When Cloud Meets Intelligence in Lending, Hari Padmanabhan, Founder – Chairman, Uncia

By Vriti Gothi

AI and cloud-native design are quietly transforming how India’s lenders design, deploy, and scale digital lending for the next growth wave.

How do you see digital ending evolving in India’s next growth phase, particularly as financial institutions move toward AI-driven and cloud native models?

I see two dimensions to this question.

The belief that financial institutions are already AI-driven and cloud-native is only partly true. This transformation is still in its early, uneven stages. A system becomes truly AI-driven only when it cannot function without AI, and we are not there yet. What we see today are early use cases of agentic AI tools, such as chatbots, in limited functions, while the larger AI ecosystem is rapidly evolving toward specialised AI chips that will reshape computing architecture.

In banking, AI-driven lending will emerge only when intelligence is embedded across the ecosystem—when every transaction feeds continuous learning and generative AI autonomously drives actions. That level of intelligence is still evolving.

Most institutions currently operate in hybrid cloud setups, relying on private clouds due to concerns about data security. True cloud nativity will take hold once multi-tenant SaaS platforms prove secure and reliable at scale. With architectures built natively for the cloud, digital lending platforms can achieve faster AI integration and agility.

Digital lending in India is steadily moving toward an AI-powered, cloud-native future. The shift is visible, but its speed will depend on how quickly the ecosystem bridges gaps in AI maturity and cloud security confidence.

As the industry seeks speed and step scalability, how does Uncia Zero implementation model challenge traditional deployment models in digital transformation?

In my view, the Zero Implementation model is a true game-changer for the industry.

Digital transformation in financial institutions has long struggled with open-ended timelines and rising costs. Zero Implementation tackles this by shifting control from the service provider to the user, allowing institutions to move at their own pace. True transformation lies in empowering customers, not creating dependencies.

By productising every stage—from configuration in Uncia Studio to integrations via Uncia Connect—institutions can independently customise, integrate, and migrate systems with ease. This self-serve approach accelerates time to market and removes technology bottlenecks, enabling faster, more flexible innovation. Proven through the Supply Chain Finance platform, the Zero Implementation and Self-Serve model is redefining digital transformation, turning it from a one-time project into a continuous, customer-driven journey.

With smart platforms like Uncia blending artificial intelligence and human judgment, how is the decision-making process in digital lending becoming more intelligent and context-aware?

AI deployment is an evolutionary process that takes time for models to learn, adapt, and refine. In the future, every financial institution will build its own Small Learning Model (SLM)—a compact, organization-specific framework that learns continuously from every transaction and decision. Institutions that master this will gain a lasting edge as their systems evolve intelligently with each cycle.

Every transaction on our platform carries embedded learning, ensuring it grows smarter over time. By combining neural and language models, structured data, and continuous knowledge reuse, institutions can build secure, AI-governed ecosystems that learn, adapt, and evolve with every interaction.

At Uncia, our focus is on providing the infrastructure and tools that enable this evolution. Every transaction executed on our platform, and every business rule refined through analytics, carries an embedded layer of learning. This ensures that the system is never static — it becomes progressively smarter over time.

Unity Bank’s recent success in doubling its supply chain finance booked over 1000 crores in six months highlights Uncia’s execution capability. What were the key technology and strategy drivers behind this growth?

Uncia Flow, built on the Self-Serve and Zero Implementation model, enables financial institutions to configure and launch Supply Chain Finance programs within a day using Uncia Studio. The platform allows a complete setup and go-live readiness almost overnight, turning agreements into market launches in under 24 hours.

This unmatched speed and flexibility empower institutions to scale efficiently. Strategically, Supply Chain Finance enables banks to deepen existing client relationships by offering complementary products without requiring new customer acquisition. The blend of technological agility and strategic leverage enhances liquidity, strengthens ecosystems, and drives faster growth across lending networks.

How does Uncia Studio allow financial institutions to build and adapt lending workforce workflows independently? And what does this mean for the future of low-code innovation and BFSI?

Uncia Studio lies at the heart of our Zero Implementation philosophy — it’s what truly puts control in the hands of the user.

At Uncia, we don’t talk about Implementation; we talk about go-live. The distinction is deliberate. When an organisation sets out to “implement,” the process often becomes prolonged and iterative. But when the goal is to “go live,” it drives intent, urgency, and parallel execution. From the outset, we fix a go-live date and align every activity toward that milestone, ensuring institutions see results faster.

Uncia Studio is central to the Zero Implementation philosophy, giving users complete control to go live faster. Instead of lengthy implementations, institutions can design workflows, modify rules, and launch programs through an intuitive, no-code interface using drag-and-drop tools. Each product comes with prebuilt templates based on decades of lending expertise, allowing quick customisation across the lending lifecycle.

AI-assisted low-code capabilities enable rapid development and deployment with minimal support. Built for agility and scalability, Uncia Studio ensures technology keeps pace with business,
empowering institutions to adapt instantly and achieve faster, customer-driven digital transformation.

In a market defined by cost sensitivity and scale, how does Uncia’s pay-as-you-grow model support SME lenders and NBFCs looking to digitise sustainably?

The economics of technology in financial services have shifted from large upfront investments to performance-based scalability. Earlier, banks and NBFCs spent heavily on licenses and long implementation cycles before seeing returns. Today, with open-source tools and cloud infrastructure easily available, the real investment lies in people and time, not ownership.

The Pay-As-You-Grow model links technology costs directly to business performance, converting what was once a capital expense into a flexible operating cost. Institutions pay in proportion to growth—by disbursements, transactions, or loan book expansion—so costs reduce as business scales, ensuring sustainable unit economics and stable margins.

This model challenges legacy licensing and maintenance-heavy frameworks that limit agility. Instead of paying large sums upfront, lenders can adopt a model that rewards adaptability and efficiency. Combining SaaS flexibility with transparent pricing, it democratises access to advanced lending technology, empowering SME lenders and NBFCs to digitise faster, scale sustainably, and grow profitably