AI credit intelligence platform Kaaj raises $3.8m

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The round was joined by Better Tomorrow Ventures, Karman Ventures, Pythia Ventures, Coughdrop Capital, and a host of angels, including Sardine AI CEO Soups Ranjan and TreasuryPrime COO Remy Carole.

Founded in 2024, Kaaj uses agentic AI workflows to help lenders analyse end-to-end loan packages and create decision-ready analysis for small business lending, promising to reduce lender costs and accelerate decision-making.

Co-founder and CEO Utsav Shah spent a decade at Uber and Cruise, building AI-powered decision-making systems, while co-founder and president Shivi Sharma is an expert in credit and fraud risk with experience at American Express, Uber, and Varo Bank.

According to the Federal Reserve 2024 Small Business Credit Survey, about 50% of small business loan applicants fail to receive the full amount of capital they need. Kaaj says that a major reason for this gap is that for most lenders, loans under $1 million are not profitable using current manual, time-intensive underwriting approaches.

To solve this, the startup’s platform deploys AI agents that work together to automate the entire credit analysis process, from business verification and cash flow analysis to asset valuation, financial analysis, and risk assessment.

What traditionally takes underwriters days of manual work across thousands of documents, Kaaj claims to complete in under three minutes, delivering decision-ready analysis that integrates seamlessly into existing loan origination systems.

Says Sharma: “Kaaj’s platform doesn’t just speed things up. It fundamentally changes the economics of small business lending, making smaller loans profitable for lenders while improving the borrower experience.”