Top Navi executives Shobhit Agarwal and Apurv Anand have quit the Sachin Bansal-led fintech to start their own asset management company, according to a couple of sources.
Both Agarwal and Anand were vice presidents at the credit disbursement focused Navi. While Agarwal has experience in banking, Anand brings the technical expertise as a co-founder. Agarwal quit early this month while Anand resigned last August.
Agarwal has been with Navi for over six years and was the head of lending and borrowing for the last three years. Before this, he headed the fintech's treasury operations. He has previously worked at Standard Chartered Bank and Deutsche Bank.
Anand was the CTO of Navi for three years and a co-founder of healthcare data analytics firm SigTuple. Before that, he worked as a data analyst with card network company American Express.
The executives have not started the regulatory process of applying for a license and registering the company with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, which is expected to take two months.
The duo is planning to start the venture with a market regulator Sebi's Portfolio Management Services (PMS) license, which means that the startup is focused on attracting high-net-worth individuals and financial institutions. According to Sebi regulations, the minimum investment required under PMS license is Rs 50 lakh.
According to one of the sources mentioned above, the founders are in discussion with several investors and are expected to raise a seed round over the next couple of months.
Interestingly, the product and the go-to-market strategy are the opposite of what Navi was doing. Navi is targeting millions of customers for small-value investments and small-ticket loans whereas, the executives will target high-value investments with the new venture.
Agarwal has helped Navi grow its lending business by around 30 percent for three years even as the company contained its non-performing assets well under control, considering the segment, it operates in for personal loans of around Rs 50,000.
Similarly, after building a technology stack for millions of customers at Navi, Anand will also be developing a platform that onboards a few hundred or thousand customers.
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