There is a quiet, exhausting reality at the heart of India’s financial system. We expect a billion people to navigate complex loan terms, credit scores, and financial disputes, but we force them to do it in a language they don’t speak and through jargon they don’t understand. When a farmer’s loan application is stalled over a missing limit, or a gig worker wants to plan for their child’s future, they usually have nobody to ask. We have built an incredible digital payment infrastructure, yet the actual understanding of personal finance remains a privilege for the few. When a system relies on people figuring out their own financial health in isolation, the result is inevitable: massive credit invisibility, compounded debt, and a population that feels small every time they interact with a bank.
It takes a builder with a profound grasp of population-scale empathy and the technical rigor to solve this at the root. That is exactly what Utkrishta Kumar (UK) is doing with Oolka.
Founded in 2024, Utkrishta and the team are building Dhruva — a deeply intelligent, agentic AI financial companion built specifically for Bharat.
Dhruva doesn’t force users to type out complex queries in English. Users communicate in the language they think in, across 22 scheduled Indian languages and over 200 dialects. It accepts screenshots of confusing documents or applications, which 1 in 3 users send and reads them back in plain language. Users can also simply speak to the AI, having sent 40 lakh voice notes. But crucially, it goes beyond just giving advice. Dhruva actually takes action — writing dispute letters, drafting closure requests, documenting every step, and tracking what happens next. In just the last year, the AI wrote and sent 74 lakh forms of communication on behalf of users.
The true moat here is uncompromising accessibility paired with real execution. According to FreedomReport.pdf, users have already exchanged 11.6 crore messages with Dhruva, reaching nearly every pincode in the country. By completely abstracting away the soul-crushing bureaucracy of financial disputes, Dhruva has helped users save on interest, improve credit scores, and secure loan disbursements. Users aren’t just getting a tool; they are getting an advisor they refer to as family, an angel, and a best friend. It shifts the paradigm from retroactive financial anxiety to proactive, deeply personalized financial wellness.
The market? A billion Indians who desperately need a trusted advisor to navigate the modern financial system without feeling alienated or confused.
Seeing homegrown founders head-down, quietly architecting the intelligence layer that finally brings financial freedom and understanding to the masses, is profoundly inspiring. They are giving people their confidence and their financial future back.
Let’s celebrate the builders.
w/ Jay Ingle
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