Fintech startup Perfios, which provides financial data analysis software, said on Monday it has acquired artificial intelligence (AI)-based debt collection company CreditNirvana for an undisclosed sum.
This is the Bengaluru-based company’s second acquisition in just over a month, after it purchased financial crime management firm Clari5 in February to bolster its fraud detection capabilities.
“This acquisition is a natural extension of our strategy, and it helps strengthen us from a full-stack tech-first solution perspective,” Perfios chief executive officer (CEO) Sabyasachi Goswami told Mint.
CreditNirvana uses AI to predict and pre-empt delinquencies while simultaneously automating the entire debt collections lifecycle through their products. Founded in 2018 by Raj MKK, CreditNirvana last raised an undisclosed sum in 2020 from US-based investors as part of its pre-Series A round.
Perifios’ acquisition of the company is part of its larger goal to be involved in every part of the customer journey and become an end-to-end provider to financial institutions. Goswami believes that debt management and collections are a critical yet underserved component of the financial customer lifecycle.
“We always wanted to fill in the gap in the debt collections; we found that through CreditNirvana. The company’s AI-driven collection engine complements Perfios’ intelligence and decisioning platform,” Goswami said.
CreditNirvana manages a collection portfolio exceeding $9 billion, handles 42 million loan accounts and supports nine types of loan portfolios.
‘Strategic lever’
“From an acquisition perspective, we’ve always been strategic, never opportunistic,” he said, adding that every acquisition the company has made is an attempt to add depth or accelerate Perfios’ market reach. The CreditNirvana buyout is a “strategic lever to expand into newer client segments,” he added.
Founded in 2009, Perfios provides banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) software solutions across 18 countries. The fintech startup currently sits in the unicorn territory after a $80 million investment from Teacher’s Venture Growth in 2024, according to Tracxn data.
In an earlier interview with Mint, Goswami said the company was focusing on solidifying its presence in the Middle East, South-East Asia and the Asia Pacific region.
Clari5 and CreditNirvana rely heavily on AI. Will the acquisition of AI-powered companies become a trend for Perfios? “No, I don’t think so,” Goswami said. The company saw a need in the financial crime management space, which is why it acquired Clari5, according to him. “Technology is not the only reason, it is one of them,” he added.