For much of his career, Pankaj Poddar’s job was to think about what could go wrong with a loan.
As a credit and risk executive, he spent close to two decades across institutions including Kotak Mahindra Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Bajaj Finance, and SBFC Finance, looking at lending through the prism of underwriting, portfolio quality, operating costs and profitability.
“The long-term purpose, however, was always to be an entrepreneur,” Poddar tells YourStory.
He is now Founder, Managing Director, and CEO of Business Nextgen Finance Private Limited (BNF), a young non-banking financial company (NBFC) focused on secured lending to small entrepreneurs, particularly outside India’s biggest financial centres.
That ambition has just received a significant boost.
