Aditi Singh highlighted that microfinance requires a technology-led, data-driven approach combined with strong customer engagement to build resilience and expand financial inclusion in underserved rural communities. She also shared how Satin Creditcare is leveraging innovation, risk management, and a women-focused investment fund to drive sustainable growth and impact.
Nikunj Dalmia: The general view about microfinance is that microfinance is a good business, but it’s a tough business. It’s a business in which sometimes it’s sunny, sometimes it’s cloudy, sometimes it’s dark. Is it true?
Aditi Singh: It is very true.
So what we say, I mean, we are very close to the ground. You are right, dhoop, garmi, barish, saddi, whatever it happens, we get very scared. And hum se zyada our investors get scared ki sab theek hai.
But having said that, it’s a very fulfilling work, I would say, Nikunj. Very fulfilling, because what we are doing, no one else can replicate. And I will tell you the current environment where the sector has just started getting on its feet and walking.
In the process, while it had, it wasn’t even a knee-jerk, it was a crisis, we felt. 1 crore 40 lakh families have lost access to formal credit. Now, the other day I was sitting with SBI DMD and he said, every year they diverse 40 lakh crore.
So us 40 lakh crore mein ek 3.5 lakh crore ka sector toh chhip jata hai. Lekin jo yeh 1 crore 40 lakh families hai, jo yeh 6 crore log hai na, yeh 6 crore log nahin chhuk pate hain. So what we do actually enables these 6 crore people and so much so that kahin bhi kuch bhi hota hai, first to get impacted, they are first to get out of it also.
Sector has potential, but yes, it has become very institution specific. You have to do it right, because what turns out is, you can’t do it like any other lending business. You have to look at it as a collection business.
You have to look at your client more than how and when she will go back, preempt that. So this sector, as much as it looks like muscle and leg power, no, it is a lot of data, it is a lot of AI, it is a lot of human intelligence, which you couple with artificial intelligence and then you serve them better. And that only I think has, if I talk about us, made us weather the crisis, that I can still smile and sit next to you and not worry ki ab result aane wale logon ko kya batayenge.
So yeah.
Nikunj Dalmia: What is the average loan size of Microfinance?
Aditi Singh: 53,000. So it ranges from 50 to 60,000.
Nikunj Dalmia: That’s the loan size?
Aditi Singh: Yes.
Nikunj Dalmia: That’s it?
Aditi Singh: That’s it.
Nikunj Dalmia: Usme paperwork kitna lagta hai?
Aditi Singh: Zero.
Nikunj Dalmia: So I can come to you and say, mujhe 50 saal ka loan de do.
Aditi Singh: Main jeb se ek device nikalungi, aapki aakh ko capture karungi. Jaise hi aapki aakh capture hogi.
So if you remember, jab Aadhaar issue kiya tha, humne biometric ke lawa iris bhi diya tha. Jaise hi main wo karungi, I am UIDIA ke system mein embedded. I am an authorised Aadhaar user agency, AUA, KUA.
Wahan ja karke main nikalungi ye Nikunji kaun hai? Inki kya kaccha chitha hai? I will dig into credit bureaus. Then I will, on top of that, the guardrails I have built, wo dal kar bataungi. Nikunji ko loan nahi dena, ye bahut ameer aadmi hai, kyu aaye hain 50,000 rupee lene? But, main ye dekh paungi ki aapko kitna loan dena hai, kis interest pe dena hai, kis tenure pe dena hai.
All of that will be system-driven. Phir aapka, similarly, EIC mein jaapke aapka voter ID se double check bhi karungi. Ye toh nahi, Aadhaar naya ban gaye hai.
SIR meri bhi hogi. Wo karke, then I will ensure it is you. Then we will capture your house.
We will talk to your neighbours. We will do the informal checks also. We will see, ghar mein bike khadha hai, bhais khadha hai, gaay khadha hai.
Apna ghar hai ki nahi? Ab aapne mujhe yahan betha diya, ye toh aapka ghar hai. Toh mai bolungi, zyada light jalana. And then you will fumble if it’s not your house.
So, it is actually a lot of deeply evaluated human intelligence with a lot of data analysis. So, main aapse koi kaagas nahi loongi. Main jhat se, log goltein, akhiyon se goli maarein, vakhiyon pe goli maartein.
Toh kiya tha na, aapne yaha koi mishara ho gaya. Ji. Aur bethe bethe jeene ka sahara ho gaya.
