Bharti Airtel has presented a non-banking financial company (NBFC) in the form of Airtel Finance that has rolled out a massive 20,000-crore war chest to aggressively expand digital lending activities throughout India. This strategic infusion, announced on February 24, 2026, is targeting to tap into the booming fintech market by borrowing on the 40 crore+ customer base of Airtel through its mobile application. The relocation makes Airtel a formidable competitor to other giants such as Paytm, PhonePe, and Jio Finance in the under-serviced credit market.
Plans of Strategic Funding and Expansion.
Airtel finance is a systemically important, non-deposit taking NBFC licensed by the RBI to roll out the capital in three years to originate 50,000 crore loans. Its areas of focus are consumer durables financing, small business loans, gold loans, and micro-credit to rural users- the two areas where digital penetration remains low. CEO Gopal Vittal highlighted contact with data analytics of Airtel based on telecom usage, payments (25 percent of UPI volume Airtel Thanks app) and Wynk Music behaviors to determine creditworthiness without collaterals.
The war chest will be split into the 10,000 crore in equity provided by Bharti Airtel and enterprises and the remaining through debt markets and securitization. Co-lending with banks such as SBI and HDFC will maximize reach with an objective to reach 10 crore underserved borrowers in 2028.
Tech-Driven Lending Model
Airtel has an advantage of having an integrated ecosystem. Underwriting AI provides loan approvals in less than 10 minutes -90% through app, no paperwork. Smartphone and appliance purchases through features such as Buy Now Pay Later has already disbursed 5,000 crore the previous financial year. KYC blockchain and rural verification via satellite data reduce NPAs which is estimated to be less than 2 percent.
This is a continuation of the shift of Airtel, which is no longer a pure telecom: 20 percent of revenue today is on the digital services. The lending will complement Airtel Payments Bank (500 million accounts) and Xstream content and form a flywheel of customer stickiness.
| Lending Segment | Target Disbursal ( 750000 Cr) | Key Features |
| Consumer Loans | 15.000 | Instant approval, 12-36 months |
| MSME Credit | 20,000 | Flexible EMIs based on UPI |
| Gold & Rural | 15,000 | Geo-fencing, App-based |
Geo-fencing, App-based
The digital lending market in India is estimated to be of 50 billion dollars and its growth is 40 percent per annum as part of RBI efforts to ensure financial inclusion. The size of Airtel is a competitor to Razorpay, CRED, and fintech divisions of the banks. Vittal had given the warning of hyper-competition, but gave an example of the trust quotient of Airtel of 99% on-time repayments in pilots.
Among the risks, there are regulatory scrutiny after 2022 RBI investigation of the use of algorithms in lending and increased NPAs due to economic slowdowns. Airtel cushions itself with low LTV ratios and collections with 1 million agents.
Broader Implications
Such an excursion hastens the process of cashless India and gives power to gig workers and kirana stores that banks overlooked. Analysts expect Airtel Finance to become a unicorn by 2027 and increase parent company stock by 5 percent after the announcement. According to Gopal Vittal, we are not merely connecting calls but we are connecting dreams.
The NBFC bet by Airtel highlights how telcos are transforming into super apps, which is redefining finance to 1.4 billion Indians.
