Director – Credit (MSME – Unsecured) Location – Bengaluru Reporting Line: Head of Credit About WeRize Founded in 2019 by Vishal Chopra and Himanshu Gupta, WeRize is building India’s largest full stack fintech platform for 500 million underserved middle-class customers who live in 5000+ small towns of India. WeRize (Wortgage technologies pvt ltd) also owns RBI registered NBFC subsidiary (Wortgage Finance pvt ltd) This customer segment is not served by private sector banks, Insurers and Mutual Fund companies due to their low ticket-size and lifetime value and is dependent on PSU/Govt. banks. PSU/Government banks rarely provide financial products beyond basic savings accounts and these customers lack access to unsecured loans, MSME loans, credit cards, affordable housing loans, loan against property, health and life insurance and investment products. WeRize manufactures innovative unsecured consumer credit, mortgages, loan against property, MSME loans, savings and insurance products designed for this customer base keeping in mind their needs, requirements and purchasing power, with a view to add a layer of financial security to their lives and enable access to credit. While customers in these geographies use smartphones, they need proper guidance and support when purchasing the right financial products for themselves. So, a pure digital model doesn’t work for this segment. WeRize has innovated on this front through its ‘Finance ki online dukaan (Social Shopify of Finance)’, a first of its kind social distribution tech platform in the financial services space that educates and enables local financially literate freelancers across these small towns to source business through online and offline channels, recommend the right financial product(s) to customers as well as provide after sales support. These freelancers, who are located in more than 5000+ towns and cities, earn as much as INR 30,000 a month from WeRize in commissions. Our social distribution platform supported by financially literate freelancers means exceptionally low cost of customer acquisition (CAC) and operations costs compared to both fully digital and on-the-ground financial services providers. Digital conversions among this target group are way lower when compared to upper income customers in metros and hence pure digital CAC doesn’t work for this segment. While companies like LIC and Fino Bank also rely on freelancer distribution, they deploy local on-field teams/branches to manage freelancers in every city. That results in very high CAC and operations costs for such companies. WeRize on the other hand, has been able to acquire, train and manage thousands of freelancers in 5000+ cities only through its tech platform and without any feet-on-street team of its own. This results in highly profitable business model for Werize. To know more about the company, please visit: https://www.werize.com/ Key Metrics • Annualized Revenue Run Rate of $41Mn as of July 2024. (Approx $3.5Mn per month). • We are growing aggressively, and our revenues are doubling every 8-9 months • Loan book/AUM as of July 2024- INR 1000 cr. We plan to double this to 2000cr + in next 12 months across various secured and unsecured financial products • Profitability- Unlike most of other startups, we are already profitable because of our best- in-class unit economics. We made approx. $1Mn of net profits before taxes in the FY’24 (including all the costs -even ESOP costs) and plan to make $5Mn+ of profits in FY’25 while growing aggressively • We are super capital efficient. We raised a total of $26mn and still have $20mn equity left and we turned profitable last financial year. • We are aiming for IPO in 2027 with 3 years of profits and aggressive growth. • Geography Covered- Served customers in 5000+ cities pan india. Fund Raise Funds Raised: $26 million (INR 192 Crore) Valuation - $ 116Mn (INR 1000 Crore) Stage: Pre- Series B (raised June 2022) Investors: - British International Investment (BII)-UK Government’s investment fund (Formally known as CDC group, BII is the British government’s investment fund. It’s a 48 billion dollar+ impact focused fund that has invested in some of the largest banks and NBFCs of India. - - - - - Sony Innovation Fund, Japan Sony Innovation Fund is the investment arm of Japan’s Multi-billion dollar Sony