The Hidden Unicorn: How Rohit Arora Built Biz2X Into a $100mn ARR Fintech
An Indian immigrant's journey from marketplace startup to managing billions in SME loans while building a $100M+ ARR SaaS platform
In January 2025, inside the University of Miami Business School, 200 of America's most influential financial leaders gathered for an invitation-only conference. Former Congressman Patrick McHenry and USA President Wayne Peacock were among those who came to hear one man's vision for the future of business lending.
That man was Rohit Arora, CEO of Biz2Credit and Biz2X, and what he revealed would reshape how we think about fintech unicorns. While Silicon Valley obsesses over billion-dollar valuations built on potential, Arora has quietly constructed something far more substantial: a dual-engine empire managing "a few billion dollars" in active loans while generating over $100 million in annual recurring revenue.
The combined valuation approaches $15-20 billion. His next move? An IPO planned for early 2027.
In US, if you bring out an IPO where your market cap is below $10 billion, then analyst coverage is not very good. So it has to be above that, between $15 to $20 billion at least market cap.
Check out the video of the conversation here or read on for insights
The Immigrant's Impossible Dream
The story begins in 2003 when brothers Rohit and Ramit Arora arrived in New York with engineering degrees and dreams beyond their Deloitte consulting jobs. Their plan seemed impossibly ambitious: build a lending business as foreigners, with no banking experience, in the world's most regulated financial market.
The catalyst came in 2007 when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone.
When Steve Jobs launched the first smartphone in 2007, it was very clear that things will totally change because instead of people sitting behind a laptop or a desktop, now people will have first time internet in their hands.
They saw an opportunity to marry smartphone technology with America's underserved small business lending market, having witnessed how their South Asian community struggled with intimidating U.S. credit systems.
So in 2008, as the financial system collapsed, they launched Biz2Credit. The timing couldn't have been worse - or more perfect.
Building in the Crisis
Starting a lending business during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression required extraordinary vision. While banks tightened credit, the brothers built their platform almost entirely by hand.
Business owners used to upload their bank statements and then we had a team of people who used to look at it.
By 2013, they were facilitating $380 million in loans annually with 432% revenue growth over three years. But Arora realized they weren't controlling the customer experience end-to-end. The solution required elegant financial engineering.
The Wall Street Innovation
Rather than becoming a regulated bank, Arora pioneered a new model: partner with hedge funds as capital providers while Biz2Credit handled underwriting and servicing.
The pitch was compelling. In the post-2008 zero interest rate environment, institutional investors earned 0.5% on traditional investments. Through Biz2Credit's platform, they could earn 9-10% net returns.
So basically, they were making 0.5 or less than 1% and then on our platform, they were making close to 9 to 10% net of fees and defaults.
The structure used multiple special purpose vehicles (SPVs) with different hedge funds, each handling hundreds of millions in loans while Biz2Credit earned 2-3% on transactions.
The SaaS Transformation
By 2017, major banks like Citibank and HSBC began approaching Biz2Credit for their technology, not capital.
A lot of banks and other financial institutions were approaching us across the globe because they were also realizing that they have to provide some kind of digital experience to their client base.
This led to Biz2X, a SaaS platform offering end-to-end loan management with annual subscription fees of $1-4 million per major client. Today, it generates over $100 million in annual recurring revenue.
It's closer to now, 100 million, 100 million plus kind of stuff.
Arora's "Amazon AWS" approach meant building everything for themselves first, then offering proven solutions to clients.
The AI Revolution
As artificial intelligence transformed industries, Arora was already pioneering "agentic AI" - autonomous agents handling everything from customer onboarding to portfolio monitoring.
We have like a platform known as virtual CFO platform, which actually is like literally a CFO sitting with you.
The Virtual CFO platform provides free AI-powered financial analysis to thousands of small businesses, benchmarking any SME against similar companies globally. Major corporations like MasterCard have licensed this technology.
Working with Boston Consulting Group, they've identified a $750 billion annual funding gap for U.S. small businesses and $5 trillion globally. Their mission: close that gap through AI-powered platforms.
Global Expansion
Biz2X operates in the U.S., UAE, Saudi Arabia, and India. In the UAE, they've partnered with three largest payment processors, accessing over 90% of digital payments data.
Now we have like 90% plus of digital payments data that we have access to and we can build models we can run everything on top of it.
They're planning to hire 200+ professionals in India, adding to their current 1,000 global workforce.
Market Intelligence
Managing billions in small business loans gives Arora unprecedented economic insight. His analysis of Trump's tariff policies reveals nuanced impacts on American SMEs.
What Trump is doing very smartly, he's saying, okay, I'm going to collect all this money from tariffs. I'm going to make all these countries come and invest in US and I'm going to reduce the cost of doing business within US massively.
Biz2X's AI systems quickly identify which businesses face policy impacts, providing early warnings traditional banks cannot match.
Leadership Philosophy
Behind the numbers is a philosophy rooted in long-term thinking.
You have to solve problems and you have to play that long term. There's a saying in Wall Street whether you're paying short term greed or long term greed. I think that long-term mindset is very important.
Rather than competing with institutions, Biz2X partners with them, building deeper data moats while providing needed infrastructure.
The $15 Billion IPO
All this builds toward a public offering valuing the combined empire at $15-20 billion.
We are planning to do something in early 2027. Most probably, we'll just do it in the US itself, either on NASDAQ or NYSE.
With $8+ billion in loans facilitated, 200,000+ business clients, and operations across four countries, this isn't just a successful startup - it's a new kind of financial institution.
The Quiet Revolution
The most remarkable aspect is how quietly this unfolded. While Silicon Valley celebrated companies with billion-dollar valuations and minimal revenues, Arora built something genuinely valuable: a profitable, sustainable business solving real problems.
In an era when unicorn status has become commonplace - with over 1,000 private companies valued at $1+ billion - Arora created something rare: massive cash flows while creating genuine customer value.
As we approach the 2027 IPO, one question remains: Will traditional financial institutions adapt fast enough, or will companies like Biz2X replace them?
Based on Arora's trajectory and infrastructure, the answer seems clear. The revolution in small business lending isn't coming - it's already here, hiding in a Manhattan office where an immigrant's impossible dream became a $10 billion reality.
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