Fairfax-backed non-bank lender, IIFL Finance Ltd has appointed former L&T Financial Services official Gaurav Sharma as chief technology officer.
Sharma will accelerate the company’s digital transformation journey and strengthen its leadership position as a tech-led financial services company, IIFL Finance said in a statement.
“I will strive to accelerate the digital transformation at IIFL Finance with focus on providing customers state of the art digital experience,” Sharma said in the statement.
An alumnus of IIT-Roorkee, Sharma has experience of nearly three decades with organizations such as Poonawalla Fincorp and L&T Financial Services. He was also associated with TCS and Max Life Insurance company in the past.
During his previous stint, Sharma had worked on cloud computing, data lake for advanced analytics, ERP systems, technology-backed loan origination systems, collection systems, loan administration systems among other services across retail lending businesses.
“IIFL is going through a digital transformation process as we aim to make credit delivery affordable to millions of unbanked and underbanked borrowers. Gaurav’s addition will help us in achieving our goal of becoming the most advanced technology =–led retail financier in India,” R Venkataraman, co-promoter, IIFL Group said.
IIFL Finance Ltd is a retail-focused diversified non-banking financial company (NBFC) in India, that offers loans and mortgages via its subsidiaries - IIFL Home Finance Limited and IIFL Samasta Finance Limited.
Through its subsidiaries, it offers home loans, gold loans, business loans, microfinance, capital market finance and developer and construction finance.
IIFL Finance has over 8 million customers and over Rs 51,000 crore loan book of which 95% is retail in nature, primarily catering to unbanked and underbanked small borrowers. IIFL Finance is present across India through over 3300 branches and employs over 30,000 people.
IIFL Finance in May this year led a $50 million funding round in neo-banking platform Open Financial Technologies Pvt Ltd, also helping them enter the prestigious unicorn club.
Later, the lender also joined hands with Open Financial to launch a joint venture which claims to be India’s first neobank to cater to the banking and credit requirements of micro and small enterprises (MSMEs).
