Vridhi: Reimagining Home Lending For Bharat's Self-Employed

"I get asked what it is that we are doing differently. In lending, any new innovation should be on the process and customer experience, not on lending."

Through his remarkable 27-year journey across FMCG, banking and financial services, Ram Naresh Sunku learned two invaluable lessons. First, courtesy of his Nestlé days - the deeper you venture into India's smaller towns and districts, the more opportunities you discover. Second, from establishing and scaling mortgage businesses at Bajaj Finance and Aavas Financiers from the ground up - building an institution that lasts requires putting values before valuations.

In this conversation with Ishwar Prasad (AVP, Elevation Capital), Ram takes us through his journey of starting from a small town in Andhra Pradesh to building a "phygital" affordable housing finance company focusing on the self-employed segment. Vridhi today has scaled to over ₹200 crore AUM with 50+ branches across five states.

From introducing a "Thank God It's Monday" culture to building a Ferrari with strong brakes (his metaphor for controlled rapid growth), Ram offers a masterclass in combining deep domain expertise with fresh thinking in traditional financial services.

In this episode, you will gain insights on:
> Making the transition from employee to entrepreneurship
> Technology's role in the traditional mortgage business
> Creating the right founding team and culture
> The nuances of liability management
> Building distribution in deeper markets