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Indian founder of $1.2 billion startup says bank rejected home loan application: ‘Just because I am a founder’
The Indian founder of a fintech startup valued at $1.2 billion has revealed that his home loan application was rejected by a top private bank.
The Indian founder of a fintech startup valued at $1.2 billion has revealed that his home loan application was rejected because the bank classified entrepreneurs as a high-risk category. Pravin Jadhav, founder and CEO of Raise Financial Services, took to social media to muse about the irony of the rejection — noting that the same bank had felicitated him as a top fintech innovator not so long ago.
“Founder's life is hard! My home loan application got rejected by a top private bank - just because I am a founder,” Jadhav said in his X post.
Indian founder lists credentials after loan rejection
In October 2025, Raise — the parent company of stock trading platform Dhan — raised $120 million in a Series B round led by Hornbill Capital. The Mumbai-based fintech was valued at $1.2 billion after the funding round, marking its entry into the unicorn club.
As one of the three co-founders of Raise, Jadhav is hardly short of entrepreneurial credentials, but the bank still deemed him a high-risk borrower.
To assure readers of his credibility, the founder of Raise Financial Services listed his credentials on X.
He noted that he had been a customer of the bank for more than 25 years. In terms of assets, Jadhav said he might be among the bank’s top 0.1% customers. “5x-6x of loan value in relationship with this bank,” he added.
Yet, in spite of all this as an impressive CIBIL score of more than 800, the top private bank rejected his home loan application.
“And irony is this bank felicitated me as top fintech innovator or something like that..” the Mumbai founder wrote, tongue firmly in cheek.
He ended his post on a rueful note, saying his employees could have their home loan applications approved but he was destined to spend his days in office.
“They can give loan to team members our company employs, but not me - because as founder I'm high risk category. Damn... lagta hai office mein hi rehna padega zindagi bhar…” Jadhav quipped.
An update
After the post went viral, Jadhav shared an update saying senior officials of the bank had reached out to him and promised to get the issue sorted.
“On the loan, senior officials from this bank and few more banks called up to help, it will get sorted,” he said in an update posted on July 17.
However, Jadhav's first viral post also had some unintended but amusing consequences — “Now my family and friends think - our business is not doing well, that’s why the bank rejected the loan application,” he wrote.
Post sparks amusement
The post sparked amusement on X, where it has collected over 35,000 views in a day.
One person in the comments section suggested that the founder needed to show “three months’ payslips” to the bank.
“Precisely why I’m back in a job. 4 yrs ago: Tried buying a 1.65 Cr house with 30% downpayment, solid credit & history. Loan rejected because I was a founder running a pre-profit company (despite raising 15x the loan amount for salaries),” revealed Abhilasha Purwar.
“Banks understand salary risk better than founder risk, even when the numbers disagree,” a user added.
(Also read: CEO says life was better before his startup hit $1 billion valuation: ‘No one noticed us’)
