In this inspiring episode of India FinTech Diaries, we sit down with Shweta Pandey, co-founder and CEO of ARTH, to explore how inclusive fintech is being built—one village, one woman entrepreneur at a time.
ARTH isn’t just a lender; it’s a phygital platform blending digital convenience with on-ground trust, designed specifically to support women-led nano and micro businesses across India. Shweta shares deep insights into the unique design principles behind ARTH’s credit products, the structural bias in lending, and how credit must be paired with capacity building and empathy—especially in Bharat’s context.
Key Highlights:
👩🌾 Designing for Women: ARTH’s products are built not just around financial needs but women’s financial lives, respecting family dynamics, resilience, and informal savings behaviors.
📲 Phygital by Design: ARTH combines digital tech with a powerful on-ground presence—local business centers and community “Mitra” volunteers—to foster trust and understanding.
💳 Credit + Payments = Trust: ARTH bundles loans with payment solutions like soundboxes and QR codes, enabling flexible repayment and improving data visibility.
❤️ Failure is Part of the Journey: Through its Sahyog Program, ARTH supports customers who’ve faced genuine business failure—offering diagnostics, counseling, and pathways to return as formal borrowers.
🌱 What’s Next: With plans to expand into solar loans and reach 10 million households by 2030, ARTH is redefining what responsible, gender-intentional fintech can look like.
Tune in to understand how ARTH is pioneering inclusive and impactful finance.
Timeline
00:00 Start
00:45 Introduction
01:31 About Shweta
04:33 ARTH’s founding thesis
09:00 Building for Bharat
19:08 ARTH’s products
25:35 Designing financial products for Women
29:13 Underwriting new to credit customers
37:46 Rahat and Sahyog
49:35 What’s next for ARTH