FinBox: Solving India's New-to-Credit Paradox with State-of-the-Art API Infrastructure
In India, millions of people face a classic Catch-22: you can't get a loan because you don't have a credit history, and you can't build a credit history because no one will give you a loan. This "New-to-Credit" problem is one of the most significant barriers to financial inclusion in emerging markets. Rajat Deshpande, the Co-founder of FinBox, recognized this gap while working as a Quant at Citigroup. Today, his platform provides the sophisticated credit infrastructure that allows banks and fintechs to look beyond traditional bureau scores and lend to India's underserved population through alternative data and machine learning.
An alumnus of IIT Bombay, Deshpande's journey into entrepreneurship was fueled by a desire for a "creative endeavor" where he could back himself to solve complex technical problems. Alongside his brother Anant Deshpande and co-founders Nikhil Bhawsinka and Srijan Nagar, he has built a robust API stack that handles the entire digital lending lifecycle—from risk assessment to multi-lender matchmaking. With over 60 million customer profiles processed through their systems, FinBox is proving that if you sustain long enough in a meaty B2B market, the industry will eventually turn toward your solution.
The Signal-to-Noise Ratio in B2B
In the startup world, there's a lot of noise around "Frameworks" and "Accelerators." Deshpande believes the most important signal is revenue. "The signal-to-noise ratio is lowest when people are paying for stuff," he explains. By selling their product before it was fully built, the FinBox team ensured they were only solving problems the market actually valued.
The Quant's Pivot: From Citigroup to Fintech Infrastructure
Rajat Deshpande's path wasn't typical for a fintech founder. A mechanical engineer by training, he learned how to code out of necessity and passion. After a stint in high-end analytics and quantitative modeling at Citigroup, he jumped into the startup world as a product manager at Healthkart and GoPigeon. But the "Catch-22" of Indian credit kept haunting his analytical mind.
When FinBox launched in 2017, the bureau penetration in India was negligible. "India has a huge new-to-credit population. Everybody wants to lend to them, but how will they assess them?" Deshpande asked. They realized that the solution wasn't just another lending app—it was the plumbing that made digital lending possible for everyone else.
"Entrepreneurship is a creative endeavor where you have to back yourself to get stuff done. It's a deep roller coaster ride with extremes of exhilaration and failure—but for us, it's the only way to live."
Building the Rails: The FinBox Product Ecosystem
FinBox operates as a Technology Service Provider (TSP), offering a comprehensive set of apis and tools that enable compliant loan journeys. Their platform is divided into two critical areas:
The FinBox Credit Stack
- Credit Risk Intelligence: Using alternative data (via their 'Device Connect' product) and machine learning models to combine traditional and non-traditional data sources into accurate risk assessments.
- Embedded Lending Infrastructure: Orchestrating the entire journey for "anchors" (marketplaces or digital platforms) who want to monetize their audience by offering credit.
- Business Rules Engine: A sophisticated system that processes applications and provides real-time offers, a component few firms build successfully in-house.
- Lending Network: An integrated ecosystem of lenders ready to fund applications across different credit products like BNPL, Personal Loans, and Overdrafts.
The "Rank Outsider" Advantage
One of the most fascinating aspects of the FinBox story is that the founders were complete outsiders. They weren't from the banking industry, nor were they computer science engineers. "We used to just get into a bus from Bangalore to Mumbai and try to sell our idea to anybody," Deshpande laughs. "Once we even tried to sell it to an HDFC Bank security guard!"
This naivety proved to be an asset. Unaware of the "rules" of enterprise sales, they weren't discouraged by conventional roadblocks. They learned to code themselves, building their first back-end in Python and their first Android app from scratch. This stubborn grit allowed them to build products that banks—who aren't technology companies—couldn't easily replicate.
FinBox: Impact at Scale (Jan 2026)
- Data Depth: Processed over 60 million anonymous customer profiles.
- Lender Integration: Powering the API stack for 7-8 of India's major lenders.
- Pricing Innovation: Moving toward usage-based models to lower barriers to entry for new fintechs.
- Market Status: A leading enabler in the unsecured, fully digital lending space.
Founder's Wisdom: Pick What Suits You
Through the "crazy ride" of building FinBox, Deshpande has distilled several lessons for future founders:
Hustle vs. Process
In the seed stage, everything is hustle. But as you move to Series A and B, you must implement systems. "Maintain basic statistics about what you are doing—build phase, effort tracking, and costs," Deshpande advises. You must behave according to your stage.
Content is Wide Space
FinBox runs one of the largest fintech newsletters in the country. Deshpande believes content marketing pays for itself by establishing thought leadership. "Don't sit in a dark hole just doing your stuff. You have to talk about it and write about it."
Learn to Code
Deshpande is a firm believer that tech startups need tech acumen at the founder level. Hiring agencies often fails because the iteration loop is too slow and the intuition isn't there. "If you're a founder, why don't you learn to code? I was a mechanical engineer, and I realized it's essential."
The Social Activity of Startups
For Rajat Deshpande, an early-stage startup is more of a social activity than a business. It's about finding people who vibe with you, finding early adopters who can provide feedback, and building a team that gels at a deep level. "If you can keep going, take a lot of hits, and still keep going... you will get it in a way," he concludes.
As FinBox continues to build the digital rails for India's economy, it remains focused on the one thing that has kept it alive for over seven years: the grit to solve hard technical problems for a market that is only getting larger and more sophisticated. The "Catch-22" of credit might be a multi-billion dollar problem, but Rajat Deshpande and his team are building the API key to unlock it.
About the Guest
Rajat Deshpande is the Co-founder and CEO of FinBox. An alumnus of IIT Bombay (Mechanical Engineering, 2009), Rajat spent several years in quantitative analytics at Citigroup before transitioning into the Indian startup ecosystem. He served as a product manager at Healthkart and GoPigeon before co-founding FinBox in 2017. He is a self-taught coder and a passionate advocate for digital credit infrastructure. Rajat is known for his "first-principles" approach to technical problem-solving and his focus on building sustainable, revenue-first B2B businesses.
FinBox is a leading digital credit infrastructure platform that provides banks and fintechs with the tools they need to assess risk and disburse loans. By leveraging alternative data, machine learning, and a robust API stack, FinBox enables organizations to lend to the "New-to-Credit" population efficiently and securely. The company serves as a critical enabler in the Indian financial ecosystem, processing data for over 60 million customers across various credit products.