AbleCredit raises seed funding led by Merak Ventures

Merak Ventures, a sector-agnostic early-stage venture capital (VC) firm, has announced its fourth significant investment this year. The firm participated in a $1.25 million (Rs 10 crore) round in AbleCredit, an AI credit underwriting company. The seed round was led by Merak Ventures, with participation from Venture Catalysts and Helios Holdings (Suraj Nalin).

There is a credit gap of Rs 25 trillion in India alone, which is mostly caused by a shortage of qualified underwriters and an overall high underwriting cost. Using cutting edge AI products and solutions, AbleCredit aims to close the credit gap in emerging nations, the firm stated.

The investment from Merak Ventures is expected to enable the startup to scale its AI operations, along with business growth and expansion.

Manu Rikhye, Partner at Merak Ventures, said, “Credit underwriting, historically a time-consuming process in loan disbursement, is ripe for transformation with recent advancements in AI. AbleCredit's innovative tools promise unprecedented speed and efficiency in underwriting, empowering companies to make decisions faster and more effectively. At Merak Ventures, we are committed to championing such impactful solutions for real-world challenges."

Utkarsh Apoorva, Harshad Saykhedkar, Ashwini Prabhu, and Anubhab Bandyopadhyay are the co-founders at AbleCredit.

“Emerging economies are facing a significant credit gap in the MSME sector, leading to unemployment and economic barriers. 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. We’re thrilled to announce our new funding round and to welcome Merak Ventures, who support our mission to bridge economic disparities and enhance financial well-being.” said Utkarsh Apoorva, Cofounder and CEO of AbleCredit.