 Morning Dispatch |
Can AI fix your credit score? Krutrim shuts down assistant Kruti
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Happy Thursday! Fintechs are building AI solutions to help boost the creditworthiness of borrowers. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.
Also in the letter:
■ Consolidation bug hits AI firms
■ IndiGo buys into Sarla Aviation
■ Emergent’s new Wingman
Fintech lenders are leaning on AI to help more borrowers clear the credit hurdle and tap formal loans. New platforms promise to lift credit scores, repair profiles and make consumers look less risky on paper.
Driving the news: Startups such as Banksathi, Credgenics and Goodscore are rolling out AI-led tools that automate the full journey of credit repair. These subscription products cut operating costs while serving up tailored score-improvement plans based on each borrower’s credit report.
Key players to watch:
Also Read: AI disruption, inflation risks could tighten lending environment: QED’s Nigel Morris
Why now? Insiders say a few powerful trends have converged.
Also Read: West Asia conflict fears could harden credit card underwriting, curb co-branded card growth
Bhavish Aggarwal, founder, Krutrim
Ola’s AI arm, Krutrim, has quietly pulled the plug on its AI assistant, Kruti, in under a year from its June 2025 launch. The app has vanished from Apple’s App Store and Google Play, and the web version no longer loads.
What happened: Kruti had been woven into Ola’s ride-hailing app, but that integration has now been switched off too.
Navendu A, senior vice president and head of business at Krutrim, said at last year’s launch that the firm was building a multibillion-parameter model, Krutrim 3, trained on a mix of its own and IndiaAI GPU clusters. Multiple sources now say work on Krutrim 3 has also stalled.
Why it matters: The shutdown follows layoffs in Krutrim’s linguistics team, a series of leadership exits and funding constraints. It also puts a question mark over several other AI projects the company had lined up.
Setting context: Krutrim launched in 2023 and raised $50 million in 2024, entering the unicorn club. Yet since rolling out its large language model and cloud products, it has struggled to find many paying customers.
AI firms say they are actively scouting for startups to build full-stack capabilities as enterprises move from experimentation to large-scale deployment.
Complementary capabilities: Founders are targeting companies that plug gaps in their current stack and broaden their services, helping them hold ground in a market that changes by the month.
Investors expect most of the action to be in the application layer, where fresh use cases are emerging fastest and where consolidation is likely to be most intense.
Buyouts, a risky business:
IndiGo takes equity stake in Sarla Aviation: IndiGo, India’s largest airline, has invested in Bengaluru-based Sarla Aviation, which is developing an electric aircraft for use as flying taxis. The carrier picked up equity worth Rs 10 crore through its investment arm, IndiGo Ventures, in the startup in January, as per the Registrar of Companies filings.
Emergent’s new agent: SoftBank-backed vibe coding startup Emergent has launched Wingman, an autonomous agent designed to handle routine tasks across commonly used tools, as companies push to improve productivity through AI-driven automation.
Atomberg’s founders recast roles: Consumer appliances brand Atomberg’s cofounders are stepping into new roles, with Manoj Meena becoming chairman and managing director, and Sibabrata (Shibam) Das taking over as chief executive officer (CEO), according to a LinkedIn post by Meena on Tuesday.
■ The deepfake nudes crisis in schools is much worse than you thought (Wired)
■ The CEO chatbot era is coming (FT)
■ Voice actors fight to save their livelihoods and local cultures from Hollywood’s AI push (Rest of World)
Also in the letter:
■ Consolidation bug hits AI firms
■ IndiGo buys into Sarla Aviation
■ Emergent’s new Wingman
Fintechs leverage AI to boost creditworthiness and reduce rejections
Fintech lenders are leaning on AI to help more borrowers clear the credit hurdle and tap formal loans. New platforms promise to lift credit scores, repair profiles and make consumers look less risky on paper.
Driving the news: Startups such as Banksathi, Credgenics and Goodscore are rolling out AI-led tools that automate the full journey of credit repair. These subscription products cut operating costs while serving up tailored score-improvement plans based on each borrower’s credit report.
Key players to watch:
- Credgenics has launched Fixmyscore, a platform that lets borrowers manage most of the repair process themselves, with only light human support when needed.
- Banksathi is courting borrowers whose loan applications keep getting rejected, with a focused programme built around targeted score improvement.
- Paisabazaar has built a deep borrower database over the past decade and now taps AI to craft customised action plans for each user.
Also Read: AI disruption, inflation risks could tighten lending environment: QED’s Nigel Morris
Why now? Insiders say a few powerful trends have converged.
- AI breakthroughs, especially in large language models.
- A slowing credit cycle and tighter underwriting by banks and other lenders.
- Rising defaults in unsecured loans and in products such as gold loans.
Also Read: West Asia conflict fears could harden credit card underwriting, curb co-branded card growth
Ola’s AI division Krutrim pulls plug on smart assistant Kruti
Ola’s AI arm, Krutrim, has quietly pulled the plug on its AI assistant, Kruti, in under a year from its June 2025 launch. The app has vanished from Apple’s App Store and Google Play, and the web version no longer loads.
What happened: Kruti had been woven into Ola’s ride-hailing app, but that integration has now been switched off too.
Navendu A, senior vice president and head of business at Krutrim, said at last year’s launch that the firm was building a multibillion-parameter model, Krutrim 3, trained on a mix of its own and IndiaAI GPU clusters. Multiple sources now say work on Krutrim 3 has also stalled.
Why it matters: The shutdown follows layoffs in Krutrim’s linguistics team, a series of leadership exits and funding constraints. It also puts a question mark over several other AI projects the company had lined up.
Setting context: Krutrim launched in 2023 and raised $50 million in 2024, entering the unicorn club. Yet since rolling out its large language model and cloud products, it has struggled to find many paying customers.
AI firms scout for startup buyouts to boost full-stack tech capabilities
AI firms say they are actively scouting for startups to build full-stack capabilities as enterprises move from experimentation to large-scale deployment.
Complementary capabilities: Founders are targeting companies that plug gaps in their current stack and broaden their services, helping them hold ground in a market that changes by the month.
Investors expect most of the action to be in the application layer, where fresh use cases are emerging fastest and where consolidation is likely to be most intense.
Buyouts, a risky business:
- Founders know that scale matters, yet many remain wary, aware that plenty of acquisitions fail to deliver what the first spreadsheet promised.
- Industry watchers expect M&A to be led above all by product strength and defensible intellectual property.
Other Top Stories By Our Reporters
IndiGo takes equity stake in Sarla Aviation: IndiGo, India’s largest airline, has invested in Bengaluru-based Sarla Aviation, which is developing an electric aircraft for use as flying taxis. The carrier picked up equity worth Rs 10 crore through its investment arm, IndiGo Ventures, in the startup in January, as per the Registrar of Companies filings.
Emergent’s new agent: SoftBank-backed vibe coding startup Emergent has launched Wingman, an autonomous agent designed to handle routine tasks across commonly used tools, as companies push to improve productivity through AI-driven automation.
Atomberg’s founders recast roles: Consumer appliances brand Atomberg’s cofounders are stepping into new roles, with Manoj Meena becoming chairman and managing director, and Sibabrata (Shibam) Das taking over as chief executive officer (CEO), according to a LinkedIn post by Meena on Tuesday.
Global Picks We Are Reading
■ The deepfake nudes crisis in schools is much worse than you thought (Wired)
■ The CEO chatbot era is coming (FT)
■ Voice actors fight to save their livelihoods and local cultures from Hollywood’s AI push (Rest of World)
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