Nikunj Dalmia: Then how does it start? You give a loan and after that at what interest do you give a loan? Why should that person come to you and why should that person not go to a bank?
Aditi Singh: So, I think everyone should go to a bank if you ask my personal opinion, but a bank cannot serve everyone. Not even the largest of the banks like SBIs, they also rely on people like us because these people do have, like I said hum toh kaagas bhi nahi lete hain. They have nothing, no footprints, no records.
For a bank to process, pachas azar ke loan mein the cost will never be meeting. See for me to open a branch is very simple. I go to a village, I rent a house, my boys are living there, my BM, jo ghar ka baithak hota hai, front room, that will be the branch, office.
Peeche unka, it’s a residential branch. Peeche ladke rehte hain, ek cook mil jata hai ki rahiye, khayiye, kaam keejiye. So, this is how we lend.
For a bank to open a branch, it is not this easy. My branch has what? 3-4 beds, table, chair, one laptop, that’s it.
Nikunj Dalmia: How many loans do you give in a day?
Aditi Singh: In a day, we give 1 lakh, sometime 50,000.
So, roughly we disburse 50 to 100 crore depending what day of the week it is. If it is 50 crore, it is 1 lakh. So, that’s how.
Nikunj Dalmia: 50 lakh to 1 lakh people are coming to you every day. In all these branches and so on. How big are you in the MFI space in terms of a market share?
Aditi Singh: So, we have 10% of the MFI market in India and in terms of our standing, we are the fourth, closely behind Muthoot.
So, standalone we are lesser, but console AUM is higher than them.
Nikunj Dalmia: So, about 10% market share of the microfinance businesses with you?
Aditi Singh: Yes.
Nikunj Dalmia: What is the average rate of lending in microfinance?
Aditi Singh: Around 24%.
Nikunj Dalmia: So, how can somebody borrow at 24% and then pay it back?
Aditi Singh: I actually appreciate this question because everyone thinks that we are like those mahajans charging very high interest. So, how can they borrow is that in absolute, it doesn’t make too much of a difference. If a lady has borrowed 50,000, if she pays a 20% interest, vis-a-vis she pays a 25% interest, I’m giving you the broad range.
We are charging the bi-weekly instalments. So, the difference is 95 rupees. So, in absolute, it means nothing, but in totality, it means the world to her because that’s how she can start the business.
So, the interest rates are high because it’s a doorstep delivery. So, when the boy rides a bike, burns fuel, goes to one house, second, third, does all the work, meets people at the centre, gathers. So, our own cost is very high, which we can maybe bring to an efficiency with technology, but we can’t replicate it.
You have to do it more over there. So, yes, this is how people and why they are able to afford is one is the absolute, it doesn’t move the needle too much. They are roughly paying 1,250 every 15 days.
It can range to 1,500 depending how much he has borrowed. Then they’re churning this also. So, they churn it so many times that their returns are 150 to 180% out of which they are able to accommodate.
Otherwise, if I will borrow at 24, I will never be able to repay it. Now, let’s look at the microfinance history. In my last theme, that was an extraordinary circumstances.
State policy changes, microfinance companies, they come into trouble. There is delay in drains, microfinance companies, they get into trouble. There is a change of government at a state level, microfinance companies, they get into trouble.
Nikunj Dalmia: Well, this is a great business. I understand the inspiration, the aspiration, understand the end user is benefiting, but this is a sector which is exposed to a lot of uncertainties. How are you looking at reducing that? Because your shareholders would say, Aditi, great, I appreciate what you are doing, very nice, but I want return on equity, I want profits.
How will you navigate this twist and turns of the microfinance ups and downs?
Aditi Singh: So, many twists and turns, at least the ones we can predict, we factor this into our repayment schedule. So, when we give a loan, because in India, festivals are the biggest disruption than you ever. When there is a shutdown, my son from Bihar, UP will not come for 10 days, you fire him, he will not come, he has to go.
So, many of these we actually built in the repayment schedule when we give the loan. So, at least that much disruption is saved, Holi’s, Diwali’s, Eid, Rakhi, everything is taken out, then we make the schedule. Then we also use a lot of predictive tools, when we know that there is a flood in Upper Assam, now there is a flood in Bihar, now there is a flood in Bengal.
So, many of them we are able to pre-empt, so we try to move the disbursement in those instead of just always being caught sitting ducks. That we do, but whenever crisis happens, we actually engage more with our customers. One thing we have now started providing them the cover of natural catastrophe, NATCAT insurance.
