All posts by Neel Achary

UST, Muthoot FinCorp Ltd. & Group Companies Sign Six-Year Deal Worth INR500 Crore

Bengaluru | Delhi | Mumbai Jan 27: UST, a leading AI and digital transformation solutions company, has secured a ₹500+ crore digital transformation deal with Muthoot FinCorp Ltd. and other group companies under the Muthoot Pappachan Group (Muthoot Blue). This six-year deal, extending through 2031, marks a significant milestone in the long-term strategic partnership between the two organisations, reflecting Muthoot FinCorp Ltd.’s continued confidence in UST as its trusted technology and transformation partner.

As part of this multi-year engagement, UST will introduce an enhanced technology stack that brings together modern engineering practices and industry-leading platforms. This includes advanced cybersecurity capabilities, incorporating Zero Trust security architectures, AI-driven threat detection, automated incident response, next-gen endpoint, and perimeter protection. UST will also drive hybrid and multi-cloud modernization to optimise workloads, strengthen disaster recovery, improve application performance, and enable cloud-native capabilities across mission-critical systems for Muthoot FinCorp Ltd. along with MPG’s seven additional entities.

Muthoot FinCorp Ltd. has one of India’s largest NBFC technology ecosystems. This deal spans across eight MPG entities, 22 service towers, and more than 4200+ branches across 29 states. The UST platform serves over thousands of users and integrates an ecosystem of 100 technologies, with a strong focus on service uptime, operational resilience, regulatory compliance, and scalable growth across the Group’s nationwide footprint.

Speaking on the engagement, Alexander Varghese, President, UST, said, “Our continued partnership with Muthoot FinCorp Ltd. and the wider Muthoot Pappachan Group is a strong endorsement of UST’s capabilities in managing large, mission-critical financial services environments. This multi-year engagement reflects a shared commitment to resilience, security, and long-term digital transformation. Together, we are building a technology foundation that supports scale, regulatory confidence, and sustained innovation across digital lending, branch modernization, and enterprise-wide data-driven decision-making as it continues to scale its operations across India.”

Dileep Sivan Pillai, Vice President and Head of India Business, UST, added, “This renewal goes beyond infrastructure management to enable operational excellence at scale. By combining modern cloud architectures, advanced cybersecurity, and automation-led operations, we are supporting Muthoot Pappachan Group strengthen its technology core while remaining agile in a rapidly evolving financial services landscape.”

Thomas John Muthoot, Chairman & Managing Director, Muthoot Pappachan Group, said, “UST has been a trusted technology partner to us for several years, consistently demonstrating deep domain expertise and operational reliability. This renewed engagement reflects our confidence in UST’s ability to support our long-term growth ambitions, strengthen our digital infrastructure, and ensure secure and compliant operations across the Group.”

Shaji Varghese, Chief Executive Officer, Muthoot FinCorp Ltd., said, “As we continue to expand our nationwide presence and product offerings, having a dependable and forward-looking technology partner is critical. This partnership with UST enables us to modernise our IT infra landscape, enhance cybersecurity, and deliver seamless services to our customers while meeting evolving business and regulatory requirements.”

Muraleekrishnan Nair, Managing Director – APAC Business Head CyberProof and Global Head – Cloud Infrastructure & Security CIS, UST, said, “The future of financial services is decisively cloud and AI-led, where agility, scalability, and security are fundamental to sustained growth. Our transformation with Muthoot is focused on building a future-ready digital ecosystem that keeps the organization ahead of both change and competition. By fully leveraging cloud platforms and cloud-native cybersecurity, we are enabling secure, intelligent operations at scale and supporting Muthoot’s evolution into a technology-driven enterprise delivering inclusive financial services across generations.”

The agreement was formally signed by senior leadership from both organisations in Thiruvananthapuram, India.

From Muthoot FinCorp Ltd., the signing was attended by Thomas John Muthoot, CMD and Shaji Varghese, CEO, along with other senior leaders – Joseph Oommen, CFO; Nishit Shrivastava, CITO; Naveen Nair, Infra Head; Sreekumar S, Procurement Head; Arun Kumar B, COO; Suresh Kumar, CHRO; and Prashant Kumar, Legal Head. From UST, Alexander Varghese, President; Dileep Sivan Pillai, Vice President; Muraleekrishnan Nair, General Manager; Stephen Kalaiselvam, Director – Delivery Head; Sreejamol N S, Account Manager; Gayathri Jaya, Business Finance – India Cluster; Shilpa Menon, Centre Head, UST Thiruvananthapuram; Sarath Raj, HR Head; and key delivery and account leaders were present.

