OUR TEAM

CHAIRMAN & INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR

G.R. Chintala

Appointed as Independent Director in September 2023 and appointed as regular Chairperson of the Board of Directors effective from January 5, 2024.

Dr Govinda Rajulu Chintala is a financial services veteran with over 35 years of experience. He was the Chairman of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) from 2020 to 2022. Prior to that he has served as the MD of NABFINS (NABARD Financial Services) and Chairman of NABARD Consultancy Services Ltd., NABVENTURE and NABFOUNDATION. His key initiatives include the digitizing the world’s largest microfinance program under project ‘e-Shakti’, creating a  “Roadmap for Amalgamation of Regional Rural Banks” and promoting and nurturing Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), Livelihood Enterprise Development Programs, Area Development Schemes and Alternative energy models.

He has been the Director of Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD) and has also served on the Boards of Institute for Rural Management (IRMA), DICGC and the Advisory Board of IIM-Ahmedabad.

He graduated from the Agriculture College, Bapatla, he did his Post Graduation in Seed Science and Technology from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi.

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Sanjay Sharma

Sanjay heads the organization and directly oversees its business strategy. As a founder, he has led the company from a tech driven start up aspiring to deliver social impact, into an award winning financial services firm that is delivering social impact at scale along with robust financial returns.

He is an accomplished leader in Consumer Banking with over 34 years of experience. He pioneered direct banking channels in HSBC and HDFC Bank and was part of the leadership team that launched consumer lending business at ICICI in 1999. Led the Life Insurance Underwriting, Claims, Operations & Service teams at Max New York Life Insurance Co. Set up Tamweel PJSC and grew it into the largest housing finance company in UAE with over USD 3bn in assets. As its CEO-International, won the Best Mortgage Bank Award from Banker Middle East and 4th most admired Financial Institution in the Region Award from Gulf Business.

He is an alumnus of IIT-Bombay and IIM-Bangalore

INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR

Sanjaya Gupta

Appointed as Independent Director in September 2023.

Mr. Sanjaya Gupta is a banking professional with over 35 years of extensive experience in leading high performing professional teams. His expertise lies in evaluating business opportunities, and developing strategic business plans. He served as the MD & CEO of PNB Housing Finance Limited from 2010 to 2020. Prior to that, he was the Co-founder and non-executive chairman of India Shelters.

As MD designate of a four-way joint venture between AIG Inc., National Housing Bank (regulator), International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) he conceptualized the first mortgage guaranty product in India.

He has been engaged with the RBI in drafting the regulations in 2007 in alignment with BASEL II regulations of the country. His Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) and change management work at PNB HFL was published as a turn-around story by Bloomsbury. He was awarded the “Economic Times Most Promising Business Leader Asia 2018-19”

Sanjaya is B.Com, and MBA, specializing in Finance and Marketing, from the University of Lucknow.

Independent Director

Vinay Baijal

Appointed as Independent Director in August 2024.

He is a distinguished industry professional who has served as a Chief General Manager at RBI. As CGM, Foreign Exchange Department, he played a crucial role in policy framing and implementation of exchange control in India. He has also contributed to drafting Rules and Regulations under FEMA. He set up the Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI) and served as its first CEO.

He has served as a member of the World Bank Task Force on International Standards on Credit Data Reporting as well as of the National Core Committee to deal with FATF Assessment of India in 2009

Independent Director

Kanika T. Bhal

Appointed as Independent Director in September 2023.

Prof. Bhal is the Modi Chair Professor at the Department of Management Studies at IIT Delhi. An expert in behavioural sciences in general and leadership in particular, she is a visiting fellow at Sloan School of Management, MIT. She has published over 100 articles in national and international journals and is on the editorial boards of national and international journals. She has authored books on leadership, culture and ethics. She has done sponsored research for several nationally and internationally funded (with Fordham University and Wharton Business School) projects. She has been a consultant to various government organizations and is often invited as an expert to serve on government committees.

She has been conferred with several awards and is given the honor of Professor Honorable by Tshwane Institute of Technology, South Africa.

