RBI grants NBFC licence to CredFlow’s Cashpositive Finance for SME lending push

Fintech SaaS startup CredFlow has received a non-deposit taking NBFC (ICC type 2) licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), allowing the company to lend independently under its group entity Cashpositive Finance, which operates as CashFloat.

The licence, granted in about four months, enables CredFlow to build what it describes as India’s first data-native NBFC, integrating lending with deep GST, banking, ERP and supply-chain intelligence.

The NBFC arm is already operational and disbursing loans. CredFlow said the approval gives it full control across the lending lifecycle, replacing its earlier partner-led and LSP-driven models. This shift allows faster approvals, custom credit products, program-based underwriting, and tighter oversight from acquisition to collections.

CredFlow has been developing a large cashflow and invoice-intelligence network over the past four years. The platform claims that it tracks more than $800 billion in GST-verified invoice flows and covers over 6 million businesses.

The company said this proprietary dataset gives it a differentiated underwriting advantage in evaluating SMEs, a segment that has long struggled with collateral-heavy and slow banking processes.

The NBFC licence strengthens CredFlow’s lending business, which is on course to reach Rs 100 crore in assets under management this year. By lending directly from its balance sheet, the company will broaden its product suite to include purchase invoice discounting, unsecured and partially secured term loans, manufacturing expansion loans, structured SME finance, BG-backed financing, and co-lending programmes with leading banks and NBFCs.

Kunal Aggarwal, founder and CEO of CredFlow, said the company is doubling down on its mission to improve liquidity for small and mid-sized enterprises. 

“With our NBFC licence, we’re doubling down on our mission to make every SME in India cash-rich by combining structured lending, data intelligence, and responsible credit with speed. India’s SMEs don’t struggle because of a lack of demand – they struggle because of a lack of timely capital. Enabling them to thrive strengthens India’s industries, supply chains, and growth story,” he said.

CredFlow’s model blends offline reach with digital underwriting, using data from GST returns, banking transactions, credit bureaus, ERPs, and its anchor networks. Its AI-led automation engine adjusts credit limits in real time as business performance changes, creating a cashflow-linked lending framework better suited to SMEs with fluctuating working-capital cycles.

Alongside lending, CredFlow provides SMEs with SaaS tools for cashflow visibility, including dashboards for receivables, automated payment reminders, invoice validation and discount negotiation. The embedded software layer gives the company visibility into day-to-day business activity, which feeds into its underwriting engine.

The startup, founded in 2019, raised Rs 31.2 crore (about $3.7 million) in a pre-Series B round last November from Inflexor Ventures and a Singapore-based family office to scale its financial products and strengthen its technology stack. In 2023, it acquired Y Combinator-backed TechBiz in an all-cash deal to deepen its SME software capabilities.

With the NBFC now active, CredFlow aims to build a full-stack SME finance ecosystem offering working capital, payments, collections and, eventually, capital-market access through IPO-linked products.