- 1Kaaj was one of six companies chosen for the eight-week CAFE accelerator.
- 2It bolts into a lender or broker's CRM to handle early application intake and underwriting.
- 3Kaaj won the Fintech Meetup Startup Pitch Competition in March and a $50,000 prize.
Kaaj, a San Francisco startup building AI for small business lending, has been accepted into the Center for Advancing Financial Equity (CAFE) fintech accelerator, one of six companies chosen from what the program describes as hundreds of applicants twice a year.
How they got there
Co-founders Utsav Shah and Shivi Sharma met CAFE director Kristen Castell at CONNECT MIAMI in February, where Castell spoke about the program and the founders were promoting their new technology. After learning how CAFE works with startups, they decided to apply this fall. The eight-week program is partly in person at the Fintech Innovation Hub at the University of Delaware and partly virtual, with field trips such as a recent one to Washington, DC. Organizations on the latest cohort's roster include the Delaware Bankers Association, NeighborGood Partners, United Way, Best Egg, County Bank, Fulton Bank, Prudential, BNY Mellon, WSFS Bank, M&T Bank, Capital One, Barclays, Discover, PNC and JPMorgan.
Kaaj had already drawn attention, winning the Fintech Meetup Startup Pitch Competition in March and a $50,000 prize.
What the product does
Kaaj is described as a core intelligence layer that plugs into a lender's or broker's CRM and handles early-stage application intake and underwriting. It is aimed at equipment finance companies, MCA providers, small business lenders, SBA lenders, factors and others.
Shah said lenders receiving hundreds of applications a day need to know where to focus. Once a package with documents is submitted, Kaaj analyzes it top to bottom, including KYC/KYB and bank statements, and returns intelligence within the first three minutes. Faster turnaround on each deal, he said, lets companies focus on more profitable deals without adding headcount.
Shah has a decade of AI experience and previously worked on autonomous cars. Sharma formerly worked in commercial lending, including payments and onboarding fraud, and says she saw manual processes and outdated technology slow lenders and borrowers alike. She said equipment finance is somewhat more complex than MCA but, as a $1.4 trillion industry, is ripe for innovation. Shah said the company's mission is better access to capital for small businesses.
Source reporting: deBanked.