Since 2020, UST has been working with the Muthoot Pappachan Group, popularly known as Muthoot Blue, supporting its digital transformation journey across infrastructure, cloud, and security domains.

Jelou Raises $10M to Build AI Apps That Move Money on WhatsApp

NEW YORK, NY & QUITO, ECUADOR – Jan 27: Messaging has become the primary way people communicate with businesses across the Americas, yet the actions that actually move money still happen elsewhere. Payments, identity checks, credit applications, and signatures are routinely pushed into apps, portals, or call centers, creating friction, abandonment, and operational cost. Jelou was built to close that gap by turning conversations into execution. Today, the company announced a $10 million Series A to expand Brain, its platform for building AI agents that securely execute real business and financial operations inside WhatsApp.

The round was led by Wellington Access Ventures, with participation from Krealo, Credicorp’s corporate venture arm, and Collide Capital. Jelou has now raised $13 million in total funding, including a $3 million Seed round led by Act One Ventures and Arca Continental Ventures.

The timing reflects a broader shift in how businesses interact with customers. Conversational channels like WhatsApp have become the default interface across Latin America, yet most AI tools remain limited to answering questions rather than completing transactions. At the same time, enterprises face rising pressure to reduce operating costs, improve conversion, and deploy AI that can integrate with existing systems without introducing security or compliance risk. Jelou’s approach focuses on execution, enabling AI agents to move work forward inside the conversation instead of handing it off to fragmented tools.

Jelou’s core product, Brain, is a platform that allows businesses and developers to create and operate AI agents that connect directly to their existing systems and perform transactional operations inside chat. Through Brain, companies can deploy agents that communicate with customers over WhatsApp, collect missing information, verify identity, trigger payments, and advance financial workflows using live system data. The platform includes a web-based studio with more than 3,000 integrations for building and integrating agents, as well as a conversation management layer that allows teams to oversee high-volume interactions while securely executing workflows such as payments, credit processes, and document signing.

“When customers are most ready to act, things usually fall apart,” said Luis Loaiza, CEO and founder of Jelou. “They get redirected out of the conversation, put on hold, or asked to repeat themselves across systems. We built Brain so businesses can meet customers where they already are and complete the entire operation securely inside chat. This round allows us to scale that model across the Americas and push conversational AI beyond talk into execution.”

The company’s journey began in Ecuador in 2017, where founder Luis Loaiza and the Jelou team observed that messaging had become the dominant interface for commerce in the region, while execution remained fragmented and insecure. Drawing on more than a decade of experience building messaging and encrypted communication systems, the team set out to make chat a place where real business happens. Since then, Jelou has expanded across Latin America, processing more than $100 million in financial operations and serving over 500 business customers across more than 13 countries, including banks, retailers, and consumer goods companies.

Jelou’s traction reflects a broader trend toward conversational commerce and agent-driven operations. As AI adoption accelerates, businesses are discovering that automation only delivers value when it is tightly integrated with existing infrastructure and designed for production from day one. In regions like Latin America, where companies must operate across diverse regulations, payment rails, and systems, the ability to deploy secure, scalable AI inside familiar channels is becoming a competitive necessity.

Jelou recognizes that the future of AI is centered around communication channels embedded within the everyday workflow,” said Jackson Cummings, Head of Wellington Access Ventures. “They are developing a platform that integrates voice AI, chat AI, payments, and identity into a single application layer. This strategic approach positions Jelou as an early mover in bringing transactional AI to messaging in Latin America.”

Looking ahead, Jelou plans to expand Brain into a full operating system for conversational business, enabling companies and developers to build, deploy, and manage production-ready WhatsApp applications directly from a prompt. The company’s vision is to make WhatsApp the primary operating layer for businesses across the region, with Jelou providing the platform that powers everything built on top of it.

Financial Inclusion at the Core of IFC and Caja Cusco’s Partnership

Lima, Peru, Jan 27: With the goal of promoting financial inclusion, supporting the growth of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and advancing sustainability in the Peruvian Amazon, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, announced its participation in the first sustainable bond issued by Caja Cusco.

IFC will subscribe US$15 million equivalent in local currency and mobilize an additional US$15 million from co-investors, for a first tranche totaling US$30 million. The total bond issuance will amount to US$50 million. This is a subordinated sustainable bond, a hybrid financial instrument that combines the risk profile of subordinated debt with the goals of a sustainable bond.

Peru’s MSMEs represent 99% of private enterprises, 42% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and 89% of private sector employment, yet face a financing gap of US$8.1 billion. Caja Cusco, one of the country’s leading municipal savings and credit institutions, plays a critical role in bridging this gap, with a nationwide presence across all 25 departments and a strong footprint in rural and low‑income regions.

