PARIS, FRANCE – June 2026 – While traditional lenders continue to reject millions of entrepreneurs who lack conventional credit profiles, French fintech Aiffin has closed a €625,000 equity funding round backed by international angel investors and crowdfunding participants, alongside €2.5 million in debt financing, to expand its AI-powered vehicle financing platform for micro and small businesses.
Founded by Ukrainian serial entrepreneur Sergii Vaskov and French automotive executive Khalil Aram, Aiffin is building what it describes as the AI underwriting layer for mobility entrepreneurs: ride-hailing drivers, delivery couriers, artisans, tradespeople, farmers, small fleets, and other self-employed professionals whose livelihoods depend on having access to a vehicle.
The company believes that access to vehicle financing remains one of the largest barriers to entrepreneurship in France.
France is home to more than 4.4 million micro-entrepreneurs, many of whom rely on vehicles to generate income. Yet traditional financing models continue to favor salaried employees, established businesses, and borrowers with long credit histories, leaving a significant share of economically active entrepreneurs underserved.
“Millions of people are already working, generating revenue, and contributing to the economy every day,” said Sergii Vaskov, Co-Founder of Aiffin. “The problem is not whether they can repay. The problem is that traditional underwriting was designed for another era. We believe access to productive assets should be based on real business activity, not outdated assumptions and annual financial statements.”
Vaskov previously built one of Eastern Europe’s leading fintech leasing businesses, operating across Ukraine, Slovakia and Czech Republic. Over more than fifteen years, he and his team originated and managed vehicle-financing portfolios while maintaining a record of zero write-offs across previous ventures.
Joining him is Khalil Aram, who previously held various roles at Crédit Agricole Auto Bank, Cofidis, Emil Frey, Aiways, and FEST, where he developed financing programs and automotive partnerships across France.
The technology behind Aiffin is led by Chief Technology Officer Igor Nikolaev, a fintech executive with more than ten years of experience building large-scale financial platforms across Europe. Before joining Aiffin, Nikolaev already worked with Sergii Vaskov in previous ventures, and before that held senior technology leadership positions at Wirex and Velitech, leading the development of digital finance infrastructure, API ecosystems, and engineering teams.
At the heart of Aiffin’s platform is OrbitScore, the company’s proprietary AI underwriting engine. Rather than relying solely on traditional credit scores, OrbitScore analyzes open banking data, cash-flow patterns, transactional behavior, supplier and customer relationships, business activity, and alternative signals to assess an entrepreneur’s ability to repay.
The company says its technology already automates a significant share of financing decisions and aims to deliver approvals within five minutes, dramatically reducing the delays commonly associated with traditional leasing and banking processes.
“We are not trying to become another leasing company,” Aram added. “We’re building infrastructure. We want financing to become an invisible layer embedded directly where entrepreneurs buy vehicles and equipment.”
The timing is significant.
Across Europe, small businesses continue to report difficulties accessing financing despite representing the backbone of the economy. Mobility entrepreneurs are particularly affected because their income patterns often do not fit conventional banking models, even when underlying cash flows are strong.
Aiffin focuses on financing income-generating vehicles through long-term leasing structures, allowing entrepreneurs to acquire vehicles without the complexity traditionally associated with commercial lending. The company leases both new and used vehicles and has developed partnerships with dealers, brokers, and mobility ecosystems across France.
Since launching operations, Aiffin has built a financing portfolio of approximately €3 million, processes more than 250 financing applications per month, and has established embedded distribution partnerships designed to reach entrepreneurs at the point where financing decisions are actually made.
Beyond this, the founders have also launched IGOV.fr, a separate technology initiative aimed at simplifying access to public and administrative services in France.
The platform aggregates thousands of services offered by national, regional, and local authorities into a single searchable interface, helping entrepreneurs, immigrants, and small business owners navigate a notoriously fragmented administrative landscape.
“We experienced firsthand how difficult it can be to find the right information when starting or growing a business,” said Igor Nikolaev. “Whether it’s grants, registrations, local support programs, or administrative procedures, the information exists, but it’s often buried across hundreds of websites. IGOV.fr was created to make public services more accessible.”
The newly raised capital will be used to accelerate product development, expand Aiffin’s AI underwriting capabilities, strengthen embedded-finance partnerships, and support the growth of the company’s leasing portfolio throughout France.
Looking ahead, Aiffin plans to expand into additional EU markets before entering the United States, with the long-term ambition of becoming the leading AI-powered financing infrastructure platform for entrepreneurs.
The company ultimately believes that millions of entrepreneurs remain overlooked not because they lack potential, but because the financial system still struggles to understand how modern entrepreneurship works.
In a world where a vehicle can be purchased online in minutes but financing still takes weeks, Aiffin is betting that artificial intelligence can help close one of the biggest gaps in the real economy: giving entrepreneurs access to the tools they need to earn a living.
About Aiffin
Aiffin is a French fintech company building AI-powered underwriting and embedded financing solutions for micro and small businesses. The company specializes in financing passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, and commercial transport assets for mobility entrepreneurs through proprietary risk models, open banking integrations, and automated decision-making technology. Founded in 2025, Aiffin’s mission is to make productive assets accessible to entrepreneurs traditionally underserved by the financial system.