Fintech firm Cashfree Payments plans to add 100 lenders for VKYC by FY26

Cashfree Payments aims to scale its AI-based Video KYC solution to 100 lenders by FY26, targeting RBI-regulated entities to improve conversion rates and reduce wait times

Fintech firm Cashfree Payments plans to scale its AI-based Video Know Your Customer (KYC) solution from the current four to at least 100 lenders by the end of the current financial year (FY26), a senior company executive said.

 

The Bengaluru-based company is targeting Reserve Bank of India (RBI)-regulated entities such as non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to expand the offering, aiming to improve conversion rates and reduce wait times for end customers.

 

The company claims a conversion rate of 80%, higher than the industry average of 50%, and says it can complete a VKYC process in less time than the industry standard of eight to ten minutes.

 

“The idea is to get NBFCs to route all their flows through us and scale to at least 100 lenders by the end of this financial year,” said Reeju Datta, co-founder, Cashfree Payments.

 

He added that the product is designed to work in geographies such as tier II and tier III. 

 

“It’s built for lenders in tier II and III since it works even on 150 kbps bandwidth and uses smart OCR (optical character recognition) while alerting you to issues like low light or blurred images,” he added.

 

At present, operational challenges such as network bandwidth, document verification processes, and the availability of agents to conduct VKYC continue to exist.

 

“We handle document and PAN verification separately, before the VKYC process. Users enter VKYC only after completing PAN checks. This avoids failures from missing PAN during VKYC and improves success rates by running these steps asynchronously,” he explained.

 

A longer waiting period also leads to increased drop-offs during the VKYC process, leading to a lower conversion rate for any given entity.

 

To address this, the company is deploying an AI-driven solution capable of scheduling agent calls with customers.

 

“The agent scheduling is fully AI-driven, ensuring optimal capacity utilization. VKYC wait times, which are typically 3–5 minutes, are reduced to under a minute with smart scheduling, boosting conversion rates,” Datta added.