A Deep Dive into the Business of Education Finance in India | Prashant A. Bhonsle (Kuhoo)

"It's easy to give money away; the most difficult thing is getting it back."

 This is the fundamental, hard-learned lesson from a 30-year veteran of the lending industry. Prashant A. Bhonsle explains that the real art of building a sustainable financial institution lies not in aggressive loan disbursement but in mastering the underrated science of collections.

Prashant A. Bhonsle is a 30-year veteran of India's financial services industry and the Founder of Kuhoo Edufintech. A true pioneer, he was part of the founding team at HDFC Credila, India's first dedicated education loan company, which he helped grow to a ₹10,000 crore loan book while maintaining a remarkable sub-0.1% NPA rate. In this conversation with host Akshay Datt, Prashant shares how he raised one of India's largest seed rounds—$20 million—to build Kuhoo, a tech-first lender on a mission to make students financially self-reliant.

Key Insights from the Conversation:

• The Three Pillars of Lending: Prashant argues that any successful lending business must be built on a mastery of three core, non-negotiable pillars: Risk, Collections, and Compliance.
• Underwriting Potential, Not Parents: Kuhoo’s core innovation is its ability to use data science to predict a student's future earning potential, allowing it to offer collateral-free loans to meritorious students who would otherwise be ignored by traditional banks.
• From "Analog" to "Digital": Having built India's first education loan company with a traditional, "analog" model, Prashant is now using technology to solve the same problem with greater efficiency, scalability, and customer-centricity.
• Crisis as the Ultimate Teacher: Launching HDFC Credila at the exact moment the 2008 global financial crisis hit provided invaluable lessons in resilience, risk management, and the importance of having fundamentally sound business principles.

Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction

(01:38) From Pepsi's "Cola Wars" to the Dawn of Telecom in India

(04:41) The ICICI Bank Playbook: How Third-Party Distribution Disrupted Banking

(10:46) Pioneering Student Loans: The "Zero to One" of HDFC Credila

(19:21) Launching a Business into the 2008 Global Financial Crisis

(24:41) The Secret to a 0.1% NPA: How to Underwrite Risk in Student Lending

(39:00) The Kuhoo Thesis: Why India Needs a Tech-First Education Lender

(40:19) A Masterclass on Lending: The 3 Pillars of Risk, Collections & Compliance

(54:00) Building the Machine: Kuhoo's Fully Automated, App-Based Student Journey

(1:13:15) The Future of Edu-Fintech: Building a Billion-Dollar Book & Beyond

Hashtags:

#FounderThesis #Fintech #Lending #Startup #Entrepreneurship #PrashantBhonsle #Kuhoo #VentureCapital #NBFC #StudentLoans #EducationFinance #RiskManagement #IndianStartups #AkshayDatt #MakeInIndia