Manish Khera

Education

Manish is an Electrical Engineer from Delhi College of Engineering, having a Master's degree in Business Administration (Finance) from FMS Delhi, along with an M. Phil in Environment and Development from Cambridge University UK. He is also a DFID Scholar.

Years with ICICI Bank (1993–2006)

In 2004, after gaining experience in corporate and structured lending, transaction banking and banking technology, Manish set up the Alternate Channels Group (ACG) within ICICI Bank, to service the need and opportunity of offering banking services to the banking deprived in India. ACG's objective was to find unconventional and alternate channels to provide banking services to the unserved segment.

During this period he also worked with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to get the Business Correspondent guidelines issued working with Khan Committee, which gave recommendations for this pioneering change of financial inclusion initiative in India.^[5]

At the Alternate Channels Group, Manish designed a system that leveraged biometric paperless technology and no physical infrastructure, to reach the unserved and underbanked population in India. That laid the foundation for Financial Information Network and Operations Ltd. (FINO), which was later named as FINO Paytech.

Years with FINO Paytech Limited (2005–2013)

FINO Paytech Ltd. was founded in 2006, by Manish Khera. He was Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the company.

In 2006, Manish combined low-cost innovation aligned with customer ability and skill sets, the lack of infrastructure in India and the radical move by RBI to permit Business Correspondents to solicit and service customers, to successfully deliver banking services for the micro segment (below poverty line population) along with business profitability. This endeavor has been one of the most appreciated success stories in the micro segment category. His thought and innovative approach to the business has encouraged and given area for other players in the field to come up and create value chain for their customers of the same segment. Under his leadership FINO grew to service over 70mn customers across more than 50000 Business Correspondent points making it the largest globally. FINO has now become FINO Payments Bank.

Years with YTS – Yatra Tatra Sarvatra (2014–present)

Post the success of FINO Paytech Ltd., Manish invested in Yatra Tatra Sarvatra (YTS) in 2014. The USP of YTS was its ubiquitous services. YTS operated on a mobile banking platform that assisted migrant customers remitting money instantaneously across the country at low cost and in carrying out their banking transactions using a low cost phone. This USP was the inspiration for the name as well because in Sanskrit Yatra Tatra Sarvatra translates to Here There Everywhere. YTS had laid good foundation working with the migrant population who migrate from rural to urban India. Looking at the good solution set developed by YTS and the rapid business scale, Airtel acquired the remittance and payments business of YTS and is not operational after 2015. Manish joined as CEO of Airtel Money Services Limited and in a short period of 10 months tripled the business volumes and revenues that had been stagnant for previous two years.He laid the foundation of and converted Airtel Money into Airtel Payments Bank

Manish Khera was an applicant of the Small Finance Bank under RBI guidelines along with 72 others. Though his application was not successful, he continues his pursuit of becoming a small finance bank.

ArthImpact (founded 2016)

Being the serial-entrepreneur that he is, in December 2016 Manish founded ArthImpact, a digital micro-lending fintech company which would facilitate financial inclusion across socio-economic segments. His vision for ArthImpact is to make managing money a breeze for customers – be it digital natives or marginal grass root communities. Via ArthImpact, Manish aims to reach out to 600 million people in India who do not have access to mainstream banking. This formed the genesis of the idea and the drive that led to ArthImpact being founded.

As a banking veteran specializing in Micro Finance, Manish understands the micro customers very well. He understood that micro customers are not always on the lookout for large value loans. They are more interested in a solution that could solve their everyday cash mismatch problems. ArthImpact endeavours to be the solution here with digital banking solutions for micro customers like merchants, housewives and students who may not have access to mainstream banking for micro credits. The credit ranges from INR 2,000 to INR 1,00,000, and is allotted to customers depending on their repayment capacity.

ArthImpact launched this micro lending product as Happy Loans – an everyday financial adviser to its users. Using a fresh approach, this product aims to create a magical customer experience using technology and innovation to make the experience of banking a Happy one for the mass market. It is designed to make the transaction of lending instant, which includes disbursing credit and receiving the credit repayment digitally. The whole process is 100% paperless with zero manual intervention. While it offers end to end digital micro lending services to 600mn Indians who do not have access to mainstream banking, at the same time it also helps merchants in building their credit rating by adopting a disciplined repayment pattern.

Manish embarks on such journeys because it gives him great joy in building businesses that have the power to make a socio-economic impact.

Awards and recognition

Manish Khera is an advocate of socially relevant businesses that are also financially viable. He has received much praise for his role as one of the thought leaders in the financial inclusion and micro-finance space in India.

He has been honored and recognized as "Young Global Leader-2011" by World Economic Forum.

Manish has also been recognized by E&Y as the "Entrepreneur of the Year 2011" and has been awarded the Forbes India Leadership award 2012 for the "Outstanding Start-Up".