Because that is the biggest, everything gets washed away, floods come, then she is left with nothing, how will she ever repay. So, why we can provide relief, but we can only provide maybe the rations. With this insurance, they are able to cover their losses.
So, these monsoons we are less worried because we could at least pre-empt the wrath of nature with what we could. Political interference, without mincing words I would say, everyone, yes, it is a very vote bank, vote bank constituency, I will not deny that, but things have changed over years. So, like Bihar went into elections, Bengal went into elections, we did not face anything.
Because our boys have started understanding, the borrowers have started understanding, that the government will come and go, work has to be done with them. Waivers are also announced, but they do not get too much boggled over that. They understand that these are private lenders and you have to, and there is a lot of engagement with the client actually, because we are there with her every 14 days.
Politicians will come once and go, after giving a speech. When a loan is required, who will be there? Those who meet twice a month, we understand where the child is. So, we understand, like if we have to go in 90 days, then they are meeting twice a month.
So, they understand so much to each other. And then cashless is the new thing which we are adopting. Currently, 20% collections are digital.
Slowly, it is inching up. So, yes, with the environment becoming very dynamic, we are also evolving and so are the customers. It is more of a behavioural thing with the customer, which is also changing.
Having said that, you can see, last two years, we were not loss-making, sub-crisis, we continued to be profitable and hopefully, this trot will continue. The other companies have struggled. And again, there are two ways to look at anything.
Absolute, relative, absolute growth is there and relative growth is there.
Nikunj Dalmia: Others are suffering, you are gaining. Others are struggling with their NPAs, your growth is coming back.
What have you done differently last two years that you are growing at the highest rate in your peers and at a time when peers are suffering because of NPAs?
Aditi Singh: So, it is because we did not wait for last two years. We always think five years ahead and that has always reflected. We implemented technology in 2017, no one understood what technology means.
We formed a different collection vertical in early 2020, even before COVID or the lockdowns understanding up follow-up. So, we do everything which people say microfinance does not do. On top of that, we do not take shortcuts.
If you want to do a centre meeting, you have to do it. If you want to do an evaluation, you have to do what you have to capture. If the rejections are always high, if they are 65 plus, then you have to keep them.
So, we always think, everyone is saying it is going to be a very good year. We are actually doing four pilots, how to pre-empt the next crisis. This actually reflects.
In COVID, our loss was like relative. We lost 10.7 percent, our peers lost ranging from 15 to 35 percent. So, ours was the least.
Then in this crisis, industry lost around 10 percent in FY25, we lost 4.6. Last year, industry lost around 7 to 8, we lost 3.6. So, we remain ahead. But we can’t isolate, we have to work in the same market, same people, same behaviour. But how can you further insulate yourselves is what we keep doing.
And that we do. There are small data points of technology. Centre meeting has been reduced.
Power One where after a day, they have started giving payment. Centre has started getting smaller. The boy is suddenly spending very less time in one centre.
Does that mean there is something fishy going? And the boy is spending too much time. Because we have the data, we have the technology, we have the where wheels to track. But you have to understand what you should be tracking.
You can’t track everything. So, with these, we are able to fare better than anybody else. Unlike a lot of other microfinance companies, there is no large P investor sitting in your company.
Nikunj Dalmia: If I look at the peers, Ramin and the others, you don’t have a large P investor. Was that a conscious strategy of a P investor coming?
Aditi Singh: See, no relationship has come yet. But having said that, see, I think the way we do business, we do it with a lot of passion.
And maybe why we are able to implement all of that is with due regards, many investors have a horizon of five years. So, if I’m doing a five-year project, it may or may not coincide with the timelines they have on mind. So, in the crisis, we were not growing too fast.
We know what is the pace that can be absorbed, that can sustain. Maybe I’m operating without any pressure. So, I’m actually focussing on quality.
Having said that, yes, there can be people who believe have the same passion, have the same horizon. And then the matching of minds may happen. But yeah, I would say blessing in disguise.
Having no big brother makes us conscious that I don’t have the luxury to burn 1000 crores. So, it’s the same people. But then we understand the environment, how things have changed and how things work within the machinery where we are operating.
2026 to 2030, if we are hypothetically engaging in a similar conversation on the same forum and it would be Shepard’s Hill 7th edition. And if I’m engaging with you on the same forum. And then the conversation will be very different.
It will not be how India grows. Because rural India, 70% of people live there. They contribute to 42% of the GDP and they’re only getting 7% of formal credit access.
So, we are the disruptors there. Look at us with that prism, which you will better appreciate 4 years later.
