How digital lending SaaS startup Cloudbankin is streamlining loan disbursal for banks and NBFCS

Obtaining a loan can be a long ordeal, with time-consuming processes like KYC verification, regulatory compliance, documentation, and credit history assessment. This poses a challenge for fintech companies to offer quick and seamless financial solutions to their customers.

Chennai-based software firm Cloudbankinbelieves it can address this challenge through its lending software that facilitates unsecured loan approvals in less than ten minutes. The software supports both secured and unsecured loans for individuals and businesses.

“Through integrated APIs, the entire process is automated using credit bureaus and financial analysis, enabling an easier onboarding experience. Loans with a limit of less than Rs 2 lakh can be disbursed within 10 minutes,” says Mani Parthasarathy, Co-founder and CEO of Cloudbankin, whose name is a play on ‘bank in the cloud system’.

Integrated APIs (application programming interface) are tools that enable efficient communication between systems.

The firm does not directly provide loans. Instead, it provides technology solutions that support lenders, housing finance institutes, banks, and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) by streamlining the decision-making process while granting loans. It offers a customer credit decisioning engine, which allows financial institutions to configure their underwriting parameters and make quicker decisions.

Launched in 2013 as Habile Technologies, the company was established by five alumni from Madras Institute of Technology—Mani, Maieenah Rajah, Alex Anto Navis, Hariharan Govindaraju, and Palanisami Muthusamy.

Habile Technologies was a service-based company which provided application development services to various banks. It later pivoted to Cloudbankin in 2021, transforming into a product-centric entity focused on developing lending solutions.

The founders of Cloudbankin wanted to create a platform that would automate the entire lending process and help financial institutions enhance their operational efficiency by integrating with multiple platforms such as credit bureau, bank statement analysis, KYC, SMS analytics, e-mandate, e-sign, and payment gateway.

“By 2021, we introduced the product as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) to our clientele, which ensures that any product upgrades are instantly reflected across all our customers,” says Mani.

Product offering

Cloudbankin offers a loan origination and management software which assists financial institutions in making speedy lending decisions for its customers.

The company’s AI-powered low-code platform is an end-to-end cloud-based loan software that offers customisable workflows and solutions for various tools in financial products, including savings, loans, and deposits. Its key offerings include low-code digital onboarding, a loan origination and management system, a business rule engine, an accounting system, and a customer self-servicing app.

Cloudbankin's rule engine software is set up with rules defining the credit policy. Borrower data from sources like Aadhar, PAN, CKYC, credit bureaus, alternate data, fraud checks, GST, and ITR are used as data points in the rule engine. Companies can then evaluate their borrowers and make credit decisions within minutes, using the inbuilt analytics for guidance.

API connections on Cloudbankin’s platform facilitate communication between different software applications, allowing them to interact and exchange information.

Cloudbankin’s product, Mani says, is simple to use and engages with the borrower, providing a user-friendly experience that’s similar to a social media app, ensuring that individuals with limited literacy can also use the app.

The firm’s ultimate aim is to create a system that can easily adapt to different types of loans, such as business loans, property loans, housing loans, gold loans, buy-now-pay-later, and personal loans.

“We aim to support loan products across multiple geographies. Beyond loans, we also provide support for savings, deposits, bill payments, transactions, mobile banking, and cards,” says Mani.

“Our platform enables the rapid launch of financial operations such as savings or loans, typically within a three-week timeframe, as opposed to traditional 60 to 90 days. Cloudbankin allows business users to independently configure and implement changes,” he says.

For instance, one of Cloudbankin's partner financial institutions processed 100K loans across various cities with a team of fewer than 10 members, achieving a 10x increase in efficiency, he points out.

Growth and future roadmap

In June last year, the startup raised $400,000 in funding from SaaS accelerator and fund Upekkha, the global venture capital firm Kube VC, and a group of angel investors. The investors include Ramanathan RV, CEO of Hyperface; Mohan Karuppiah, CEO of IppoPay; and Mahendra Negi, Founder, Director, Advisor of Negi Solutions.

Currently, the firm has a customer base of over 50 financial institutions, including banks, NBFCs, and fintech firms across India, US, UK, Sri Lanka, and Philippines.

The company says it has witnessed a 60% annual growth rate over the past year.

The startup’s key competitors in the digital lending market include Lentra, BackBase, Audax, and Nucleus. Cloudbankin has been recognised as the most user-friendly platform in the digital lending stack category, as per B2B software reviewing platform, G2 Review.

The Indian enterprise fintech market is projected to reach a market size of $20 billion by 2030, according to a joint report by venture capital firm Chiratae Venturesand finance consultancy firm Digital Fifth.

Going forward, Cloudbankin aims to expand its reach by partnering with more financial institutions and making more products to meet the evolving needs of the industry, such as solutions for digital banking, personalised financial management tools for customers, and risk assessment and fraud prevention systems.

(The copy was updated with factual corrections.)