Ummeed: Digital Micro-Lending App

Ummeed is a mobile lending app for people and small businesses who need a small amount of credit for a short time. Borrowers sign up, verify their identity with Aadhaar and PAN, receive a loan offer, sign the agreement digitally and repay through automated debits or UPI, all from the phone with no paperwork. I built the React Native client, working with a lending partner's backend for underwriting and disbursal.

Small business owners and everyday borrowers often cannot get small loans quickly because of paperwork, branch visits and slow verification. A lending app also handles identity documents and financial data, so it has to be fast and easy to use while keeping that data safe on the device.

• Onboarding

  sign in with a mobile OTP, bind the app to the device and protect it with a biometric lock.

• KYC

  verify identity with Aadhaar OTP or DigiLocker and validate PAN, then capture a liveness selfie for a face match. The app passes only masked or tokenised results to the backend.

• Loan offer

  show the approved amount and tenure options with an interactive EMI calculator that updates instalments, fees and the amount received as the borrower adjusts it.

• Agreement

  present the sanction letter and loan contract and collect an Aadhaar-based e-sign.

• Disbursal and repayment

  set up an e-mandate for auto-debit, then show the repayment schedule, overdue status, payment history and a UPI link to pay early or settle.

• Saarthi partner app

  the Play Store app, managed by Ummeed Housing Finance, lets partners submit a new lead (name, mobile number, city, amount and loan type), track leads by status (in progress, login, disbursed and rejected), view rewards, update their profile, find branches by state and read notifications.

• Sensitive identifiers such as Aadhaar, PAN and bank details are held only in temporary in-memory state during the step that needs them and cleared once submitted. Redux persistence is never enabled for onboarding or KYC data, and the app keeps only opaque reference IDs such as an application or KYC reference.
• Session tokens and biometric keys are stored in the iOS Keychain or Android Keystore, with hardware-backed security where the device supports it, and never in AsyncStorage.
• All traffic goes over TLS with certificate pinning to reduce the risk of man-in-the-middle attacks.
• On Android, FLAG_SECURE blocks screenshots and screen recording on sensitive screens. On iOS, a blur overlay hides content when the app is backgrounded. Rooted and jailbroken devices are detected and handled.
• The UI was designed from Figma prototypes, with Redux for state and lazy loading with code splitting to keep screens fast.

• 1

  Handling identity data safely

  the client keeps as little sensitive data as possible, for as short a time as possible, and relies on server-side storage for the real identifiers.

• 2

  A long, drop-off-prone flow

  onboarding, KYC, offer, e-sign and mandate setup are split into short, clear steps so borrowers can finish them on a phone.

• 3

  Clear loan terms

  the EMI calculator shows instalments, fees and the amount received together, so there are no surprises after signing.

• 4

  Accessibility and speed

  an accessible UI and lazy loading keep the app usable for a broad audience on a range of devices.

Reached 3,000+ users with 95% user satisfaction in surveys, and cut load time by 20%.