OCT

Round 1 Begins
OCT

Round 1 closes Problem

Statement
NOV

Round 2 begins and /svatantramicrofinance

result declaration
/svatantramf

/svatantramicrofinance
NOV

/svatantrastories

Round 2 closes Contact:

Svatantra Team

08108326615 | 08291661005 | 022 6141 5900

campus.connect@svatantra.adityabirla.com
NOV

Round 2 result
declaration
NOV

Final Round
With an objec ve to encourage entrepreneurship where tradi onal banking systems cannot penetrate, Ms.Ananya
Birla, Chairman Svatantra Microfin and Microhousing began a journey in 2012. She started Svatantra Microfin Pvt.
Ltd (SMPL) a NBFC-MFI (microfinance organiza on) whose aim is to offer holis c financial and non-financial offerings
with micro-credit being the main focus in rural India. She based the organiza on on the tenets of entrepreneurship,
transparency, and disrup on through innova on.

The company today has financially included more than a million women borrowers across 10,000+ villages in 14
states. With an AUM of more than INR 1,600 crores (as on Sep 30, 2019) the organiza on has remained a customer
centric and responsible lender leveraging technology to create its differen a on. Paperless mobility based
opera ons, 100% cashless disbursements since incep on, usage of technology like Aadhaar Pay for cashless
collec ons and roll out of impac ul services like concierge led cashless Mediclaim, has made industry look up to
Svatantra Microfin for innova on and impact.

While Svatantra Microfin con nues to make its mark providing unsecured small cket size loans, with affordable
housing finance, Ms. Birla ventured into another key impact area. She acquired Svatantra Micro Housing Finance
Corpora on Ltd (SMHFC) which since last decade has served the housing finance need of informal segment
customers in the economically weaker sec on and low income groups. The company has adopted a unique
branchless model leveraging technology to serve this segment in a cost efficient and profitable manner. It is probably
the only company which has remained focused on this segment and has cket size of INR 5 lakh and provides the
most affordable loans (lowest interest rates amongst peers). With AUM of INR 700 crores (as on Sep 30, 2019) the
company provides housing finance for both: house purchase (AHP) and house construc on (BLC). The company is
amongst the most sought a er by Urban local Bodies to provide finance to informal segment, who are buyers of its
houses constructed under PMAY through housing for all by 2022, ini a ve of Government of India. Further many of
affordable housing builders seek SMHFC to finance their customer for home purchases. SMHFC with its team of 300+
employees serves more than 20,000 customers in 6 states in Urban/ Semi urban areas.

As the growth momentum in these two ini a ves covering a spectrum of unsecured small microcredit loans to
secured low cket size housing loan con nues, Ms. Birla calls upon the team to ideate on products than can further
create significant entrepreneurial impact in the financially excluded segment. She wants the team to harness the
synergy of the two en es i.e. reach of microfinance and credit underwri ng capabili es of housing Finance to serve
the micro and small enterprises. A cross en ty and cross func onal team was created to iden fy the impac ul
products and the business model. The key ques ons to the team were:

1. What are the current offerings in the market to these segments and the size of the industry?
2. How would the team create differen a on in the market – through product, process and people?
3. How would one leverage complimentary strength of both businesses – capability, liability structure
and infrastructure?
4. What is the likely poten al of the business over two to three years?
5. How would one leverage the tech pla orms available to remain profitable and scale-up seamlessly?