Indifi cofounder Siddharth Mahanot stepped back, leaving the professional CEO to run it

Indifi is a Gurugram-based small-business lending company that started in 2015 as a credit marketplace and got its NBFC licence in 2017.

Indifi bet a credit marketplace could become a licensed NBFC lender with its own book — and that a professional CEO, not the founders, should run it at that stage.

About $35 million raised in June 2023; roughly $90 million since inception from Omidyar Network, ICICI Ventures, British International Investment and Flourish Ventures

Cofounders Siddharth Mahanot — previously of Citibank, Indiabulls Housing Finance and Edelweiss Financial Services — and Alok Mittal started Indifi in 2015 as a credit marketplace, taking an NBFC licence in 2017 to build its own credit book.

In December 2023 Indifi appointed Sangram Singh, a senior Axis Bank executive, as CEO. By June 2023 it had raised about $35 million in its latest equity round, bringing total funding to around $90 million. As of March 2024, the in-house NBFC Indifi Capital reported Rs 1,729 crore in assets under management, Rs 341 crore of FY24 total income and a Rs 3 crore net profit.

On October 1, 2024, Mahanot announced he had stepped down as executive director: 'Although I am stepping away from day-to-day operations, I will continue to be involved as a shareholder and will maintain my board responsibilities.' Cofounder Alok Mittal and CEO Singh continue to lead; he did not disclose his next move.

A cofounder leaving daily operations while a ten-month-old professional CEO runs the company marks the end of the founder-led phase.

The exit was orderly — board seat and equity retained — signaling succession by design rather than conflict.

It lands right after the company's first profit and a $35M round, the usual preconditions for founders loosening their grip.

The cleanest founder transitions happen after the milestones are banked: Indifi's cofounder stepped back once the NBFC book was profitable and a banker-CEO was already in the chair.

As of October 1, 2024, Mittal and Singh were running Indifi, with Mahanot on the board and as a shareholder, after a year that produced the company's first reported profit and a Rs 1,729-crore loan book.