Corporation. Kalaari Capital (One of the largest Indian VC with $850MN AUM and investments such as Myntra, CureFit, Dream11, ElasticRun, Upstox, Simplilearn) Picus Capital , Germany (Fund run by Alexander Samwer- Co-Founder of Rocket Internet that had multiple billion Dollar + exits/IPOs – Lazada (SE-ASIA), Jumia (AFRICA), DeliveryHero(EU) ) 3one4 Capital (Early-Stage Fund with $500Mn AUM ) Orios Ventures (Early-stage fund with companies like Ola and Country Delight in its portfolio) Founders:- Vishal Chopra, Co-Founder & CEO: - Ex-CBO Lendingkart – India’s largest Fintech SME Lender ($150Mn+ fund raise) - - - First hire of Amazon India - part of the leadership team that launched Amazon.in Regional Director, Souq.com - largest e-commerce player in the Middle East. Raised $425Mn, acquired by Amazon MBA, ISB Hyderabad Himanshu Gupta, Co-Founder & COO: - - - - Ex-VP and Head of Data Science, Lendingkart Data Scientist, S&P Global/IHS Markit BTech, IIT Delhi 10+ years’ experience in AI/ML Leadership Team: Chief Collection Officer - - Ex-Head of Collections at IndusInd Bank AVP-Collections of Deutsche Bank Group CFO: - - - - Ex- CFO of Aditya Birla Housing Finance Ex CFO of Edelweiss Ex-controller of Aditya Birla Sunlife Insurance. CA with 25+ years of overall experience Head of Growth: - - - - - BTech, IIT Guwahati, MBA- IIM Ahmedabad Ex leadership of Uber, Kenco, Rivigo Head of Technology and Product: - - -- - - - Btech CS, IIT Kanpur; Ex-Tech Leader at Paytm and Medlife Head of Strategic Initiatives- Collections and Risk - - Btech – NIT Suratkhal, MBA – IMT Ghaziabad Ex leadership team of Furlenco, Kotak bank. ICICI bank Head of Credit Ops: - - - Ex-Regional Head of Credit, HDB (HDFC subsidiary) Head of Partnerships and Debt Raise/Treasury: - Ex head of debt/capital markets at Udaan , MBA – XLRI Jamsh Head of Financial Planning and Finance Operations: - Ex head of Finance and planning at Ola Financial services & Tata Business Hub, MBA – XLRI Jamshedpur Role Description: We are seeking a seasoned Credit Leader for MSME Lending with strong expertise in unsecured business loan underwriting in the ₹1–10 lakh ticket size range. This leadership role will involve overseeing credit assessment, policy formulation, risk management, and team management for the MSME credit function. The ideal candidate should come with a strong grasp of financial data (GST, bank statements), MSME risk profiles, and prior experience in people leadership. Key Responsibilities: • Evaluate creditworthiness of MSME borrowers using bank statements, GST returns, bureau reports, and business health indicators. • Independently underwrite unsecured MSME/business loan applications in the ₹1–10 lakh range. • Drive credit policy formulation based on market practices, regulatory guidelines (CGTMSE, CGFMU), and risk appetite. • Lead a team of 10–15 underwriters and credit analysts, ensuring effective performance management, training, and growth. • Oversee a zone/region’s credit operations and collaborate with cross-functional teams including Sales, Product, and Operations to streamline the credit decisioning process. • Maintain strong oversight on portfolio quality and proactively identify early risk indicators to mitigate delinquencies. • Interact with external stakeholders such as lending partners, auditors, and regulators to ensure adherence to compliance and credit norms. • Focus extensively on underwriting proprietorship and partnership firm cases typical to small-town MSME borrowers. • Monitor post-disbursal performance, conduct risk reviews, and recommend enhancements to credit strategies. • Foster a strong credit culture and mentor junior staff in credit principles and judgment. Attributes we are looking for: • Master’s degree in finance, Business, Economics, or a related field. • 10–15 years of experience in MSME / unsecured business loan underwriting, preferably in NBFCs or FinTechs. • Proven experience handling regional or zonal credit responsibilities and managing large underwriting teams (10+ members). • Deep understanding of CGTMSE, CGFMU, and relevant central/state MSME schemes. • Demonstrated ability in credit policy creation, implementation, and optimization. • Sound knowledge of MSME segments, with focus on Tier 2/3/4 borrower profiles. • Strong analytical, leadership, and decision-making capabilities.