Former Meesho Executive's AI Startup Oolka Raises $7 Mn

Former Meesho executive Utkrishta Kumar’s new AI-led fintech venture Oolka has raised $7 Mn (around INR 62 Cr) in its seed funding round co-led by Lightspeed India and Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India).

The round also saw participation from 8i Ventures and angel investors, including Meesho cofounders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Livspace cofounder Ramakant Sharma, Tracxn cofounder Abhishek Goyal, BlackBuck cofounder Rajesh Yabaji, Uni Cards cofounder Nitin Gupta, M2P Fintech cofounder Madhusudan R, Scapia founder Anil Goteti, Leap cofounder Arnav Kumar, among others.

Founded by Kumar in January 2024, Oolka leverages AI to help users track their credit scores and suggest personlised solutions. The startup claims that its AI agents can take remedial measures on behalf of consumers, if granted permission.

It also operates a credit marketplace in partnership with financial institutions like YES Bank, IDFC Bank, AU Small Finance Bank, Muthoot Finance, and InCred.

The Bengaluru-based startup plans to deploy the fresh capital to ramp up hiring across engineering, data sciences and product development. A chunk of the capital will also utilised to enhance its tech stack, personalise user experience on its app, among others.

Speaking with Inc42, Kumar said that Oolka’s AI agents, powered by LLMs such as Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude, can also negotiate with lenders on behalf of a user to reduce interest rates.

The platform also allows users to pay EMIs and claims to have processed over INR 100 Cr in credit repayments. Besides, it allows users to manage all of their bank accounts in one place and discover strategies for “better financial health”.

Buoyed by growing adoption of AI, the startup claims to have clocked nearly $1 Mn in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in FY25. Currently, Oolka earns revenue from commissions earned by providing credit to its users via its credit marketplace.

The fundraise comes at a time when the fintech sector is seeing rapid adoption of AI. As a result, investors are aggressively backing AI startups focussed on the financial services sector. Just days ago, Bengaluru-based fintech startup OnFinance secured $4.2 Mn in its pre-Series A round led by Peak XV’s Surge.

Last week, fintech-focussed AI startup Pascal AI Labs raised $3.1 Mn in its seed round led by Kalaari Capital. Earlier this month, another AI-led fintech startup FinBox bagged $40 Mn in its Series B round led by WestBridge Capital.

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