Indian AI financial platform Afinit collaborates with Seoul National University to develop a groundbreaking credit scoring technology designed to enhance lending accuracy for previously rejected applicants, enhancing financial inclusion in emerging markets ahead of a Kosdaq listing.
Afinit, the Indian AI financial platform that is preparing for a Kosdaq listing, has joined with Seoul National University to file a patent for technology it says could make credit scoring more accurate for borrowers whose applications were rejected. The company said on Thursday that the research is the first output from a joint project launched last year to build an AI-based financial framework aimed at improving financial inclusion in emerging markets.
The new system is designed to address a long-standing weakness in conventional credit assessment: lenders usually have repayment data for customers they approve, but little hard evidence on the repayment ability of those they turn away. According to Afinit, the jointly developed method uses a three-stage process in which AI is first trained to mirror existing underwriting rules, then used to simulate alternative decision standards with historical data, and finally refined with repayment records gathered from a carefully selected group of previously declined applicants.
Afinit said the model goes beyond simple default-rate prediction by weighing interest income, principal recovery, losses and operating costs when testing whether a loan approval or rejection would have been profitable. The company then intends to approve a limited number of applicants previously judged too risky, collect real repayment data and feed that back into the model. In Afinit’s telling, the approach should gradually reduce the data blind spot that has long limited lenders’ ability to distinguish between genuinely risky borrowers and those simply lacking a traditional credit history.
The company plans to roll out the technology step by step within True Balance, its Indian AI financial platform, which uses alternative credit scoring to connect users with lenders and offers services including small loans, insurance recommendations, bill payments and prepaid top-ups. Afinit, founded in 2014, says True Balance already serves more than 95% of India’s regions and operates with non-banking financial company and prepaid payment instrument licences. The company has also been expanding in India’s middle- and lower-income segments, and earlier this year it said it had completed pre-IPO fundraising ahead of a planned public listing in South Korea.
The patent filing also comes against a backdrop of improving financial recognition for Afinit’s Indian operations. In July, the credit rating agency CRISIL upgraded the company’s Indian unit from BBB to BBB+, according to industry reports, citing stronger financial performance and credibility in the AI finance sector. Afinit says the broader ambition is to use its alternative credit technology well beyond India and into other emerging markets, where access to formal financial services remains uneven.
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