AI-Focused Fintech Spense Bags $2.8 Mn to Build Asset-Backed Credit Infra

Spense, a startup building banking infrastructure that combines agentic AI with asset-backed credit, has raised $2.8 million in a seed funding round led by Arkam Ventures. 

Razorpay Ventures, GrowthCap Ventures, and Atrium Ventures also took part in the round, along with angel investors including Kunal Shah of CRED, Madhusudhan E of KreditBee, Ravishankar of Active.ai, Suresh Rayasam Venkatasubbaih of LinkedIn, and Sayandeb Banerjee of The Math Company.

The company will use the funds toward banking partnerships, product development, engineering and go-to-market hiring, and to launch Credit Line on UPI (CLOU). Spense also said the round supports its plan to build an AI-based infrastructure and intelligence layer for asset-backed credit.

Founded by Pawan Kumar and Srinivas Krishnamurthy, Spense lets banks launch credit cards and credit lines backed by customer assets such as fixed deposits, mutual funds, equities, bonds, invoices and property, without replacing existing banking systems. 

The platform connects to core banking, deposit, and card management systems, and uses AI agents to handle onboarding, servicing, collections, and customer support—tasks the company says have traditionally required manual operations teams.

Spense currently works with seven banks in India, including one large public sector bank, along with a number of fintech distribution partners. The company said its platform supports more than 200,000 active cards and issues over 40,000 cards a month, which it estimates represents close to 8% of India's monthly credit card issuance.

Pawan Kumar, Co-founder and CEO of Spense, described the credit gap in India as a matter of infrastructure rather than risk. He added that India has assets but lacks the infrastructure to convert them into usable credit, and said access to credit should follow from asset ownership.

Srinivas Krishnamurthy, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, linked the company's approach to a broader shift in banking technology. "For decades, banks digitised accounts, payments and transactions. The next phase of banking is the digitisation of collateral itself," he said. 

He said that as assets become programmable and AI becomes reliable for operations, banks will be able to scale credit services further, changing how institutions originate and manage credit.

Bala Srinivasa, Managing Director at Arkam Ventures, added, "We backed Pawan and Srinivas because we believe Spense is building foundational infrastructure for the next era of credit in India." 

He added that as lending shifts toward asset-backed models, platforms such as Spense will help financial institutions scale while expanding access to formal credit.

Spense said its longer-term aim is to let banks offer credit products against a wider range of assets, including fixed deposits, investments, and business receivables.