San Francisco-based fintech startup Kaaj has raised $3.8 million in seed funding led by Kindred Ventures, with Better Tomorrow Ventures and others joining in.
With the new funding, Kaaj will accelerate product development and expand into the US small-business lending market and equipment finance market.
The company aims to make affordable capital accessible to every small business, from family-run stores to fast-growing startups, through technology built for both fairness and speed.
Turning weeks of work into minutes
Today, getting a loan under $1M is slow and expensive for lenders to process, leaving half of all applicants without the funding they requested. Kaaj wants to fix this problem at the root.
Founded by Utsav Shah and Shivi Sharma, Kaaj is an agentic AI credit intelligence platform that automates small business loan underwriting from application to decision-ready analysis.
The San Francisco-based company integrates with existing loan origination systems, enabling lenders and brokers to scale efficiently while maintaining consistency and transparency.
The company’s platform uses AI agents that work together to review entire loan packages, everything from verifying the business to analysing cash flow, financials, assets, and risk.
What usually takes human underwriters days of reading through hundreds or even thousands of documents gets done in less than three minutes.
The platform has already analysed more than $5 billion in small business loan applications.
Serving both lenders and brokers
Kaaj helps both lenders and brokers involved in small business financing.
For lenders, the platform allows them to grow profitably without hiring more staff, letting a team that processes 500 applications a month handle up to 2,000.
For brokers, Kaaj provides smart matching features that connect deals to the best financing sources.
The platform is already being used by industry leaders such as Amur Equipment Finance, Quality Equipment Finance, and Fundr.
Beyond speed, Kaaj also solves a major issue in commercial lending — inconsistent decisions.
During internal research, the Kaaj team found that underwriter decisions often shift depending on factors like workload, time of day, and even the day of the week.
Kaaj removes this variability. Every application receives the same depth of analysis, with fully traceable and auditable data, a major plus for lenders operating under tightening regulations.
“Small business lending has long struggled with a fundamental economics problem: the cost to underwrite smaller loans hasn’t matched the returns, leaving millions of businesses underserved,” said Kanyi Maqubela, Managing Partner, Kindred Ventures.
“We’re backing a team with the rare combination of deep AI expertise and domain knowledge in credit risk to build the infrastructure that will power the next generation of small business finance,” said Jake Gibson, Founding Partner, Better Tomorrow Ventures.
“What impressed us most was Kaaj’s approach to building transparent, audit-ready AI that enhances rather than replaces human judgment,” said Sheel Mohnot, co-founder & General Partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures. “In an industry where consistency and compliance are
paramount, this is exactly the kind of infrastructure innovation that expands access to financial services for underserved communities.”
