March 24, 2023
Kgpian Rohit Rathi Develops Investment Tech for Low-Income Groups
IITKGP Foundation
When the world is going through apprehensions of recessions, bank bailouts, stock pricing, and buying discrepancies, a Kgpian is working toward empowering the low-income groups of India.
KarmaLife is an AI-powered, 100% digital solution for the financial well-being of workers. KarmaLife has invested in empowering India’s 200 million+ non-salaried blue-collar workers by combining data, technology, and trust to offer flexible, small-ticket, and affordable products tailored to the low-income segment.
“Ours is a high engagement, scalable model powered by tech and trust,” says the co-founder & CEO, Rohit Rathi. “Our technology can personalize value at lowest cost and our philosophy is to reward good behavior.”
Explaining the business model, Rathi says, “At KarmaLife we enable financial inclusion by combining primary and secondary data. User-consented work and income data combined with behavioral data generated from digital footprint helps us in establishing and building a credit score for the new-to-credit or credit-invisible population.”
Rathi is an IIT Kharagpur graduate (2008/EE) and tech evangelist and designed the country’s first tablet PC: NotionInk-adam. The idea for KarmaLife was born in Rathi’s mind in 2017 when a landlord lowered the rent deposit for a house after identifying him as a successful entrepreneur who had received investments from Sachin Tendulkar for his previous venture. Rathi wanted to make this trust and belief, which led to the landlord lowering his ask, the core of his next venture to tap the financial segment.
Speaking on the role of technology, Rathi says, “By leveraging data analytics and AI algorithms to assess creditworthiness, we are able to offer credit and other financial products to individuals who may not have traditional credit histories, helping facilitate financial inclusion.”