Navi Finserv, the wholly owned subsidiary of payments and lending-technology player Navi, recorded a standalone net profit of ₹292.21 crore in financial year 2025-26 (FY26). The Bengaluru-based firm's assets under management (AUM) have grown to over ₹13,000 crore, with total platform disbursements reaching ₹23,287 crore. Abhishek Dwivedi, managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO), Navi Finserv, explains the company’s focus areas, plans around secured lending, and the state of business following the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) embargo in October 2024, in an interview with Ajinkya Kawale. Edited excerpts:
You were appointed to head Navi Finserv when Sachin Bansal moved to become executive chairperson of the group. What has changed since then?
I have been with Navi from its founding. I am now leading the non-banking financial company (NBFC) arm, and was earlier involved in setting up functions such as collections, customer experience, video know your customer (KYC), and others. Rajiv (Naresh) leads the non-lending business. The focus has been on growing responsibly on the basic tenets of lending such as customer experience, credit, compliance, and collections. Today, all of our tele-collections happen in-house, and 50 per cent of field collections happen in-house. We have feet-on-street across 90 cities and want to expand it to 200 cities.
Has the borrower profile changed over the years?
We now have 90 per cent unsecured and 10 per cent secured credit disbursement. The mix will evolve. We have recently launched loan against property (LAP), and are thinking of other things over a period of time. Many users explore LAP on our platform, but complete the transaction outside it within 90 days. The idea is to capture them because they have intent. We have started proof-of-concepts in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The aim is to expand to two cities, build decent business, and then scale to 20 cities.
As numerous digital lending platforms are making their debut on public markets nowadays, what is driving this shift?
It is cyclical in nature. Things come together, investors grow mature, and as they see multiple entities listed over the years, they grow confident. Many (digital lenders) have emerged over the past five years and delivered consistent results. That shift is clear when I talk to lenders and industry experts.
Navi has appointed bankers for a potential initial public offering (IPO). Is there a timeline to the listing?
We are in the business of money. As financial institutions, we borrow and lend money. So, we always keep exploring funding sources, be it public, private, debt or equity. We keep having discussions. (Navi later raised $100 million on the day of the interaction from Dutch technology investor Prosus.)
From the perspective of Navi Finserv, would you say you’re at the right benchmark to list now?
Listing is a way to get money, equity in the system. You can leverage and lend more. We are well-capitalised right now. We have grown and have a healthy balance sheet. The parent (Navi Limited) also infuses capital. For Navi Finserv, specifically at this point of time, I don’t see any need for listing.
You faced an embargo from the RBI in October 2024. How have you calibrated lending operations since then?
We have become wiser. Initially, we were head first into building the business. It was very important to engage with the regulator and take care of every aspect. There were no major concerns per se, our embargo was lifted within 40-45 days. Since then, we have been talking to the regulator on a daily basis. It was a learning experience and, of course, could have been avoided. In terms of interest rate, there are no problems now. Interest rate is charged based on cost of funding, interest rate model, and credit loss you are incurring on different segments. You add everything up and then charge interest. Our cost of funds has come down and we have given the benefit to the customer.
 "Resolved RBI embargo within 45 days in 2024: Navi Finserv MD & CEO")
