Lentra Strengthens Digital Lending Growth for Banks and NBFCs

India’s credit landscape is witnessing a renewed surge as consumer confidence, festive demand, GST rate cuts, and digital infrastructure reforms combine to unlock credit appetite across retail, MSME, and first-time borrower segments. Lentra, the leading lending technology provider, serving banks and NBFCs, has reported a 43% surge in loan value and 41% growth in volume through their platform, in the festive season this year.

AI Intelligence Infused at Every Step

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the foundations of lending technology by making credit decisions faster, fairer, and more inclusive. By embedding intelligence across the lending lifecycle, from customer evaluation to decisioning, AI enables banks and NBFCs to extend credit responsibly to first-time and underserved borrowers. Lentra is playing a pivotal role as technology provider in this shift, allowing lenders to simplify onboarding, enhance accuracy, provide data-led insights, automate workflows, precision decisioning and improve credit access at scale to support financial inclusion across the ecosystem. It represents a significant leap in integrating AI within the digital platform for lending and effectively addresses key pain points faced by banks, including fair valuation of inventory and collateral, mitigating manual bias or fraud, accelerating processing speeds, reducing operational costs, providing instant valuation estimates, and accurate credit decisioning. These solutions demonstrate Lentra’s ongoing commitment to innovation and its role in transforming the lending experience for institutions and borrowers alike.

D Venkatesh, Chief Executive Officer, Lentra/Ankur Handa, President, Lentra shared thoughts during the Media Day in Mumbai, “India’s lending market is evolving faster than ever, with AI transforming how banks and NBFCs serve today’s consumers. 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. We offer the most comprehensive and proven suite of digital lending solutions, powering the entire credit value chain from origination to collections with intelligence, improving first-time-right rates, revenue generation, speed, and reliability. This depth of capability sets us apart and continues to attract India’s most forward-looking banks and financial institutions.”

Festive Season Lending Trends: A Strong Consumer Signal

India’s festive season sets a strong tone for the Indian banking sector, showcasing its strength, resilience, and retail-driven momentum as we move towards 2026. With the implementation of GST 2.0, credit growth surged by 11.38% YoY, the highest since January, as per data released by Reserve Bank of India. With consumer spending and retail borrowing ramping up, it reflects India’s evolving consumption and credit patterns. A TransUnion CIBIL highlights a generational shift, with 61% of fintech borrowers under the age of 30. Early credit adoption is becoming a key trend, with 41% of first-time borrowers now being Gen Z.

Lentra recorded the below loan data over the 11 days leading up to Dussehra:

• 60% growth in loan value and 41% Y-o-Y growth in loan volume resulting in disbursement of INR 1633 Cr for consumer durables and INR 385 Cr for two wheelers.
• Mobile phones are the most financed product category, representing 63% of all consumer-durable loans.

• Consumers opted for devices in the INR 20,000–INR 1,00,000 price range, with Vivo (30%), followed by Oppo (16%).

• Borrower profile: (i) 23–34 years age group dominated; (ii) (1 mil people were introduced to NTC) 60% were new-to-credit; (iii) significant volume originated from semi-urban and rural India.
• Two-wheeler financing showed over 50% YoY growth, led by Hero and Honda who dominated with 60% of the volumes.
• Operational Strength: Lentra platform performance during the period demonstrated exceptional resilience and throughput: 80 crore data requests (API calls), 15 lakh applications processed, 35,000 concurrent users, 48 ms response time, best disbursement turnaround time of 4-minute, and 100% uptime.

Lentra recorded the below loan data over the days starting from Dhanteras to Diwali:

• 58% growth in loan value and 38% Y-o-Y growth in loan volume resulting in disbursement of INR 1493 Cr for consumer durables and INR 268 Cr for two wheelers.
• Mobile phones are the most financed product category, representing 63% of all consumer-durable loans.

• Consumers opted for devices in the INR 20,000–INR 1,00,000 price range, with Vivo (30%), followed by Oppo (16%).

• Borrower profile: (i) 23–34 years age group dominated; (ii) (1 mil people were introduced to NTC) 60% were new-to-credit; (iii) significant volume originated from semi-urban and rural India.
• Two-wheeler financing showed over 50% YoY growth, led by Hero and Honda who dominated with 60% of the volumes.
• This trend peaked on the Dhanteras day prior to Diwali with over 3.5 lakh loans processed in a single day.
• Operational Strength: Lentra platform performance during the period demonstrated exceptional resilience and throughput: 64 crore data requests (API calls), 12 lakh applications processed, 43,000 concurrent users, 41 ms response time, best disbursement turnaround time of 4-minute, and 100% uptime.

“The festive season has underscored a decisive shift in India’s credit landscape, led by young, first-time borrowers from semi-urban and emerging markets. What we are witnessing is not just higher credit uptake but a foundational change in who is driving it, digitally savvy consumers entering the credit ecosystem earlier and with more confidence. Our goal is to enable this transition by ensuring seamless access, intelligent automation, and trusted decisioning at scale. As India’s retail lending momentum accelerates under GST 2.0 and a strong macro environment, we see this demographic wave shaping the future of responsible, inclusive credit growth,” added Kiran Moras, Chief Operating Officer, Lentra.

Lentra: Partnering in India’s Digital Credit Growth

Lentra’s continued investments in AI-led automation and platform scalability make it a trusted technology partner for India’s top banks and NBFCs. By enabling faster onboarding, intelligent risk assessment, and resilient infrastructure, Lentra is driving the next phase of India’s credit digitisation and supports the nation’s journey toward becoming the world’s third-largest economy by 2030. Lentra's  digital platform for lending serves over 50 Banks & NBFCs , has processed over $50 billion worth of loans cumulatively since 2019, while processing over 3 million loan applications monthly. HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, HDB Financial Services, TVS Credit, Federal Bank, Poonawalla Fincorp, Aditya Birla, Small Business FinCredit, Cholamandalam etc. are some of the clients that are expanding their reach, mitigating non-performing assets and optimizing operational efficiencies.