Kaaj AI is Expanding Access to Capital for Small Businesses with New Agentic AI Credit Intelligence Platform

Kaaj AI, an agentic AI credit intelligence platform that simplifies small business lending, led by Utsav Shah and Shivi Sharma, has secured $3.8 million in seed funding led by Kindred Ventures, with participation from Better Tomorrow Ventures, Karman Ventures, Pythia Ventures, Coughdrop Capital, and notable angels including Soups Ranjan(CEO, Sardine AI), Rahul Ramesh(CCO  Brex), Remy Carole(COO, TreasuryPrime), Sip Jiyane(CAO, Affirm), Steven Ma(CEO, Pony Money), Adam Jackson(CEO, Braintrust Network), Aadik Shekhar, and many more.

Founded in 2024, Kaaj aims to broaden access to affordable capital for small businesses. Its agentic AI workflows help lenders evaluate end-to-end loan packages and generate decision-ready analyses, reducing costs and speeding up lending decisions. The funding will accelerate Kaaj’s product development and expand its presence in the $1.7 trillion U.S. small-business lending market and the $1.3 trillion equipment finance sector.

With over 33 million U.S. small businesses, access to capital remains a major challenge, as 50% of loan applicants fail to secure full funding. Loans under $1M are often unprofitable under manual underwriting.

Kaaj uses AI agents to automate credit analysis, from verification and cash flow review to risk assessment, completing in minutes what traditionally takes days, and delivering decision-ready insights directly into existing loan systems.

Kaaj’s platform has processed over $5 billion in loan applications and serves a growing customer base of lenders and brokers, including industry leaders like Amur Equipment Finance, Quality Equipment Finance, and Fundr.

Kaaj helps lenders scale efficiently and enables brokers to match deals with the right financing sources. CEO Utsav Shah said faster, data-driven decisions reduce administrative burden and improve approval-to-funding ratios, helping win more deals.

The platform integrates with CRMs like Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, HubSpot, and Zoho, going live in as little as three weeks.

Kaaj also tackles inconsistency in commercial lending. Behavioral studies showed underwriter decisions vary by time of day, workload, and other factors, frustrating brokers and borrowers.

Kaaj ensures every deal receives uniform, comprehensive due diligence, improving decision quality and transparency. Its platform provides fully traceable and verifiable data, calculations, and insights, creating clear audit trails while allowing lenders to retain final control.

Shivi Sharma, President and co-founder of Kaaj, said: “Underwriting small and large loans takes the same time and resources, forcing lenders to prioritize bigger loans and leaving many small businesses underserved. Kaaj changes the economics of lending, making smaller loans profitable while improving the borrower experience.”