“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” - Jack Welch, CEO of GE

Leadership and Entrepreneurship is a constant responsibility – anyone who has a thinking mind, can ideate, take charge, energize, excite and inspire rather than control, can be a leader. My goal is to lead, create a vision and enable people to be passionate about their work”, says Nidhi Kasliwal, the Managing Director/CEO of Kamal Fincap and a leading woman entrepreneur based at Kota, Rajasthan.

An agile business woman and a constant learner, Nidhi Kasliwal has broken social barriers and transformed the way a woman in business is perceived in a typical Marwari society and in our country.

While Banks focus on lending to the organized sector which are spoilt for choice and many a times have easier access to finance, Nidhi wanted to facilitate lending to the often overlooked section of Indian borrowers, especially women in semi urban and rural areas of the country, transparently, ethically and with ease & simplicity.

Nidhi broke the so-to -speak glass ceiling and cut through doubts and misgivings that people had about the meaningful work she wanted to do.

This and much more ! Below is an excerpt of our conversation with this young woman who has beaten the odds to pursue something that truly mattered to her !

Take Us Through Your Educational And Professional Background. How Did The Journey Lead You Create A Micro Finance Specialist Organization?

Born and raised by progressive parents from a Marwari family that encouraged education, free enterprise and where women had a voice, I was allowed to choose SRCC over Lady Shriram to study Commerce and pursue Masters in Business Administration from XIM, Bhubaneshwar

My Mother is a homemaker who has wanted nothing more for her daughters, than for them to become independent women.

I was the first woman (this was unprecedented!!) to be selected on campus for Group Management training program of the AV Birla group. After working here for a year I moved to GE countrywide as Relationship Manager handling personal loans in Ahmedabad.

During this phase of my career, I observed a huge demand for unsecured loans. I took this opportunity to meet a large number of customers and understand their requirements. The useful insight which I gained, shaped my career decisions in future. Having witnessed the devastation during the 2001 riots in Ahmedabad, I was able to pursue and convince the management to lower interest rates only for borrowers in Ahmadabad. The company was supportive and we were able to reduce the rates by 3%. This was a huge win for me, my customers were very grateful as many had lost their livelihoods in the riots.

I got married into a business family in Rajasthan. Being an extensively qualified new member of the family, I was entrusted with the reins to the finance division of the Kamal Group, called Kamal Auto Finance. Although The role was challenging at that young age, it was a platform which gave me deep insight into the running of business . My father –In Law Late Shri Deshnidhi Kasliwal always pushed and encouraged me to break the barriers and grow. I learnt many business skills as he took me under his tutelage in the start of my business journey and helped me transition from being an employee to employer.

With the help of consulting firm Microsave, we visited a remote village near Hyderabad to understand microfinance as business model in 2007.

A chance meeting with Mr Vijay Mahajan during that trip gave me new direction. This visit transformed me completely. I saw the beautiful business he had built while helping the women at the bottom of the economic pyramid. I saw the pride in the eyes of the Loan Officers of the company at the villages where his company had facilitated loans, and the success stories of micro entrepreneurs as they put the money given by this organization, to good use. At the time, I was carrying my second child, but the zeal to understand and explore this new found segment of financing couldn’t restrain me.

When I returned, I gave birth to my son, took the needed break for 6-7 months, came back to the grind. I was filled with passion to set up a microfinance company in Rajasthan. As a result in the year 2009, we started microfinance as a pilot in another company and after learning from our initial mistakes, we grew steadily. Kamal Fincap has been in business for the past 9 years and it’s been an exhilarating journey. Along the journey, I have learned a lot from the bankers we work with, My Board members, the various stakeholders and largely from the members we lend to.

Most importantly I discovered my own inner strength – perseverance, grit and determination, which were much required in the face of all adversities from questioning looks whether I will be able to run the company or build a business or even sustain it ! The critics who said “She won’t be able to do this actually feared I might ! “and with the grace of God and unstinted support from my family, I did it

Today Kamal Fincap employs 1250 people, is present in 8 states, runs 153 branches and has a customer base of 2,30,000 !

What Were The Challenges You Initially Faced While Starting Out With This New Found Love For Microfinancing?

If there is one thing that is permanent for this business model, its the crises. In our early days Finance in 2009-10, we were met with the Andhra crisis, the demonetization in 2016 and the Pandemic in 2020. For obvious reasons it was fairly difficult for me to convince my family to pour more money into this. There were doubts. There were questions. The business was obviously conceived to be unsecured with no collateral. Why was I lending to poor women? How is she ever going to pay us back? Why are the husbands of these women not consulted or signed in? How will this woman ever work, she has no say in her house?

