Slice Small Finance Bank Limited

Slice Small Finance Bank Limited is a small finance bank founded in 2017 and headquartered in Guwahati.

Slice Small Finance Bank is the most unusual name on the CGSS Member Institution panel. It is a small finance bank with fintech origins, headquartered in Guwahati, and it reached banking through a technology-first consumer lending business rather than through conventional branch banking. Of the 40 registered Member Institutions it is the one whose own institutional history most closely resembles that of the startups the scheme exists to fund.

Its role in the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups. Slice Small Finance Bank Limited is one of 40 institutions registered with the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company as a CGSS Member Institution (NCGTC MLI ID 338, classified as a small finance bank). Member Institutions are the lenders that actually extend credit under the scheme: you borrow from Slice Small Finance Bank Limited, and NCGTC guarantees Slice Small Finance Bank Limited against your default. That guarantee is what allows the facility to be extended to a DPIIT-recognised startup without collateral, with cover of up to Rs 20 crore per borrower, being 85 percent of the amount in default on loans up to Rs 10 crore and 75 percent above that.

What this means in practice. That shared context can make for a more fluent conversation about a business whose assets are software and users rather than inventory and property. Temper it against scale: a small finance bank balance sheet limits facility size, and the branch network is nothing like that of a commercial bank. Worth an early conversation if your business is digital and your requirement is modest.

The terms are the bank's, not the scheme's. This is the point founders most often miss. CGSS fixes the guarantee, not the loan. The interest rate, tenure, moratorium, repayment schedule and how the Annual Guarantee Fee is passed through to you are all set by Slice Small Finance Bank Limited under its own credit policy, and they differ materially between Member Institutions for an identical borrower. Nor does registration oblige Slice Small Finance Bank Limited to lend: it appraises you on its normal credit standards first and applies the guarantee second. Approaching more than one Member Institution is almost always worth the effort.