Fin-tech startup Artoo raises $500K from Accion Venture Lab & Artha Initiative

Bangalore-based Artoo IT Solutions Pvt Ltd, a financial technology startup that provides customer relationship management (CRM) solution to lending institutions, has raised $500,000 (Rs 3.1 crore) in its Series A round of funding from Accion Venture Lab and Switzerland-based Rianta Capital Zurich's Artha Initiative, as per a company statement.

"We will use the funds for international expansion, build more data centric tools and create personalised financial products," said Sameer Segal, founder and CEO, Artoo.

Last year, the company had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Villgro Foundation.

It was founded in May 2010 by Segal, an engineer, who has previously worked at NITK India and HSBC. Artoo's CRM solution offers a suite

of modules, such as lead management, loan origination and credit underwriting. The startup has developed tools such as occupation-specific templates to capture

the nuances of volatile cash flows and assess borrower creditworthiness, and a scenario analysis tool to predict customer behaviour in turbulent times.

Its solution also uses biometrics to address borrower authentication and provides data insights to help banks improve loan performance and reach new categories of borrowers. The company works with clients in microfinance, micro, small and medium enterprise lending as well as mainstream banking. It claims to have disbursed $3 million in loans across seven million end-users to date, and is increasing by 20 per cent on a monthly basis.

Accion Venture Lab is a $10 million fund which invests at seed level in startups in the fin-tech space. It has invested in over a dozen startups across the world, including Swadhaar FinServe Pvt Ltd and Saija Finance Pvt Ltd, besides Artoo.

Artha Initiative is focused on impact investment in agriculture, livelihoods and small-scale renewable energy sectors.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)