Caspian Impact Investments - Manager - CoLending Partnerships

Caspian Debt, a specialized non-banking finance company (NBFC), is supported by prominent investors such as SIDBI Venture Capital, Gray Ghost Ventures (USA), FMO (Dutch Govt Development Finance Institution), DFC (USA), and Triodos Investment Management, alongside its promoter Caspian Equity. Over the past decade, Caspian Debt has provided INR 4,500 Crore in debt finance to over 250 small and medium corporate entities and 9,000+ microenterprises across sectors including food & agribusiness, financial inclusion, healthcare, clean energy, education, water & sanitation, and more.

THE CASPIAN CULTURE:

- Caspian promotes meritocracy and is an equal opportunity employer. You will be an important part of our organization and will have a key role in our continuing success. Working as a team is critically important at Caspian. Our organization is lean and requires efficient solutions, unencumbered by excessive bureaucracy. As a result, we work together to find the most innovative answers, maintaining a very entrepreneurial environment.

- We encourage you to visit our website at https://www.caspiandebt.in/ for more information on the firm. Please note that Caspian Debt and Blacksoil Capital have announced a merger, subject to regulatory approvals. Once the regulatory approvals are received and merger is approved, the combined entity will be called Blacksoil Capital. [News]

Job Purpose/ Description:

- Caspian Debt has built a partnership lending business to support small and medium sized financial institutions by providing financing support through co-lending, business correspondent and other models of partnerships. In these partnerships, Caspian Debt is the majority lender.

- The position is responsible for building a high-quality retail portfolio in partnership with financial institutions. The role involves identification of financial institutions for partnership programmes, conducting operational due diligence, structuring and negotiating commercials and risk sharing arrangements for the partnership programmes, collection strategy and overall programme management including ongoing business profitability and impact assessment for adjusting commercials or for taking scale up/scale down decisions for both new and existing partnerships.

- The position will also be responsible for . building deep relationships in the financial inclusion sector and have views on future business possibilities.

Responsibilities:

Key Responsibilities:

- Identify partnership opportunities from Caspian Debt's existing or potential clients from the financial institution wholesale lending business. In addition, the position will need to build a network in the financial services industry to identify new opportunities with potential new customers.

- Conduct thorough due diligence of credit, operational, and technology of the potential partners including past to establish suitability or fit for a partnership with Caspian Debt.

- Design transactional and commercial structures for new and existing partnerships with financial institutions through co-lending, business correspondence or other forms of partnerships. Ensure the best commercial engagements and transaction structures including process optimization to help build a strong overall portfolio.

- Apply knowledge of parameterized retail credit underwriting to decide credit criteria for the portfolio to be built in partnership with the financial institution partner. .

- Present and recommend partnership proposals to the credit committee including structure, commercials, risk management, and collections strategy.

- Monitor and manage portfolio partners and ensure expected portfolio quality and covenants are not breached.

- Carry out periodic analysis of partnership profitability and performance to re-evaluate commercial and risk-sharing arrangements and take decisions on scale-up/down.

- Perform periodic analysis of the partners' business, products offered, process compliances and overall portfolio quality and assess their financial stability.

- Support technology and process improvement initiatives, dedicating one's time to ensure continuous enhancement and efficiency.

- Keep oneself updated about regulations, and competition and recommend compliances and new processes to the department.

- Engage in ongoing knowledge building within the team in target sectors, facilitating the identification of emerging investment opportunities.

- Provide ideas for the implementation of marketing campaigns, collaborating closely with the marketing team to facilitate business development.

This position aims to foster effective communication at all levels, balance resources for objective achievement, and establish accountability for results.

Qualifications:

- We encourage candidates who meet these qualifications and embody a commitment to diversity and inclusion to submit their applications.

- Educational Background: Post Graduate Degree (Finance is desirable).

Professional Experience:

- Minimum of 6 years of experience in lending to financial institutions (including small business finance NBFCs) or similar years of experience in retail lending institutions with at least 2 years of experience in co-lending/partnership businesses.. Preference will be given to candidates with experience in structuring partnership programs (co-lending, BC, LSP) with financial institutions/ LSP clients.

- Credit Underwriting experience of financial institutions or retail MSME lending is mandatory.

- Extensive experience in establishing and maintaining relationships with CXO/leadership level at financial institutions and other stakeholders supporting the financial inclusion industry.

- Experience in lending to financial institutions.

Key Abilities:

- Deep understanding of credit methodologies and experience of building portfolios with a balanced credit-first approach.

- Ability to conduct secondary and primary research on market and success factors for businesses.

- Excellent proficiency with MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

- Demonstrated integrity, reliability, and independence.

- Meticulous attention to detail.

- Effective communication skills, both verbal and written.

- Strong personal discipline and planning.

- Confidence in working to deadlines without constant detailed supervision.

- Ability to thrive and contribute to building a collaborative culture within the team.

- Travel requirements.

Moderate (8-10 days/month), anywhere in India.

Direct reports - NA