Spense Raises $2.8 Million Seed Round Led by Arkam Ventures
Spense, a banking infrastructure company combining asset-backed credit infrastructure with agentic AI, announced a $2.8 million Seed funding round led by Arkam Ventures, with participation from Razorpay Ventures, GrowthCap Ventures, and Atrium Ventures.
The funding will be used to deepen banking partnerships, accelerate product development, expand engineering and go-to-market teams, launch Credit Line on UPI (CLOU), and advance the company’s vision of building the agentic infrastructure and intelligence layer for the future of asset-backed credit.
The round includes participation from leading fintech and technology operators including Kunal Shah (CRED), Madhusudhan E (KreditBee), Ravishankar (Active.ai), Suresh Rayasam Venkatasubbaih (LinkedIn), and Sayandeb Banerjee (The Math Company).
Also Read: ICEYE-AgniKul Deal Puts India's Space Startups in Global Orbit
Founded by Pawan Kumar and Srinivas Krishnamurthy, Spense enables banks to launch credit cards and credit lines backed by customer assets without replacing their existing technology infrastructure. Its bank-native platform connects core banking systems, deposit systems and card management systems in real time, enabling financial institutions to launch modern credit products significantly faster than traditional approaches.
Critically, the platform is infrastructure operated by AI. Spense deploys agentic AI to automate the workflows that have historically required large operations teams for onboarding, servicing, collections and customer support. These autonomous agents run continuously, handling the operational complexity that has long made scaling secured credit products expensive and slow.
By combining programmable asset-backed credit infrastructure with agentic AI operations, Spense enables financial institutions to originate, service and manage credit products at a scale and efficiency that was previously unachievable.
Also Read: Tata Motors EV Demand Exceeds 30 Percent, Sierra EV Fuels Growth
Spense currently works with 7 major banks across India, including one of the country’s largest public sector banks, and a growing network of leading fintech distribution partners. The platform powers more than 2 lakh active cards and issues over 40,000 cards every month, representing nearly eight percent of India’s monthly credit card issuance and highlighting the growing demand for modern asset-backed credit products.
Commenting on the fundraise, Pawan Kumar, Co-founder & CEO of Spense says, “India’s credit challenge is often viewed as a risk problem. We believe it is fundamentally an infrastructure problem. India does not have a shortage of assets. It has a shortage of infrastructure that can convert those assets into usable credit. If you have a valuable asset, you should have access to modern credit.”
Srinivas Krishnamurthy, Co-founder & CTO of Spense adds, “For decades, banks digitized accounts, payments and transactions. The next phase of banking is the digitization of collateral itself. When assets become programmable, credit becomes real-time. When AI becomes operationally reliable, banking becomes dramatically more scalable. Together, these shifts will redefine how financial institutions originate, operate and service credit.”
Commenting on the investment, Bala Srinivasa, Managing Director, Arkam Ventures says, “We backed Pawan and Srinivas because we believe Spense is building foundational infrastructure for the next era of credit in India.
"As credit shifts toward safer, asset-backed models, platforms like Spense will play a critical role in helping financial institutions scale responsibly while expanding access to formal credit.”
Spense’s long-term vision is to enable banks and financial institutions to offer instant, reusable and rewarding credit products against any valuable asset.
Also Read: Hero Motors Sets Up Global Parts Center in Madanapalem, AP
“If you have a fixed deposit, you should be able to get a credit card. If you own investments, you should be able to access a credit line. If your business has receivables, you should be able to unlock working capital. We believe every valuable asset should be able to participate in the credit economy.”