Nikunj Dalmia: You’re starting a fund and it’s a fund which is dedicated for a cause, driven for businesses which essentially are run by women. So, a lady running a fund, investing in businesses which essentially are run by women. Am I getting it right? Absolutely. Tell us about it.
Who is the fund manager?
Aditi Singh: Shivika is the fund manager. I’m the managing partner. I architected the whole thing.
So, this is done so that we understand the impact. And business with impact, does not impact for charity. So, when a particular segment is overlooked, the way it turned out in microfinance, the way it has turned out in women-led enterprises, means there’s a lot of untapped potential.
You just have to do your underwriting right, grab those businesses and you will not believe we already have three ICs. Amazing work these women are doing. Amazing work.
And it was, well, first of all, everyone to believe it’s an all-women team, all-women board. Even Sebi was completely, in a good way, completely, what are you doing? What kind of a fund is this? All investments will be done in businesses which are run by women. Women and sustainability.
So, that is the core thing. So, it turns out, my Sebi’s officer was also a woman. So, maybe that helped my cause get a licence.
But, it has all fit so well in our current scheme of things. Satin is in 1 lakh villages, in 550 districts, has opened 150 regional offices. If there is a business in any corner of India, it gets such a good investigation, the way it is verified.
See, by studying in Harvard, with due regards, by evaluating a business model properly, there can be no business in India. So, the way it is verified, my boys even speak to their centre members, that my son is in security at the gate. And then they give us absolute insight, this is a real business, really growing business.
Then we look at the financials. It all fits so well. And from idea to getting a licence of 9 months for a satisfying journey, we actually have very strong commitments and we are about to announce our first close very soon.
So, yes, off to a good start, God willing.
Nikunj Dalmia: So, I am going to hit the pause button here. And for our young audience here, we heard from Devina, that how she started an investment career, started walking on the path of investment analyst, first gold medallist, one of the first women gold medallist from IIM Ahmedabad, and she gave us nuggets of how to invest.
Then we heard from BLS for all those who are planning the next summer holidays. Aditi is giving us a flavour of how she is starting a women fund. A fund managed by a women team, really investing in women entrepreneurship.
And Aditi is very approachable. So, if you have any ideas, and then in some time Vikas Bhai is going to be coming. And if you are getting a visa, and if you want to study abroad, he will tell you that how you can actually study abroad through his platform.
So, that’s the whole construct in which we are navigating today’s small cap spotlight. So, Aditi ji, how are you approachable? How are you approachable? How can somebody reach you? Is there an email? Is there a LinkedIn?
Aditi Singh: So, there is an email, there is a website, aditi.singh, email, satinaif.com, website is satinaif.com. So, very approachable. We are all very approachable.
And actually, we are going ourselves and meeting ASSOCHEM, FICCI, SME Chambers, SBI, we had a co-investment, co-lending partnership because they wanted this team. So, we are actually going and approaching people to get the right deals which no one else has, is how we are trying to do it differently.
Nikunj Dalmia: My final question to you is that if I have to take the clock back, and if Aditi in her 40s meets Aditi in her 20s, and we have a lot of audience here in their 20s, what advice the Aditi of 2026 will give Aditi of 2000?
Aditi Singh: So, the Aditi in 20s wanted to have a fund of her own.
So, this Aditi will go and say well done. But she will also tell her, jo galtiyan us time pe ki thi, wo, sabse badi galti yehi hai ki aapko shayad sochna kam hai aur karna zyada hai. See, as a woman, I also had a three year career break, then I started from scratch again in 2013.
Toh apne se aadi umar, professionally, I was still young. Yeh logon ko dubara se unke saath kaam karna, seekhna. So, life has taught a lot.
But I would think, jo tum believe karte ho, jab maine pehli job thi meri fund mein dita. I was like, inn logon ko toh kuch nahi aata, main amna hi fund mein nao ki, is how I operated. But I think as women, you have to just believe in yourself and be more assertive and just jump into it.
Karna aa jayega, wo fund bhi ban jayega, investor bhi aa jayega, theme bhi ho jayega, theme roz evolve hoga, roz icy hoga. Just karte chale jao, one step ahead of another. That’s pretty much it.
Optimism, belief, grit, three qualities which have differentiated.
Nikunj Dalmia: Absolutely. Well, everyone, please put your hands together for Aditi.
Like I said, I am owner just for 90 days, but looks like the bond we have shared is almost decades old. It is. Thank you very much.