Business Head - Rural & Emerging Lending

Location: Mumbai or Delhi NCR, etc (extensive travel across rural and semi-urban markets)

Reports to: Founder & CEO

Experience: 12+ years

Function: Business, Sales, Collections and P&L

It is a technology-led lending platform focused on providing accessible and responsible credit solutions to consumers and small businesses. The business uses technology-driven lending and distribution capabilities to simplify access to finance across underserved customer segments.

About the Role

The company is looking for a Business Head to build and lead a profitable, field-led lending business across rural rooftop solar finance, EV and battery finance, Micro-LAP and other secured lending, and productive-asset and cash-flow-backed lending.

The mandate is to scale a high-quality portfolio with strong profitability and NPAs well below industry benchmarks. This is a hands-on role for a leader who is comfortable spending significant time in branches, markets, partner locations and customer sites.

• Own the strategy, P&L and execution plan for the business.
• Define products, customer segments, geographies and distribution channels.
• Deliver profitable growth across disbursements, AUM, yields, operating costs, credit losses and return on capital.
• Build scalable branch, cluster and field-team economics.
• Work closely with Risk, Credit, Operations, Technology and Finance.

• Build and lead a multi-location sales organisation across rural and semi-urban markets.
• Recruit, train and develop Regional, Area and Branch Managers and field teams.
• Develop distribution through dealers, installers, OEMs, DSAs, merchants and local partners.
• Improve lead conversion, sales productivity, turnaround time and partner performance.
• Stay close to the market through regular field visits and customer interactions.

• Own portfolio quality jointly with Credit and Collections, from origination to repayment.
• Build strong processes for pre-due follow-up, first-EMI performance, early-bucket collections and resolution of delinquent accounts.
• Keep gross and net NPAs at 50% or less of the relevant industry benchmark, with strong bounce, 30+ DPD and 90+ DPD performance.
• Link sales incentives to repayment and portfolio quality, not only disbursements.
• Run effective field collection, recovery, repossession and resale processes where applicable.
• Use portfolio data to spot early-warning signals by product, geography, partner, branch and vintage.

• Build controls against fake customers, identity misuse, duplicate financing, inflated invoices, fictitious assets, fake installations, fund diversion and employee or partner collusion.
• Ensure rigorous KYC, income assessment, asset validation, end-use monitoring and post-disbursement checks.
• Set up partner onboarding, audit, monitoring and exit processes.
• Work with Risk and Technology on fraud detection, geo-tagging, field verification and exception monitoring.
• Ensure compliance with RBI regulations, KYC/AML norms, fair-practice standards and internal policies.

• 12+ years in lending (NBFC, bank, fintech, vehicle finance, solar finance, microfinance, MSME lending, LAP or rural finance) in a field-intensive business.
• At least 5 years in a senior role owning sales, business, operations, collections or P&L.
• Proven record of building and managing large feet-on-street teams across multiple locations.
• Strong understanding of rural and semi-urban markets, informal cash flows, local distribution and field-level credit risk.
• Track record of growing a portfolio while keeping NPAs low and controlling fraud.
• Experience with assisted-distribution channels (dealers, installers, OEMs, DSAs, merchants).
• MBA, CA, CFA or equivalent preferred; strong operating experience is valued equally.
• Preferred: experience in two or more of rooftop solar/renewable finance, EV or vehicle finance, Micro-LAP/LAP, MSME or productive-asset finance, and rural lending and field collections.

A hands-on leader who leads from the front, is commercially sharp but unwilling to chase low-quality growth, is disciplined on collections and fraud controls, and builds systems and leaders for long-term scale.

• End-to-end P&L ownership in a lending business, including unit economics per branch and product
• Rural and semi-urban distribution building, both channel partners and direct field sales
• Collections and recovery leadership (early-bucket resolution, field collections, repossession)
• Credit risk understanding and portfolio analytics (vintage analysis, roll rates, DPD buckets)
• Fraud risk management and control design
• Regulatory knowledge (RBI norms for NBFCs, KYC/AML, fair practices, collection conduct)

• Building and scaling large, dispersed field teams
• Hiring and developing regional, area and branch leadership
• Incentive design linked to portfolio quality
• Partner and dealer management (OEMs, installers, DSAs)
• Stakeholder management with the founder, Risk, Credit and Finance

• Hands-on, field-first approach and high travel tolerance
• Discipline on quality over volume
• Data-driven decision making
• Integrity and a strong control mindset
• Ability to build from scratch in a start-up environment

experience