Samir Bhatia

Cofounder, Smecorner

Search every verified Samir Bhatia interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Samir Bhatia, cofounder of SMEcorner, discussed his career and the founding of his company in a 2017 interview. Bhatia stated that he was the first employee of HDFC Bank in India, where he helped obtain the license, assemble the joint venture, and raise capital. He described his early work in financial control as "thankless and unglamorous" but a "great grounding" that taught him about every product and division in the bank. Bhatia said he founded SMEcorner to address the problem that small businesses "really don't know who to go to when they want a loan." He described the platform as allowing a small business to receive an "instant soft approval" within three minutes and receive funds within three days. Bhatia noted that the company was using artificial intelligence and machine learning to reduce "human subjectivity in underwriting and decisioning" to make the business scalable. He also offered advice to entrepreneurs, stating that they should be "really humble and accept that you do not know everything" and that if a strategy is not working, they should "pivot quickly."