The new financing will allow Caja Cusco to expand lending where it is most needed. At least 60% of the bond proceeds will support efficient agriculture technologies, water‑efficient technologies, and sustainable production systems. Another 30% will be earmarked for women‑led MSMEs, who face disproportionately higher barriers to accessing credit, and 10% will support MSMEs in the Amazon, a region with some of the lowest levels of financial inclusion in the country.

Yovana Enríquez Tisoc, CFO of Caja Cusco, added: “This subordinated sustainable bond marks a milestone for Caja Cusco, as it represents the first issuance of its kind in Peru’s microfinance sector. From the Andes and the heart of the ancient Tahuantinsuyo, our mission has always been to drive the development of our communities with dignity and purpose. This step reaffirms our commitment to uniting financial inclusion, sustainability, and regional development for the benefit of the country.”

Elizabeth Martínez de Marcano, IFC Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, emphasized: “This pioneering operation reaffirms IFC’s commitment to financial innovation and sustainable development in Peru. Caja Cusco is expanding access to finance for MSMEs, driving job creation, and setting a benchmark for the country’s microfinance sector.”

This project leverages various solutions offered by IFC, including local currency financing on attractive terms that mitigate risk for Caja Cusco, and targeted advisory support to strengthen Caja Cusco’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) system. With combined financial and non-financial support, IFC aims to be more relevant to its clients and amplify the impact of its projects.

Caja Cusco recently joined the Amazonia Finance Network, an IFC sponsored alliance that brings together over 60 members from 12 countries with the aim of increasing investment flows, mobilizing capital, sharing knowledge on innovative financial solutions, and generating synergies with the public sector, to generate sustainable impact across the Amazon region.

IFC will subscribe US$15 million equivalent in local currency and mobilize an additional US$15 million from co-investors, for a first tranche totaling US$30 million. The total bond issuance will amount to US$50 million. This is a subordinated sustainable bond, a hybrid financial instrument that combines the risk profile of subordinated debt with the goals of a sustainable bond.

Two Minute Reports launches AI Data Analyst Agent

Chennai, Jan 27: Two Minute Reports, a data analytics platform for marketers and agencies, today announced the launch of an AI Data Analyst Agent. The main function of the AI agent is to free marketers, agencies & decision-makers from data-operations & data-fatigue and enabling faster, insight-filled decisions.

Two Minute Reports is an India-based data analytics platform serving 4000+ clients across 80 countries. Founded in 2019, the company focusses on data accessibility – helping SMES, marketers and agencies to bridge the data-gap and focus on what really matters. The company is focussed on democratizing data-analytics and enabling a level playing field in the ecosystem, by providing instant reports & actionable insights.

Speaking on the launch, Paul Jebasingh, Founder – Two Minute Reports, said, “When we started TwoMinuteReports, our mission was to fix data accessibility. Only large enterprises had the teams, infrastructure and IT resources to make sense of their marketing data. Small and medium businesses were left behind, even though they are the ones who need clarity the most. With this new AI Data Analyst Agent, we are giving those superpowers to every small team – the ability to understand what’s really happening across their campaigns and make fast, confident decisions. This launch also marks an important shift for TMR. We are moving from automation to intelligence. It opens new revenue opportunities for us, deepens our value to marketers and agencies, and puts us in a strong position to capitalize on the data platform we built through R&D over these years. But more importantly, it helps marketers get back to creativity and strategy instead of drowning in data”

Reinforcing the experience on TMR’s AI agent, Yash Shah, Co-Founder & CEO – Momentum91, said, “In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, speed is the ultimate competitive advantage, and Two Minute Reports has become our primary engine for maintaining that pace. By leveraging their cutting-edge AI integrations, we have transitioned away from simply reporting raw data to instantly surfacing high-level, actionable insights that drive real-world results. This automation has fundamentally shifted our internal workflow; rather than losing hours to the grind of manual data extraction and analysis, my team is now empowered to spend their time where it matters most: strategizing and delivering exceptional value to our clients. It isn’t just a reporting tool; it’s a force multiplier for our agency’s efficiency.”

TMR’s new AI data analyst agent sits on top of their advanced data backbone called SpeedBoost, which unifies data from 30+ marketing & sales sources into 1 clean, reliable layer. Backed by the major component the AI WatchTower – intelligence layer that constantly monitors data and flags opportunities, gaps, critical misses & optimization ideas. On asking questions, clients receive instant explanations, visuals, and recommended actions powered by SpeedBoost’s unified data and the Watchtower’s intelligent monitoring.