industry in the near future?
Globally, working capital financing has transformed massively over the past decade and is constantly changing at every phase.
As India’s largest working capital tech platform, we have enabled more than $3 Bn in working capital annually for India Inc.
We understand that effective cash flow and debt management are imperative for businesses to succeed today. As a leader in the working capital space with a 500% year-on-year growth, we look forward to shaping the competitive landscape of working capital financing with scalable products that will deliver maximum efficiency and bridge the credit gap. Our goal is to create a level-playing field for businesses to tap into lucrative opportunities in the domestic and international markets.
Backed by a team with extensive experience and vast technical expertise, we are uniquely positioned to redefine working capital financing with digital solutions, make supply chains more resilient and empower companies to operate more sustainably.
