In the crowded lanes of possibility, sometimes the most powerful journeys begin with the simplest of bonds. For Ranvir Singh and Krishnan Vishwanathan, that bond was books, movies, football and a shared sense of purpose rooted in service and discipline, inherited from their Fauji families.
Both alumni of IIT, Ranvir and Krishnan were no strangers to ambition. Krishnan’s journey took him to Yale, where he developed a global perspective on how technology could shape lives. Ranvir, meanwhile, honed his leadership and strategic skills at IIM, emerging with a sharp business acumen and a profound insight into India’s evolving financial and consumer landscape.
Their paths crossed at McKinsey, one of the world’s top consulting firms, where they became not just colleagues, but collaborators – curious minds shaped by discipline, sharpened by intellect, and driven by a shared question: What if we could solve a real problem for millions of Indians?
Their conversations often circled back to one shared frustration: financial access in India was deeply broken. Despite the country’s digital progress, a vast segment of the population, especially the “new-to-credit” borrowers that remained excluded from formal lending channels. Traditional banks, reliant on paperwork and conventional credit scores, had no answer for the aspirations of first-time borrowers, gig workers, or small business owners.
(Kissht Founders – Ranvir Singh and Krishnan Vishwanathan)
In 2015, Ranvir and Krishnan decided to take a bold leap. That leap became Kissht– a digital lending platform born out of a desire to democratize access to credit for millions of underserved Indians. At a time when most players were still warming up to the idea of fintech, they were already laying the tracks for a first-mover digital lending model that leveraged data science, deep merchant integrations, and risk intelligence to make credit simple, fast, and accessible.
Their mission wasn’t just about disbursing loans, it was about empowering dreams. A young professional buying her first laptop, a small business owner needing working capital, a family buying their first car – Kissht was designed for them.
The journey, however, wasn’t without hurdles. Building trust in a sector historically dominated by traditional banks took grit. From navigating regulatory uncertainty and managing tech adoption to convincing sceptical investors, challenges were plenty. But what fuelled them wasn’t just ambition – it was conviction. They knew India’s financial ecosystem was ready for transformation, and they were determined to be the architects of that change.
Over the years, Kissht has evolved into a trusted name in digital credit, serving millions across India. It blends technology with empathy, data with intuition, and scale with purpose. Today, it stands as a testament to what can happen when two minds from the world of strategy and structure follow their hearts into entrepreneurship with courage, vision, and a belief in financial dignity for all.
As Kissht prepares for its next chapter, scaling further and possibly going public- it does so not just with strong metrics, but with a powerful origin story. A story of two friends, a shared dream, and the belief that access to credit should be a right, not a privilege.
