Fibe Leverages AI and Alternate Data for Lending

Fibe, the digital lending platform backed by TPG, is expanding its use of artificial intelligence to improve credit underwriting, fraud detection, customer service and internal operations as it prepares for a public offering.

The company’s AI-powered risk engine can make lending decisions in real time at the point of application. Machine‑learning models are also used to detect fraud, automate Know Your Customer checks and streamline operational tasks. This system codifies years of underwriting expertise into a consistent risk framework, reducing reliance on individual judgment.

Balakrishnan Narayanan, chief product and analytics officer, explained that Fibe did not set out to become an “AI‑first” company but needed a way to lend responsibly to millions of Indians with limited formal credit histories. AI turned out to be the most effective mechanism to do this at scale and with the precision these borrowers deserve, he said.

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They have deployed AI agents across internal workflows. These agents help with data collation, process tracking, operational queries and preliminary analytics. Narayanan noted that the AI‑assisted processes have shortened turnaround times and reduced manual coordination, allowing the company’s operational capacity to grow alongside its loan book without a proportional increase in headcount.

Narayanan added that the AI agents are intended to augment employees rather than replace them. Human oversight remains for credit approvals, exception handling and decisions that affect customers directly.

Fibe introduced an AI‑powered conversational assistant named Fiora. Fiora can proactively remind borrowers about repayments, explain loan charges in plain language and suggest products based on individual financial profiles. Internally, the system analyses borrower behaviour for early warning signals of repayment stress, feeding those insights back to collections, risk teams and the credit models.

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All interactions with Fiora are disclosed to customers as AI‑driven, complying with India’s digital lending regulations.

A core component of Fibe’s strategy is the Persona AI framework, which builds credit profiles using alternative data such as UPI transactions, utility bill payments and income patterns alongside traditional bureau scores. The approach aims to assess customers who lack formal credit histories but show consistent financial behaviour.

Narayanan said the outcome is that Fibe can extend responsible credit to a segment that conventional underwriting would have declined, without loosening its risk standards. He emphasized that all data used for these assessments is collected with explicit customer consent and governed under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act and RBI’s digital lending guidelines.