Well, these were the exact reasons I did what I did. The stereotypes surrounding women had to break, and I was hell-bent on doing everything I could, to make this model work and help those women. As it turned out, where there is a will, there is a way.

YES Bank approached us and partnered with us to do microfinancing via our network. This was the beginning to our unbound growth. We cater to a huge number of borrowers and remain a small organisation at heart which can adapt quickly to change in our eco system.

Change is the only constant – is the ethos the company works with and as a result my team and I are strong, resilient and nimble footed.

“We established the company. On the principles of clarity and simplicity the possession of onboarding is totally digitised and paperless. Borrowers cut down on turnaround time and risk. Of swindlers”

Tell Us About The Growth Of Kamal Fincap. Reach & Objective

We started with our 1st branch in Kota and then grew slowly to nearby areas. In the 1st year of operation after Andhra Crisis we were able to scale to 8 crore. Kamal Fincap started seeing 99 percent recovery, which was difficult to come by even as we did secured car/automotive loans.

We started expanding aggressively opening branches in remote villages of Rajasthan, helping empower women in these parts. There were lots of challenges in the start, language barriers, lack of discipline amongst the women borrowers to form a group, they were weary of a new organisation promising them collateral free loans. Armed with a dedicated team of workers we were able to overcome all these issues, We worked hard to educate women on financial discipline, and helped them in building sustainable businesses that created slow and steady impact on their progress and a better life.

Slowly we gained trust covering village after village gaining considerable momentum. We attracted new banking partners which gave us more areas to grow our business into. We expanded in nearby states of Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.

Kamal Fincap has been ahead of its peers and time in terms of technology. We have built the business on the values of simplicity and transparency. Having completely digitised and paperless onboarding of borrowers reduces the turnaround time and risk of frauds. Our disbursement have been 100% in customers bank account after demonetisation and we have paperless collection driven through android application. This and more has helped us grow especially during the lockdown and in the new environment post lockdown.

We have recently started facilitating deposits for banks and encourage thrift in villages making banking accessible to all.

Who Are Your Clients? Treat Us With An Inspiring Success Story That Made A Significant Difference In Your Customer’s Life.

Our passion to serve the community is at the heart of what we do Our clients are 100% women borrowers who are micro-entrepreneurs doing myriad activities like crafting bangles, weaving, vegetable vendors, kirana shop owners, potters etc.

One of the incidents which touched me was in a village in south Rajasthan where we work in the remotest of areas and completely tribal belt. There in a small hamlet of not more than 10-15 houses, I saw a group of children peeping behind the door, where we were conducting our centre meeting. I called out to the children and one of the girls, who looked slightly older than the rest, came forward hesitating and shy, said “Thank you Madam”. I was a little puzzled and then the member spoke saying that our loan has helped her financially and her daughter who had dropped out of school has now resumed her studies at the nearby govt. school. Tears welled up in my eyes. Such a small loan but the impact it had; not only on the woman’s finances but on her future generation. I asked the girl what is it that she wants to do, she said she wanted to become like me. Recalling this visit still sends shivers down my spine. Such a powerful tool, to help the marginalized, the unbanked!

How Do You Intend To Paint The Future For Kamal Fincap And Yourself?

The far reaching impact of micro finance has inspired me to continue the momentum with energy and passion along with my core team. Our connect with our borrower is our main focus and we want to help her transition from the unbanked to the banked. We want to reach out to 5 lakh women by end of year 22-23.

The ideology I believe in and to which my team is also aligned is to experiment with ideas, apply new thoughts, encourage innovation and most importantly “Fail fast and learn”. This is especially relevant in the new world post Pandemic.

On the personal front Sometimes I feel Kamal Fincap is a face of the values that have shaped me as an individual.

Being a regular Marathon runner (I have run several full marathon and the highest marathon in the world the leh marathon), the values I resonate with are perseverance, ability to adapt to change and never-give up attitude are the strengths that will help us grow from strength to strength

For any woman to venture into a field and excel is the result of a long arduous journey, filled with challenges, sacrifice on family time, moments of frustration, feeling stumped at times, living with things that are not in our control, accepting occasional defeat, then bouncing back every morning as the desire to shine out and become a better version of ourselves far outshines anything else.

The loving support of family, the pride in my children’s eyes (Yes I am a mother of two), gratitude of borrowers for creating value for them and the confidence that the best is yet to come, propels me ahead and convinces me that the entire journey has been worthwhile.

My message to all budding women entrepreneurs and professionals is just one - You have got all it takes to take the world in your stride ! Dare to Dream !