Shruti Aggarwal (Stashfin) on Building a ₹2000 Cr Profitable Lending Business

"You have to be good at collections if you want to be a good lender."  

This was just one of Shruti Aggarwal's amazing insights in this episode: lending profitability relies on responsible repayment, not just customer acquisition.  Shruti Aggarwal is the Co-Founder of Stashfin, a digital lending platform in India. She has built a profitable fintech with a loan book of ₹2000 crores and monthly disbursements of ₹300-400 crores. Stashfin operates with remarkable efficiency, generating ₹800 crores in revenue with only 170 employees. Shruti is a CA, holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, and has experience at Merrill Lynch.  

Key Insights from the Conversation: 

✅Underserved Market: Stashfin focuses on the Indian middle class, often underserved by traditional banks, with small-ticket, unsecured personal loans. 

✅RBI Regulations: The evolving regulatory landscape has impacted growth and capital requirements but ultimately promotes a more sustainable lending environment. 

✅Technological Efficiency: Stashfin leverages technology for extreme operational efficiency, automating processes to minimize costs. 

✅Customer Retention: 90% repeat business demonstrates the success of Stashfin's customer-centric approach and product convenience. 

✅Leverage Control: Understanding and managing leverage is crucial for NBFCs, and recent RBI guidelines aim to limit risk.  

Chapters:  

0:00:00 - Introduction: Shruti Aggarwal's Entrepreneurial Journey 

0:05:51 - Returning to India & Identifying the Credit Gap 

0:11:18 - Choosing the NBFC Model: Control and Responsibility 

0:17:01 - Stashfin's Profitability and Unit Economics 

0:23:43 - Impact of RBI's PPI Guidelines on Credit Line Cards 

0:28:58 - Overview of RBI's Fintech Regulations (2016-2024) 

0:41:17 - The Chinese Loan Apps Issue and Regulatory Response 

0:48:36 - The Importance of Leverage in Lending 

0:53:54 - Stashfin's Funding Strategy: Diverse Sources 

01:15:04 - Technology-Driven Efficiency at Stashfin 

01:27:20 - Stashfin's Underwriting and Fraud Prevention 

01:33:36 - Future Opportunities in Indian Fintech

#FintechIndia #DigitalLending #NBFC #RBI #PersonalLoans #IndianEconomy #StartupIndia #Entrepreneurship #FinancialLiteracy #LendingRegulations