Prof. Bhal is a Ph.D. from IIT Kanpur.

Independent Director

Padmaja Nair

Appointed as Independent Director in October 2024.

Padmaja Nair has 36 years of retail and corporate banking experience working with India’s premier bank, State Bank of India. She has extensive experience in credit and risk assessment of large corporates as well as SMEs.

As Senior Vice President of SBI’s investment banking arm -SBICAPS,  she raised capital through public issues, debt syndication, private equity and managed debt restructuring. In her role as General Manager of the Financial Institutions Business Unit, she was responsible for conceptualising and designing products focused on cash management and treasury needs for financial institutions.

She also led the Bank’s CSR strategy, launching impactful social initiatives. She established the Centre of Excellence for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) at the SBI Foundation and served as its Advisor until December 2019. She also conceptualized Project SAMEIP with Microsoft India to promote PwD hiring.

She is an alumnus of Lady Shri Ram College and is a post-graduate in History from Delhi University.

Elevation Capital

Vivek Mathur

Appointed as Nominee Director in June 2016.

He joined Elevation Capital (erstwhile SAIF) in 2011. He assists portfolio companies scale by working with them on matters such as finance, operations, compliance, and structuring. Prior to this, he was the Head of the India Contact Centres for Dell Inc. He has also served as the CFO for Standard Chartered India and the Wholesale Bank at ANZ Grindlays India.

Vivek holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from BITS Pilani and an MBA from the University of Iowa.

Alpha Wave

Navroz Darius Udwadia

Appointed as Nominee Director in March 2019.

He is the Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder and Partner at Alpha Wave (erstwhile Falcon Edge Capital, LP). Prior to this, he worked with Eton Park specializing in emerging markets. Before that he worked with JP Morgan (private equity) and Goldman Sachs, in the Financial Institutions Group.

He is a graduate from Columbia University (BA, English), has a law degree (MA, Law) at Oxford University and is an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Lightrock India

Kartik Srivatsa

Appointed as Nominee Director in February 2020

He is the Managing Partner India and Chief Strategy Officer of Lightrock.  He is the founding partner of Lightrock India, formerly Aspada. He also acts as the fund advisor for the SONG Fund through Aspada Capital Advisors. Formerly, he was with Lightspeed Venture Partners, a global venture capital firm with over $2 billion under management. Prior to this, Kartik was a Management Consultant with McKinsey & Company.

He is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras.

A91 Partners

Kaushik Anand

Appointed as Nominee Director in October 2020.

He is a Partner at A91 Partners, a venture capital firm focused on growth stage companies.  Previously, he was Head of India Investments at CapitalG (formerly Google Capital) where he focused on technology and financial services businesses. At CapitalG, he led investments in Aye Finance, Cardekho, Freshworks and Cuemath. He was previously at Sequoia Capital India and McKinsey & Co.

He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and IIT Madras.

BRITISH INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT

Gaurav Malhotra

Appointed as nominee Director in June 2024

Gaurav Malhotra is Director and Head for Financial Services Equity at British International Investment (BII). BII is the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor with a mission to help solve the biggest global development challenges by investing patient, flexible capital to support private sector growth and innovation.

Prior to BII, Gaurav worked for Escorts Limited heading strategy and business planning and prior to that he was a Principal for the leading strategy consulting firm BCG in India.

Gaurav holds a PGDM from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and BE Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering. 

IMP2 Assets Pte. Ltd. (ABC Group)

Aditya Misra

Appointed as Nominee Director in September 2024.

Aditya Misra is a Director at ABC Impact, private equity firm focused on impact and a member of Temasek Trust Asset Management. Aditya’s current mandate is to lead India investments for the firm across financial services and other sectors of interest.

Prior to ABC Impact, Aditya was a Director at Omidyar Network India, a global impact investment firm, and led investments across several domains including financial services. Previously, he was co-founder of Focus Analytics, a technology company, and a consultant with A.T. kearney.

Aditya holds a B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.