NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Grameen Koota, a pioneer in rural lending, is expanding its product portfolio and venturing into Individual lending for its rural customer base. To this end, it has partnered with FinTech firm Artoo to develop a digital lending model to launch Individual business loans. Artoo’s intelligent digital platform will enable it to go paperless and reduce loan approval and go-to-market time significantly.

Commenting on the announcement, Udaya Kumar, Managing Director and CEO of Grameen Koota, said, “Post demonetization, investments in technology and analytics are critical. As we foray into Individual Lending, we believe that it is imperative to adopt digitization into our processes. To this end, we have leveraged Artoo’s expertise in holistic digitization for Individual lending. Artoo’s platform will allow us to build a scalable portfolio while maintaining risk at group lending levels. By improving efficiency and turnaround time, we aim to deliver a significantly better customer experience. ”

The new products of Grameen Koota’s Individual Lending vertical will be the first to be provided on a digital platform, right from loan origination to disbursement. The strategic move to launch Individual Lending at this stage was to serve their existing entrepreneurial borrowers who are in need of larger ticket size loans to grow their businesses.