Online consumer lending platform ZestMoney has acquired PhotographAI, an AI-as-a-service platform, which provides various computer vision Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
The company did not disclose the size of the deal. APIs are a set of software codes that help machines to interact with one another.
The move will further strengthen ZestMoney’s capabilities in the areas of AI, visual AI and Optical Character Recognition (OCR).
ZestMoney is expected to have one of the most advanced automated credit assessment capabilities in the market, said Lizzie Chapman, Co-Founder and CEO. This is a step to deliver automated and paperless credit products to more than 300 million households that currently do not have access to credit cards or any other formal financing options because of insufficient credit history.
The fintech start-up said that it is seeing increasing demand from consumers in Tier-I markets and from customers traditionally under-served by banks.
Having a completely digital application and underwriting process is now critical to serve these customers.
Ashish Anantharaman, Co-Founder and CTO, ZestMoney, pointed out that the PhotographAI team has developed superior API-based AI solutions that “we have been testing for some time in authentication, on-boarding and underwriting. This acquisition will help us strengthen our capabilities in these areas and build additional in-house solutions for OCR and facial recognition.”
PhotographAI has built a platform that delivers images, videos and technologies such as image classification, OCR, document enhancement, text analytics and video analytics to e-commerce and fintech companies to automate their process and minimise costs.
The company had raised funds from venture capital firms Orios Venture Partners and IndiaQuotient.