Kaaj Secures $3.8M Seed Funding to Revolutionize Small Business Lending with Agentic AI

San Francisco-based Kaaj, an agentic AI credit intelligence platform, has successfully raised $3.8 million in seed funding. The round was led by Kindred Ventures, with significant participation from Better Tomorrow Ventures, Karman Ventures, Pythia Ventures, and Coughdrop Capital, alongside various angel investors. This capital infusion is earmarked to accelerate product development and expand Kaaj's reach within the substantial $1.7 trillion U.S. small-business lending market and the $1.3 trillion equipment finance market.

The company's mission centers on transforming the economics of small business lending for financial institutions. Co-founder and President Shivi Sharma announced the funding, stating, "We are fixing the economics of small business lending for lenders with our agentic AI credit intelligence platform." Kaaj's platform deploys AI agents to automate the entire credit analysis process, significantly reducing the time and resources traditionally required for underwriting.

Kaaj, founded in 2024 by Shivi Sharma and CEO Utsav Shah, aims to expand access to affordable capital for small businesses. Sharma brings extensive expertise in credit and fraud risk from her tenure at American Express, Uber, and Varo Bank, while Shah's background includes building AI-powered decision-making systems at Uber and Cruise. Their platform converts a process that typically takes days into minutes, delivering decision-ready analysis that integrates seamlessly into existing loan origination systems.

Kanyi Maqubela, Managing Partner at Kindred Ventures, highlighted the strategic importance of Kaaj's solution. "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," Maqubela explained. He added that Kaaj is fundamentally changing the unit economics of SMB lending through intelligent automation, unlocking a new category of profitable lending.

The platform has already processed over $5 billion in loan applications and serves a growing customer base including Amur Equipment Finance, Quality Equipment Finance, and Fundr. By making smaller loans more profitable for lenders and ensuring consistent, transparent, and audit-ready analyses, Kaaj addresses a critical gap in the market, ultimately improving the borrower experience and expanding access to capital for underserved small businesses.