Lentra drives AI-led lending surge as India’s festive credit hits record highs

India’s credit landscape is seeing a renewed surge as consumer confidence, festive demand and GST 2.0 reforms open up new opportunities across retail, MSME and first-time borrowers.

Lentra, a leading AI-first lending technology provider for banks and NBFCs, reported a 43 percent rise in loan value and a 41 percent increase in volume through its platform during the festive season. The company’s AI-powered lending stack automates credit evaluation, decision-making and risk assessment, making access to credit faster, fairer and more inclusive.

India’s lending market is evolving faster than ever, with AI transforming how banks and NBFCs serve today’s consumers, said D Venkatesh, Chief Executive Officer, and Ankur Handa, President, Lentra. At Lentra, our mission is to strengthen India’s credit digital infrastructure by embedding intelligence across every step of the lending process, enabling smarter decisions, faster access and a more inclusive financial ecosystem.

Lentra’s digital platform supports the entire credit value chain, from origination to collections. It helps lenders improve accuracy, decision speed and revenue generation while reducing costs. The company works with major financial institutions including HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Federal Bank, TVS Credit and Aditya Birla Finance.

Festive credit trends point to a strong consumer signal

India’s festive season highlighted the strength and resilience of its retail lending market. Between Dussehra and Diwali, loan disbursements surged across consumer and two-wheeler categories.

For Dussehra, disbursements touched Rs 1,633 crore for consumer durables and Rs 385 crore for two-wheelers. During Diwali, consumer durable loans totalled Rs 1,493 crore, while two-wheeler loans reached Rs 268 crore. Loan volumes grew 41 percent year-on-year during Dussehra and 38 percent during Diwali.

Mobile phones remained the most financed product, accounting for 63 percent of all consumer-durable loans, led by Vivo with 30 percent and Oppo with 16 percent. Borrowers aged between 23 and 34 years dominated the segment, and 60 percent of all borrowers were new to credit. A large volume of these loans came from semi-urban and rural India.

Two-wheeler financing recorded over 50 percent year-on-year growth, with Hero and Honda together accounting for 60 percent of the total volumes. On Dhanteras alone, Lentra processed over 3.5 lakh loans in a single day. The platform handled up to 80 crore API calls with response times of 41 to 48 milliseconds, processing 12 to 15 lakh applications with 100 percent uptime.

The festive season has underscored a decisive shift led by young, first-time borrowers from semi-urban and emerging markets, said Kiran Moras, Chief Operating Officer, Lentra. Digitally savvy consumers are entering the credit ecosystem earlier and with more confidence. Our goal is to enable this transition through seamless access, intelligent automation and trusted decision-making at scale.

AI-led productivity and efficiency drive credit growth

From sales to underwriting, the Lentra AI platform helps lenders work smarter and serve customers faster. The Hawk Eye AI system gives field sales teams real-time guidance, helping them focus on high-potential leads and improve conversions. AI-assisted checks and voice interactions reduce manual errors, while automated credit assessments shorten underwriting time from weeks to minutes.

Lentra’s risk models triangulate data from multiple sources, helping credit managers identify potential defaults five times faster. Its continuous lead scoring models and early-warning triggers further improve portfolio quality. The platform achieved a 96 percent straight-through processing rate and the industry’s fastest disbursement turnaround of four minutes.

Since 2019, Lentra has processed more than USD 50 billion worth of loans and handles over three million loan applications each month. With its deep investments in AI, automation and platform scalability, it has become a trusted technology partner for banks and NBFCs across India. As credit growth continues and digital inclusion expands, Lentra is helping power the next phase of India’s lending transformation.