Underwriter AI joins GIFT IFIH's Young Builders' Program, Batch 1
We are proud to share that Underwriter AI has been selected for Batch 1 of GIFT IFIH's Young Builders' Program, one of 12 teams chosen for the residency at GIFT City, in partnership with the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA). More than 650 teams applied; 12 made it to the residency. This is how we got here, and what comes next.
About the program
The Young Builders' Program is a residency at GIFT City for early-stage teams building for financial services. Batch 1 brings together 12 teams, working at the heart of India's International Financial Services Centre, close to the institutions, regulators and ecosystem they are building for.
How we got here: from 650+ applicants to 12 teams
Selection ran in three stages, and each one narrowed the field sharply.
| Stage | What happened | Teams |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Online application | Teams submitted a written application describing their idea and business case. | 650+ |
| 2. In-person shortlist | Shortlisted teams were invited to a 36+ hour in-person event at the GIFT IFIH office in GIFT City. | 40–45+ |
| 3a. Round one | First evaluation during the in-person event. | 21 |
| 3b. Final review | Final pitches; every team selected here received the residency. | 12 |
In the final review we pitched to IFSCA's Chief Technology Officer and a jury that included a bank manager and the program director. For a product built for credit desks, pitching to a regulator's technology leadership and a working banker in the same room was the right test: one side pressure-tested the compliance and deployment story, the other the day-to-day credit workflow.
Thirty-six hours on site also meant building and defending the product under real time pressure, much like the live diligence calls Underwriter AI is designed for.
Why we are building at GIFT City
Underwriter AI is a live credit-analyst co-pilot for diligence calls. The riskiest moment in lending is the live call, where a borrower can gloss over a number and an analyst has seconds to catch it. GIFT City is where much of India's cross-border lending is booked, through IFSC Banking Units (IBUs), and every one of those loans needs rigorous credit diligence.
Building here puts us next to the credit desks we serve, and inside a regulatory environment designed to let new financial technology be tested responsibly.
What we will focus on during the residency
- Design partners: working with credit desks to run Underwriter AI on real diligence workflows.
- Enterprise readiness: access control, tenant isolation, persistence and redaction, built properly before any production use.
- Compliance by design: in-perimeter deployment, no retention or training on deal data, and a tamper-evident audit trail.
- Measured results: time saved per deal and issues caught per call, measured rather than claimed.
What will not change
Underwriter AI is decision-support. It never approves, prices or declines a loan; a qualified human owns every credit decision. We will keep being candid about what the product does today and what is still on the roadmap, because credit teams deserve that honesty from the tools they rely on.
What's next
We will share updates from the residency here on the blog. If you run a credit, leveraged-finance or private-credit desk and want to see Underwriter AI on a real deal, we would like to hear from you.
Frequently asked questions
What is GIFT IFIH's Young Builders' Program?
A residency program at GIFT City for early-stage teams building for financial services. Underwriter AI is part of Batch 1, one of 12 selected teams, in partnership with IFSCA.
How were the 12 teams selected?
Through three stages: an online application (650+ teams), a 36+ hour in-person event at the GIFT IFIH office in GIFT City for 40–45+ shortlisted teams, then two rounds of evaluation (21 teams qualified in round one, 12 in the final review).
Who judged the final round?
IFSCA's Chief Technology Officer and a jury that included a bank manager and the program director.
What does Underwriter AI do?
It is an AI credit analyst assistant: it runs live on borrower diligence calls, surfaces questions, checks answers against documents and drafts an IC-ready memo, with a human owning every decision.
How can a lender work with Underwriter AI?
Through a design-partner pilot on a live deal or a recent recorded call. Use the “Discuss a pilot” link or email [email protected].
See it on a real deal
Bring a live deal or a recent recorded call. We will run it through Underwriter AI and show you where the reasoning holds and where it flags.
Discuss a pilot