Grameen Koota has partnered with Artoo for digital lending model of individual business loans

Expanding its product portfolio and venturing into Individual lending for its rural customer base, Grameen Koota has partnered with Artoo – a FinTech firm – to develop a digital lending model to launch Individual business loans. The tie-up will enable it to go paperless and reduce loan approval and go-to-market time significantly.

Speaking on the partnership, Udaya Kumar, Managing Director and CEO, 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.” He further added, “By improving efficiency and turnaround time, we aim to deliver a significantly better customer experience.”



Grameen Koota estimates that 25 – 30% of their existing borrower base will be interested and eligible for these loans and plans to graduate these customers out of their existing group and lend to them on an Individual basis. Thus, 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. Along with unsecured term loans, borrowers can also avail top-up loans for recurring working capital needs. They will launch this product in 15 branches initially and estimate to grow the portfolio to 70 Crore in the first 12 months.

Sameer Segal, Co-Founder and CEO, Artoo, added that they hold Grammen Koota as a pioneer in rural lending and high standards of customer service. With the nuanced understanding of MSME borrowers, Artoo could “help Grameen Koota reimagine Individual Lending and deliver value in the rural context.”

Through Artoo’s Intelligent Digital Loan Origination System, borrowers will be informed about their loan approval status on the field. Artoo leverages Aadhaar, Big Data and Analytics to enable lending to a borrower with a limited digital footprint, which is integral to Grameen Koota’s entry into Individual Lending. Using Artoo, lenders can provide a loan decision in 40 minutes at the borrower’s doorstep and engage in paperless, cashless lending. It  has been designed for seamless use by even first-time tech users and low-resource settings.