Kaaj, a San Francisco-based fintech developing an agentic AI credit intelligence platform for small business lending, has raised $3.8 million in seed financing. The round was led by Kindred Ventures with participation from Better Tomorrow Ventures and several additional investors. The new capital will support product development and expand Kaaj’s presence across the United States’ small-business and equipment finance markets, which total more than $3 trillion in combined annual lending volume.
Founded in 2024, Kaaj aims to expand access to affordable capital for the more than 33 million small businesses operating across the United States. The company’s platform uses networks of AI agents to analyze complete loan packages and deliver decision-ready underwriting files in under three minutes. This replaces the traditional manual review process that requires days of labor and significant operational staffing. Kaaj has already processed more than $5 billion in small business loan applications and is working with a growing roster of lenders and brokers, including Amur Equipment Finance, Quality Equipment Finance, and Fundr.
Kaaj’s co-founders bring a combination of AI systems design and credit risk expertise. CEO Utsav Shah previously spent a decade building AI-powered decision systems at Uber and Cruise. And President Shivi Sharma brings deep experience in credit and fraud risk through roles at American Express, Uber, and Varo Bank.
The company sees a significant opportunity to address a longstanding profitability challenge in small-business lending. Industry data shows that approximately half of small business loan applicants do not receive the full capital amounts they seek, in part because loans under $1 million are often unprofitable for lenders using traditional underwriting workflows. By automating business verification, cash flow analysis, risk assessment, asset valuation, and financial review, Kaaj enables lenders to make profitable decisions on smaller loans and approve them at a much higher velocity.
Beyond lenders, Kaaj also provides brokers with capabilities for intelligent lender matching. The platform integrates with major CRM systems, including Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, HubSpot, and Zoho, allowing organizations to deploy Kaaj in as little as three weeks.
Alongside speed, the company emphasizes consistency and transparency in underwriting. Through extensive behavioral studies, Kaaj found that decision making quality varied significantly based on time of day, workload, and other external factors. By automating due diligence and providing full traceability for all calculations and data points, Kaaj positions its platform as a tool for better compliance and audit readiness.
Investors believe the company is addressing one of the most persistent structural inefficiencies in the small business finance ecosystem. With its agentic AI approach, Kaaj plans to become foundational infrastructure for lenders seeking to serve the undercapitalized segment of the small business market profitably.
KEY QUOTES
“Lenders face a fundamental profitability problem: it takes the same amount of time and resources to underwrite a $100,000 loan as it does a $5 million loan. This forces lenders to prioritize larger loans, leaving millions of small businesses without access to the capital they need to operate and grow. Kaaj’s platform doesn’t just speed things up. It fundamentally changes the economics of small business lending, making smaller loans profitable for lenders while improving the borrower experience.”
Shivi Sharma, President and Co-Founder, Kaaj
“Time kills deals in small business lending. When multiple lenders compete for the same quality borrowers, speed determines winners. Faster, more consistent decisions with clear data help brokers reduce administration time and focus on delivering bespoke advice and guidance for small businesses. For lenders, Kaaj speeds up the response time to minutes instead of days, demonstrably improving their approval to funding ratios so they don’t lose quality deals to competitors.”
Utsav Shah, CEO and Co-Founder, Kaaj
“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. Kaaj is solving this by fundamentally changing the unit economics of SMB lending through intelligent automation. The platform doesn’t just incrementally improve efficiency; it unlocks an entirely new category of profitable lending that was previously inaccessible.”
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.”
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. 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.”
Sheel Mohnot, Co-Founder and General Partner, Better Tomorrow Ventures
